Jerry Eckert

Weeping Kings & Wild Boars Jerry Eckert

Somehow they trusted me. Kings, Prime Ministers, dedicated civil servants and a few of the world's poorest folk shared their aspirations and agonies, and together we worked for change. Weeping Kings and Wild Boars, a collection of memoir essays, tells their stories and mine drawn from my career as an overseas agricultural economist. A reigning monarch sat on a darkened veranda with me, shedding tears of frustration. In a single sentence, a teenage village girl taught this "foreign expert" the true meaning of poverty and human worth. Before her assassination, one of Lesotho's royal family and I worked quietly to help desegregate South Africa thus linking that nation and hers. My life's kaleidoscope has been graced with remarkable people, powerful moments of change, unspeakable loss, and glimpses into age-old cultures.