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Author McDouall blends his memories of service overseas with a close-up view of what foreigners may encounter in far-off lands where the author boldly pursued his career. In 1968, he started work with Volunteer Service Overseas, teaching children in remote places worldwide, first journeying from the UK to the Falkland Islands. His first experience of stark cultural differences occurred when, on a stopover in Montevideo, he was arrested for using a camera. Once settled in the Falklands, he assisted five children's groups, evoking constant revelations concerning the deep societal divides and close human understandings that he would absorb in his thirty-five-year career. In Hong Kong, he would become a police officer of notable renown, a leader of seventeen troops for the newly founded Boy Scouts, and an activity initiator for St. John's Cathedral.
Throughout his worldwide endeavors, he remained an athlete known for his running skills. In 2012, McDouall and his wife took a "grand tour" of China, relishing old memories and discovering even more about the changes in the culture there. And, since McDouall proudly declares, "I'm not the shy and retiring type!", he recently gathered a clan of more than one hundred McDouall relatives in Scotland, featuring costumes, dances, and concluding with a Burns Supper. Now fully retired, he is still determined to convey vivid recollections of his extraordinary explorations,
McDouall offers this work as a legacy for family and for anyone contemplating global adventures with their possibilities for giving and receiving. He clearly shows his talents as a perceptive, energetic wordsmith, depicting the many vibrant and varied scenarios from his career years, while deftly devising a portrait of ancient and modern-day China. McDouall's saga will doubtless inspire readers with an urge to go boldly, as he has done, into diverse environments, to care, share, and learn from their adventures.
RECOMMENDED by the US Review