
Last night I finished the Poisonwood Bible. I read until one in the morning because I just couldn't put it down.
It is quite possibly my new favorite book.
It made me think about a lot of things: family relations, life, religion, Africa and why other countries felt (and still feel) the need to "civilize" it, change it, or convert it. I wish I had been underlining my favorite phrases throughout, but I started about a hundred pages from the end.
one simple yet profound thought:
"everything you're sure is right, can be wrong in another place." -Leah Price
That one phrase sums up 90% of what I learned in Intro to International Development, last semester. If you try to help someone/something/some country/some way of life by changing it to what you are used to, without letting it change you right back, it won't work. If I learned anything in that course, it is that it takes working with whatever you are trying to help, with the attitude of being both a teacher and a student.
Read it. It is definitely worth it.