Southwestern Magazine | Spring 2019

at and raised funds for an animal shelter, an orphanage, and a center for students with disabilities) and work. The embassy section where she’s employed includes colleagues fromeight different nations, and she’s learned from everyday interactions. “I listened to a Yemeni friend describe how the war in his country affected his family and his opinion on how to resolve the conflict,” she says. “My Sudanese colleagues taught me how to debone and polish off an entire fried fish with one hand. My Egyptian friend and I compare fashion trends in our countries.” Cederberg concludes, “While I amalways thankful to be able to travel and check offmany places onmy bucket list duringmy time abroad, mymost cherishedmemories involve the conversations with the people I’ve met along the way.” Reflecting onher family’smove to theRepublic of Ireland, Fitzgerald says, “It’s one thing to visit Paris or Asia as a tourist. It’s an entirely different thing to spend a week in Paris with a French colleague who has lived her entire life there. Or to share a meal with a Hong Kong–based colleague who knows all there is to know about dim sum .” With those colleagues, in faraway ventures, she’s discovered great places of commonalities: “I’ve grown to appreciate that people are people all over the world. We all have the same basic concerns and joys and needs and wants. People are more alike than different.” RECOMMENDED READING Our global citizens compiled a list of books about some of the countries they’ve experienced. FITZGERALD '97 BEHIND THE BEAUTIFUL FOREVERS: LIFE, DEATH, AND HOPE IN A MUMBAI UNDERCITY (NONFICTION) BY KATHERINE BOO A FINE BALANCE BY ROHINTON MISTRY “I read Behind the Beautiful Forevers and A Fine Balance while in India; each helped me to better understand the place.” MAYFIELD '76 LAS LANZAS COLORADAS BY ARTURO USLAR PIETRI “Set in the Wars of Independence, this novel gives a good sense of Venezuelans’ view of their history.” THINGS FALL APART BY CHINUA ACHEBE “A great novel [about] contact with Europeans from the African standpoint.” THE LONG NIGHT OF WHITE CHICKENS BY FRANCISCO GOLDMAN “Wonderful descriptions of Guatemala City. An insider/outsider perspective on the dynamics between different sectors of society.” IMPERIAL LIFE IN THE EMERALD CITY: INSIDE IRAQ’S GREEN ZONE BY RAJIV CHANDRASEKARAN (NONFICTION) “A great look at the early years of the U.S. presence in Iraq.” 37 SOUTHWESTERN