This book, written in an engaging narrative style, explores the complex, two-sided interaction between the author and Jordan Dama, the author"s cook and friend, as they confront and learn to understand and to recognize each other. Much of the energy of the encounter occurs because of the remarkable man Jordan Dama, a cook who speaks seven languages; a man who studies and reveres the world that he knows and the world beyond his immediate reach. Bambo Jordan is a philosopher, a father, and a lover. Most of all he is a man who reaches out to readers from his little-known country in east-central Africa and welcomes us. Through the pages of this lively narrative ethnography Jordan Dama"s own words introduce us to his land and the people of Malawi. We see, firsthand, the humble and proud acceptance of a hard life in which a strong man and his family and friends find happiness and fulfillment.