The Congo

This week I have just started reading a book set in Congo, Africa in the 1950's. It is told by the wife and four daughters of a missionary, evangelical baptist from Georgia who relocates his family of sweet country gals to a remote village in the Congo, Africa. The daughters Ruth May, Leah, Adah and Rachel are frightened, amused and stunned by the villager's customs and poked and prodded by the children who come running to beg when the see their pale faces. The women go topless animals run wild and the land and buildings are shacks with overgrown plants the size of their heads. A few of my questions that I try to answer while reading are: Does Orleanna Price (mother of the girls) stand with her husband about the move to the Congo or against him and will she speak up? The Price girls have lived and grown up in segregated Georgia in the 1940s-1950s how will they cope with this new environment and will they grow up to be much different then the would have is they stayed in Georgia? And : How will they grow and change because, they need to wake up early to water the garden and pump the water and work both physically and mentally to keep in shape in this exotic land. Last: What part will the the rest of the family ( not dad ) play in converting the natives to their religion? I picked this book because, for one, I love historical fiction and I also wanted to challenge myself with this book because i have been reading some slow paced realistic fiction lately and I wanted to mix things up ;-). Until next week, Pia
Ps. I forgot to mention the tittle and author of the book: The Poisonwood Bible by Barbra Kingsolver