As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ivory Coast (1973-75) and a Peace Corps trainer in Mali (1986), Peter Bourque kept a personal journal and wrote over 55 letters back to the States. In them, he described the satisfactions and frustrations of living, working and traveling in West Africa as well as his reactions to the people he encountered—Ivorian, French, Malian and American. Decades later, he reflects and elaborates on these writings with current-day observations and candid essays about idealism, world poverty, the Peace Corps, the French, and losing his religion.
Peter Bourque grew up in Flint, Michigan and has degrees from the University of Michigan and the University of Arizona. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ivory Coast and a Peace Corps trainer in Mali. In 1981, he co-founded the Hunger Action Center of Tucson. In 2001-02, Peter taught in Guadeloupe, France as part of the Fulbright Teacher Exchange Program and is now a retired high school teacher. Since 1978, he and his wife Suzy have lived in Tucson.