Description

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

I am a Nebraska farm boy who joined the Peace Corps. I worked with Indian farmers in El Salvador where I learned to speak Spanish fluently. I recall my Spanish teacher telling me three weeks into my first college semester that, perhaps, I should drop the course because not everyone has the ability to learn languages. Later, I spent almost a year in Nicaragua working with farmers and then 10 years in Brazil ranging from the Northest to Central to Southern. This included an arid area, a mining area and the tropical area around Cuiaba, Matto Grosso where cities grew from jungle to 25,000 people in five years.

I managed farms in Nebraska and Kansas for eight years and then moved to Illinois where, after a couple years, I started teaching at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville.

This book was started when my son, a U.S. Marine, was in his second tour in Iraq during the seige of Fallujah. I died a little each day as news updated the number of wounded and killed. To escape, I created this story. I had heard of several interesting bird incidents that were funny and unlikely. I strung them together and added some details. Many of these little stories I had shared with my SIUE