This is a memoir about an American woman doing her Ph.D. research in Zimbabwe from 1992 to 1996....and so much more! Supported by a Rockefeller grant to conduct research for her dissertation at Indiana University, Natalie Kreutzer stayed to create and pioneer the country’s first-ever music degree at the University of Zimbabwe. Poised above the South African border, she witnessed that country’s transition from an apartheid state to the Rainbow Nation. But this is not Goody-two-shoes goes to Africa. Along the way of working with rural Shona-speaking women and socializing with ANC and PAC patriots from South Africa, interactions with local mobsters and the police, Natalie falls in love. Her story of personal love and loss adds a unique touch to her research story. With an Indiana farm girl’s affinity for nature, she creates images of landscape and wildlife. A sprinkling of words from the Shona language enlivens the narrative. The reader is left with a sense of people and place. Natalie is very much present in every page, and the reader will find her adventurous, courageous, strongly principled, and sometimes breathtakingly impulsive--all of which motivates us to loyalty and heart-felt support.