West of the Moon — Barbara Bickmore

Dr. Quentin Coopersmith of Seattle, is the head of HEAL, a worldwide medical organization devoted to helping to save those in third world countries that have no medical aid. He talks Dr. Courtney McCloud, herself a native African, into leaving her decades old clinic in southern Zimbabwe and going to the border of Mozambique, the poorest country on earth, where a 17 year old war still wages. No one seems to understand what it's about, but hundreds and even thousands are fleeing into Zimbabwe, without anything except what is on their backs. Accompanying her is her close friend and nurse, an Irish nun, Sister Mara. Together they set up a clinic to help these refugees, fleeing from a country the world has ignored for too many years to find salvation offered by two women in the midst of nowhere. In the midst of this human tragedy they discover poachers who kill elephants and leave their bodies to rot so that they can have their ivory tusks, sold to Asia as an aphrodisiac. The elephant population is being devastated, and Africa is losing its unique animal. West of the Moon is the story of the nobility of the human spirit, of people whose rewards are not monetary, who spend their lives putting others first and in so doing reach an heroic level, and in the middle of the war, find love. It shows how even just a few people can make a big difference. Although West of the Moon is a sequel to East of the Sun, it stands alone, taking place ten years after the first book ended. It is a story, again, of Africa, a colossal and little-known continent, and of Dr. Courtney McCloud, a unique and inspiring woman.