Jim Douglas used some of the letters he wrote and journals he kept to describe life in Somalia in 1969. Douglas was a young Peace Corps Volunteer initially sent to Africa to teach new agricultural techniques. The Peace Corps sent a group into the bush amongst Somalis who speak one of the hardest languages to learn on Earth, in an area which is materially very poor and in the middle of a culture which was borderline xenophobic.
Douglas's experiences as he progressed from optimism to frustration to apathy are interesting and the editing of his writings was well done. Somalia would have been a hard place for a foreigner to make a difference during the best of times... 1969 would turn out NOT to be the best of times. Illustrated with some photos.
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