Desert Mailbag

By W. G. Kruse

This book is a collection of letters describing a year of teaching – things seen, people met, and how it went. You’ll read about homemade gunpowder, the sounds of a kettle over a fire, a dictator’s entourage, celestial navigation, and climate. Part travel, part anthropology, part folk wisdom, Desert Mailbag will leave you wishing for your own letter from Walter.

After growing up in a railroad restaurant family with frequent moves, the author settled in Brandon where he graduated from University and began teaching in Northern Manitoba. For many years he lived with his wife and five children on a homestead in Western Manitoba. He varied teaching with other employment, including logging, carpentry, stone masonry, sign language interpreting, and tree planting (this – at age 63 – was penance for the logging at age 23).