Bad Volunteer HOME

EXCERPTS
Foreword
Floundering In Truk Lagoon
The Dinner Party
Spaz Attack

Outline

About the Author

Music From Micronesia

CONTACT INFO:
Mary Flannery
MaryLFlannery@hotmail.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
of The Bad Volunteer

a book by Mary Flannery

Upon graduation from Lawrence University in 1977, Mary Flannery applied for a volunteer position with the Peace Corps. Her sole qualification being a B.A. in Music, she was nominated for a posting in Fiji as a choral instructor. When she didn't get the job, she embarked on a two-decade globe trot, interspersed with periods of work.

First she got a job waitressing at Poppin Fresh Pies. As soon as she had a few hundred dollars under her belt, she headed south, to Central and South America. A few months later, she was home again, penniless, and became a French Correspondence Secretary at Time-Life in Chicago.

Then she moved to Japan, where she spent two years teaching English to businessmen. On weekend nights she fronted a bossa/jazz band that played in the night clubs of Kyoto.

In 1983 she left Japan to tour the beaches, jungles, and cities of Southeast Asia. She studied sitar and classical vocal music in Varanasi, India.

Upon returning to the U.S., Mary settled briefly in New York, where she worked first for Manhattan School of Music, and then for CARE.

In 1986, Ms. Flannery applied to the Peace Corps again. This time she got the position--an English teacher in Truk State in the Federated States of Micronesia. Thus began one of the strangest chapters of her life. (See THE BAD VOLUNTEER: Notes from Micronesia.)

After completing her Peace Corps duties, Mary spent three years teaching English and studying flamenco guitar in Spain.

Now she lives in Washington, DC, where she is a well known documentary filmmaker. Her programs have aired on Discovery, PBS, National Geographic, and all over the world. She produces and directs, writes, edits, and often composes the music for her documentaries. Among her numerous credits are SEMANA SANTA IN SEVILLE, a highly-acclaimed documentary of Seville's centuries-old celebration of Holy Week; JUKE, about blues in the Mississippi Delta; THE AKHA WAY, about a hill tribe in Northern Thailand; FREEDOM FIGHTER: THE STORY OF LIAN SHENGDE, about a Chinese dissident living near DC. TUBABS IN AFRICA, her most recent documentary, is about a group of college students who spent a summer in The Gambia, West Africa.

Dozens of Mary's articles, including a five-page piece on shooting overseas, have been published in video trade magazines.

THE BAD VOLUNTEER is her first book. She's presently working on her second book, about life as a "gaijin" in Japan.