Prayer had always struck me as more or less a glorified attempt at a business transaction.

But we've all ended up giving body and soul to Africa, one way or another. Even Adah, who's becoming an expert in tropical epidemiology and strange new viruses. Each of us got our heart buried in six feet of African dirt; we are all co-conspirators here. I mean, all of us, not just my family. So what do you do now? You get to find your own way to dig out a heart and shake it off and hold it up to the light again.

It's tough to break yourself as news to a town that already knows you.

Small change, small wonders - these are the currency of my endurance and ultimately of my life.

It kills you to see them grow up. But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't.

The most important part of a story is the piece of it you don't know.

Every life is different because you passed this way and touched history.