Allegheny College: Allegheny Magazine

Monique and the Mango Rains As a Peace Corps volunteer for two years in Mali, Kris Holloway '89 worked side-by-side with midwife Monique Dembele, caring for babies and mothers in a remote, impoverished village. The two developed a decade-long, cross-cultural friendship—the story of which Holloway recounts in her book Monique and the Mango Rains (Waveland Press, 2006). A Boston Globe bestseller and one of Entertainment Weekly's top twenty narrative travel books, Monique and the Mango Rains explores Dembele's passion for a better life in the face of poverty, an arranged marriage, and endless work, as well as her tragic and ironic death. Part of the proceeds from sales of the book fund a maternal and child health clinic, Clinique Monique, in Mali. For more information on Holloway's book, visit: http://www.moniquemangorains.com.