num_pages: 360
description: A forgotten diary…Afghanistan during the Cold War…and a young American volunteer. Fifty years later, Jo Carter’s diary is a window to the past, and the source material for this narrative nonfiction book.Jo deploys to Baghlan with the Peace Corps in 1968, before the Russian invasion or the emergence of the Taliban. She lives with two co-workers in a home that is made of adobe, and shares her kitchen ceiling with a family of swallows. She teaches in Farsi, shops the bazaar, cooks on a bokhari, and hosts a Thanksgiving dinner for their Afghan neighbors. She dances, drinks, and parties with a group of German volunteers, works in a hospital with no running water, delivers babies, and adopts a juie puppy. Over a period of two years Jo never tires of the rugged beauty of Afghanistan, and comes to love her young Afghan students. Her story is a reminder of a time when our country was truly great; when generosity, sacrifice, and tolerance were part of our national vocabulary."Little Women of Baghlan" was named as a finalist for Book of the Year by the Chicago Writers Association.
language: English
title: Little Women of Baghlan: The Story of a Nursing School for Girls in Afghanistan, the Peace Corps, and Life Before the Taliban
publisher: Peace Corps Writers