Christine Brown

Bucket Showers & Baby Goats Christine Brown

What is it like to volunteer in a rural farming village in West Africa? Aside from chasing chickens from the outhouse and braving over-crowded vans held together by string, Bucket Showers & Baby Goats is a moving non-fiction narrative based on the author's experience volunteering in the Volta Region of Ghana. While living with members of the community on a daily basis, Brown paints a vivid picture immersed in village life and the challenges that accompany it. We are introduced to the children and families of Saviefe as the narrative unfolds, and the reader is taken day by day as the intended tasks transform from sorting donated books for an unfinished library, into conducting much needed sex education workshops for the students. In describing community efforts to improve their lives through education and collaboration, Bucket Showers & Baby Goats is uplifting, honest, funny, and poignant as it reveals the reality of those projects when the author returns to the village eighteen months later. An eye-opening account, Brown depicts the community of Saviefe and her volunteer experience by giving readers a unique view into the common challenges and solutions associated with community development initiatives.