Author Description

In 1995, a young civil engineer from Massachusetts volunteers for the Peace Corps in West Africa. He trains in Senegal, serves in a small city in Côte d'Ivoire's western highlands, and travels extensively through the Sahara Desert in Mali all the way to Timbuktu. Everywhere he goes, he encounters extreme poverty, harsh conditions, religious differences and political turmoil. He endures police bribes and corruption, perilous bus rides, polluted water and suspect food, debilitating illnesses, a hunt for 'bad' sorcerers, a 100 kilometer hike in five days in +100°F heat, a run-in with the Taureg Freedom Fighters, being stranded in the middle of a 465,000 acre national park with large predators, an attack from a sacred mask, and a visit from a deadly green mamba snake. The Toughest Job is a window into the unique world of a Peace Corps volunteer and the challenges they must face to carry out their lofty mission and improve the human condition.