Different World

Margaret Krug Palen was part of the first generation of her German family to speak English as a first language. When she was born in her Krug family's Iowa farm house, Herbert Hoover was president. In this book, Margaret has painted a detailed picture of rural American life from the 1930s into the 1950s: family meals, farm chores, childhood games and sibling rivalry, listening to radio when the bombing of Pearl Harbor was announced.
Readers have been invited to join Margaret on her journey from farm and family, to college, to adventures with friends, to work with the Department of Agriculture, to marriage, to travel to other counties, and ultimately, to work in other countries to improve food, textile and clothing production. This book preserves the details of her projects in Ghana, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Belarus, Bolivia, and Jamaica. With the strength of her faith and her commitment to make the world a better place, Margaret met and surmounted difficult conditions in the course of her international projects to improve food production, textiles and clothing. "These pages are written to relate how it is possible for an American to make a difference in the world."