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Pat was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The Peace Corps was formed by President John F. Kennedy during her first three years of teaching in Milwaukee. She eagerly accepted the call to go to Ethiopia. There she met Emperor Haile Selassie, at Jubilee Palace in Addis Abeba, visited with Sargent Shriver, and hosted Norman Rockwell, whose painting of Peace Corps Ethiopia became the centerfold for the Saturday Evening Post and replicated on a US stamp.

Hysterical attempts at bargaining in market places, arguing over the price of a camel, participating in Muslim and Coptic church traditions and holidays, building a school at a Leprosarium, battling fleas and flies, finding a hyena in the kitchen, and coming to know many beautiful Ethiopians made two years pass quickly. Girls struggled to attend the secondary school and faced a myriad of hurdles from dealing with menstruation to arranged marriages. The tragic story of Lakech Ali, a brilliant young girl, weaves itself throughout the book. Her death and the assassination of JFK were mourned in our village. All of this is set in the majestic mountains that border the Great Rift Valley of East Africa.