Nautilus Book Awards Winner.

"To Travel Well, Travel Light is a story of the joys and pitfalls of living and working abroad for many years with children in tow. Mary, her husband Mike, and their two young sons moved to Peshawar, Pakistan, to help their Afghan friends rebuild their country after the Soviet departure in 1992. A USAID program brought educated young Afghan men to the Midwest to instruct them in public administration. Mary and Mike befriended them through a community friendship program, and these mujahideen persuaded this adventurous family to move to Peshawar. Mary worked for an Afghan NGO as a consultant for construction projects inside Afghanistan, and Mike administered the Afghan Eye Hospital. The cover shows Mary in a chador. She wore that in public to protect her Afghan refugee friends from ultra-conservative Muslims who would punish Muslims who were suspected of consorting with loose Western women. She didn't know it a the time of their move, but she was also wrapped in the chador of patriarchal, conservative Christianity, a religion that served a nonexistent male god who kept adult women as children. This family lived and worked abroad in Asia, Southeast Asia, East Africa, and Latin America for 20 years, time enough for Mary to experience how her resistance to this religion found affirmation in wisdom ancient and modern and to rebuild her values with soul-driven goals." --Back cover.