Jan Hogle and Bruce Slater had been married for three years when they left the US to spend more than seven years in the 1980s living and working in West and East Africa. They were based initially in Niger and then in Kenya. They kept extensive records in letters written to family and friends, journal entries, and trip notes, documenting their experiences traveling, working, and creating a family while living outside their home country.

In Niger and Kenya, Bruce worked as a Peace Corps staff physician caring for volunteers in many countries. Jan worked as an applied research anthropologist in international public health focusing on maternal and child health issues.

After three years in Niger, they started their family in their mid-30s. Their first child returned to Niger at the age of six weeks after his birth in Florida. Their second child was born in Nairobi. By the time the family returned permanently to the States in 1991, the children were nearly five and three.

Jan continued to work internationally from a US base in HIV/AIDS prevention for an additional six years as a program evaluator and qualitative researcher, using her medical anthropology training. In the latter part of her career, she continued working in program evaluation for an academic medical research institute. Bruce's career evolved to a focus on medical informatics in academic settings and in the private sector.

The book is an edited set of stories and memories from their African experiences based on reading documentation preserved for thirty years in basement boxes.

Jan and Bruce now live in rural Virginia in a forest.