Beware the Beneficent Gringo!

Zachary, the son of a Connecticut Senator faces reality. His father was not always a pillar of the community. Nor was his great-grandfather the person he pretended to be. When Zach traces his family roots to Istanbul he learns that his grandfather was a practicing Muslim and had even made the Haj pilgrimage. Zach joins the Peace Corps in Central America in protest against his orchestrated New England background. Zach finds people with real feelings In Latin America and he wants to share his life with them. He establishes his own Latin American family and tries to live a simple life. With his Protestant American orientation he feels the need to improve the life of rural villagers in his wife's country of Gualamata. He serves his Lord and wants to make Gualamata the Paradise it should be. Conflicts tear his precious new family apart. Money, Greed, Man's Evil Nature, all thwart his efforts to do the "right thing." Although charitable Gringos wish their neighbors well, foreign aid must be on the donor's terms not those of the recipients. Zach tries to channel the gringo contributions into useful directions but divergent interests thwart him. The beneficent Gringos become the envy of the natives who want to preserve their own way of life and still have the Gringos pouring out their largesse. Life doesn't work that way. Ultimately, there is nothing in the future for everybody except disappointment and disaster