Searching for the Bird of Paradise

A memoir chronicling six months my wife and I spent as medical volunteers in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea. The narrative weaves between a characterization of the medical care provided by the hospital, excursions we took around the country, and our interactions with a hodgepodge of indigenous people, missionaries, and adventurers. The hospital is described through vignettes focusing on individual patients, which provides the reader an understanding of some of the challenges of delivering health care in the developing world. Racism in various forms is also a subtle, but repeated theme throughout the book. As an added aspect of our experience, my wife and I were both from New York City, and the day of our arrival in New Guinea was coincidentally September 11, 2001. (I've just uploaded the prologue for now, though the whole manuscript is done...)