The Mystical Land of Myrrh

A forgotten land, Somalia, enchants Moira, a Peace Corps Volunteer, with its mystery, its magic, its romance. Social devastation squeezes through every corner of her life in this forbidden country as the country sits on the edge of revolution.Moira discovers magic in a tiny village.  She faces terror from local warriors who threaten her life.  She stumbles on The Ritual, female circumcision, carried out in a hidden hut in the bush country. She searches for a lesbian lover in every corner of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia.  Moira treasures the joys that the orphaned children bring to her life each afternoon, and sickens at how she betrayed her students at the government school.Through it all the Somali Goddess Arawello spreads her protective arms, reaching through wars and famines to reach her people.  Once Arawello brought Peace by turning men into eunuchs, and may do so again.Moira's journey is not that of a typical Peace Corps Volunteer, if indeed there is such a thing.  This is a journey of a young woman ready to meet the challenges of the world on her own terms, one who faces the terrors of bush country alongside the joys of friendships in unlikely places.  She was nearly jailed in Mombassa, and she and Julia, her companion, were the guests of honor at a dinner in Dar es Salaam. They stood within the dark mysteries of the slave trade of Zanzibar, and ferried across Lake Victoria.Moira faced challenges she never knew existed, and a love that enveloped her like an unfolding bird of paradise.  Her life would never be the same again..