Curious Minds Presents:

Fighting Smallpox in Africa: A Young Family Behind the Scenes

Tribal dances fit Bee's naive ideas of Africa, but not so her isolation on a tropical island where the dictator burned all the boats to prevent his subjects' escape.

Author Bee Bloeser followed her physician husband Carl to Africa with two young children and wide-eyed ideals, not knowing that she would become one of only two American women in an isolated dictatorship or that her husband will be one-half of America's smallest embassy.

Foreign Policy magazine's deputy editor calls Bee's story riveting and a reminder that public health is still intertwined with politics. The Economist's former Johannesburg bureau chief calls it a sympathetic, vividly told and useful record....(of this moment in West African history). A Pulitzer nominee calls it a political thriller, women's history and African adventure rolled into one.

Bee has lived in Africa, the Middle East and Native American nations and has supported her late husband's work on five continents. She is a retired speech-language pathologist now living in Santa Barbara.

Wine, water and refreshments will be served.

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Parking is somewhat limited so please carpool if possible

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