The Old Man in the Bag

This collection of true short stories tied together with 80 old photographs and the facsimile of 12 original letters) is set in a very remote almost inaccessible part of Ethiopia back in the 1960s when the Emperor, Haile Selassie, was still alive and in power. Partly for the adventure, but also just to escape being drafted into the Vietnam War, a young American couple volunteer to spend two years in a tiny village of grass huts helping several dozen very poor Amhara farmers establish a new town in the lowland jungle of the Rift Valley, The land had recently given to them by the sometimes loved, sometimes loathed Emperor, also an Amhara. The stories are not just about the couple's struggle with fire, disease and death in a totally unfamiliar culture, language and environment, however. They are also gentle stories about how life choices are never black and white and even selfless good intentions can sometime have a serious downside. This book is a "prequel" to Ted Wells' book: "Power, Chaos or Consensus?"