For six individuals living in the Third World life isn’t about desperate squalor or improbable triumph. It’s a complex, imperfect existence at odds with the stunning pictures broadcast from African safaris, or the sad stories written to spur donations to Western aid groups. A soon-to-be mother copes with the anxieties of parenthood in a tension filled household. A man works to feed his three wives and fourteen children after failing to get into college. A wife adjusts to the disappointing lifestyle that she found after following her new husband to a village he failed to accurately describe. At the messy juncture of tradition and modernity, six people from different geographic and cultural backgrounds contribute their stories to the diverse collage of the experience of living in Africa.