|
Grains of Golden Sand: Adventures in War-torn Africa | 
 enlarge | Author: Delfi Messinger
Publisher: Fine Print Press
Category: Book
Buy New: $21.95
New (12) Used (5) from $13.80
Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 2512183
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 391
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1
ISBN: 1888960353
Dewey Decimal Number: 599.885092
EAN: 9781888960358
ASIN: 1888960353
Publication Date: July 15, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
| |
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Grab a ticket for the adventure of a lifetime: meet an American woman who protected rare apes by painting SIDA ("AIDS" in French) in blood on a Kinshasa wall to keep rampaging looters at bay. Hear bullets zinging overhead...Living on the edge, Delfi Messinger takes on bureaucratic snafus, starving animals, corrupt officials, swarming ants, and even Ebola. Meet a dozen bonobos--golden grains of ecological sand--that Delfi fought to save.
|
| Customer Reviews:
Commitment and Reality in the Congo December 4, 2006
J. Williamson (Wisconsin)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
With a great deal of humor and even more practicality, the author, Delfi Messinger, tells the story of what it is like to do the work one loves in a disfunctional society. Wanting to do animal research in a country she learned to love while being a Peace Corps volunteer, Delfi became involved with the French-supported animal and disease research institute in Kinshasa in the early 1990s. She stayed through the waning days of Mobutu's regime and on into the early days of the new Kabila government. She writes with great suspense, detail and lively descriptions of the lootings and upheavals that sent almost all the expatriates from the country. She stayed to continue the work and to protect the animals of the research institute, among which were rescued bonobos. Watching other animals become emaciated and dying from neglect she determined to attempt a rescue of all or some of the bonobos in her care. How she does that is an amazing story of perseverence, patience and ingenuity that will have all readers enthralled.
Intense and all true! November 2, 2006
Jette (Kansas)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the stuff you won't hear in the news. That's because Messinger was far, far off the tourist path, working in the heart of (former) Zaire. There she was, a young midwestern woman, so bold and deeply involved in the local scene that it's amazing she got out alive, but not before she also assisted others in narrowly escaping a life of tortured captivity. Was she incredibly brave or so blinded by her commitment that she risked her life many times over?
I couldn't put it down.
An remarkable insight September 15, 2007
K. Bibby (Ma)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
An amazing story of Ms. Messingers attempts to make a difference to a group of apes in war torn africa. In doing so she demonstrates that with perserviance even in Africa you can make a differance, for people as well as apes. Her trials higlight the importance of long term commitment and the understanding that it takes years to learn enough about someplace to do more good than harm. A lesson many well intentioned folks would do well to learn.
I highly recommend this well told tail.
|
|
|
|
| |
