Gather the Fruit One by One

Take some Inca, Aztec, Maya, and Moche, mix in Spanish, French, English, Dutch and Danish, stir it to the rhythmic beat of Africa and what do you get? A zesty brew, expressed in a callaloo soup of language, food, music, and religion. So much passion, so much sorrow. What seems familiar in the Americas often is not. For Peace Corps Volunteers, there is nothing to do but learn the language, roll up their sleeves, and get busy working alongside strangers who steal their hearts away. These stories take you on overland journeys to the Amazon Basin, into a village in Honduras terrorized by insurgent forces, and to the ball fields of Ecuador for an unusual game of "beisbol."