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Nathan and Orleanna meet
They meet at a tent revival for his church -
Nathan goes to war
He is drafted into World War II and is the only survivor in his group three months later. He felt an immense amount of guilt and became obsessed with saving souls. -
Orleanna has the girls
First she has Rachel and then the twins and later Ruth May. She feels she is responsible for Adah's disabilities because she cried so much over being pregnant with twins. The family moves to Bethlehem, Georgia. -
Leah and Nathan
In the beginning Leah tells the readers how much she worships her father and that she wants to be just like him. "This is what I admire most about Father: no matter how bad things might get, he eventually will find the grace to compose himself... I know that some day, when I've grown large enough in the Holy Spirit, I will have his wholehearted approval."- Leah Pages 41-42 -
Family moves to the congo
Nathan makes the whole family go to Africa to stay for a year for a missionary trip and Orleanna mentions the okapi. "That one time and no other the okapi came to the stream, and I was the only one to see it." - Orleanna Page 7 -
Mama Tataba tries to help
Mama Tataba warns Nathan about the poisonwood tree after he touches it and tries to teach Nathan how to garden, he ignores her. He gets offended because he thinks he knows what to do. She puts the garden into mounds instead of rows over night and he fixes them in the morning. -
Mother may I
Ruth May teaches the kids to play mother may I and for awhile all of the Congolese kids come and play with the price girls in their yard. But eventually all the kids stop coming except pascal. "I watched for a long while, astonished to see what Ruth May had accomplished behind my back." -Leah page 111 -
Ruth May goes to the doctor
Ruth May breaks her arm when she falls out of the tree whole spying on the militia group. On the way to Stanleyville Ruth May sees diamonds in Eben's airplane. "Mr. Axleroot told father that food goes for the price a gold in Stanleyville, but it wasn't gold in the little cloth bags. No sir, it was diamonds. I found that out and I can't tell how.... Mr. Axleroot said if I told, why then God would make Mama sick and die. So I can't." - Ruth May page 119 -
Rachel's Birthday
Rachel turns 16 and Orleanna tries to make the cake but it fails and Orleanna becomes upset and loses hope because it sets in how hard it will actually be to survive. " Rachel's birthday came in late August, but the Betty Crocker cake mix let us all down." -Leah page 65 -
Mama Tataba and Methuselah are free
Nathan and Mama Tataba get in a fight and she leaves for good and he lets Methuselah out of his cage. "Everything turned on the day we lost them both, Mama Tataba and the accursed parrot, both released by Nathan." - Orleanna page 90, Orleanna struggles to keep her family alive with ought the help of Mama Tataba -
Orleanna wins over the Congolese people
For Easter Sunday she makes a bunch of fried chicken to get on their good side so maybe they will consider baptism. -
Tata Ndu VS. Nathan
Anatole warns Nathan that tata Ndu is not a fan of Christianity and doesn't really welcome the family in the Congo anymore. -
Tata Ndu and Rachel
Tata Ndu wants to marry Rachel so she pretends to be engaged to Axleroot. "The Termite is the one he wants to buy, Mama Peice. All those goats, and you won't have to feed her anymore." -Nelson page 263 -
Time to leave
The Underdowns inform the Price family of the political uproar and tell them they won't get anymore money and should leave. The villagers put chicken bones in front of their door as a symbol for bad luck. The whole family wanted to leave except Nathan, she. He chose to stay they began to question their faith in him. -
Quote
"Father is mad at the Underdowns. Usually they send the basic necessities they think we will need every month.... But this time they just sent a letter:'Prepare your departure. We are sending a sending a special mission plane for your evacuation June 28. We are leaving Leopoldville the following week and have arranged for your family to accompany us as far as Belgium." -Rachel page 176 -
Election
The Congo and other places in Africa have an election for independence and they win -
Orleanna gives up
Orleanna and Ruth May go to bed and don't get up. They find out Ruth May stopped taking her medicine for malaria and is sick. "I happen to know Ruth May doesn't even swallow hers all the time: once I saw her hide it behind her teeth when she opened wide to show mother it was down the hatch. Then she spat it out in her hand and stuck it on the wall behind her cot." -Rachel page 176 -
Nelson
Anatole sends one of his best students to help the family in exchange for a place to sleep and eggs to sell. His name is Nelson and he teaches the girls a lot of survival skills. -
Fire Hunt
The village is low on food so they plan their fire hunt. Leah wants to go with the men but they don't want her to. She ends up going anyways. This is the first time disobeying her father and he decides she is hopeless and worthless to try to save. -
Tata Kuvundu
Tata Kuvundu threatens the price family with bad luck and so forth. He tries to convince the village they will only cause trouble. So he plants mamba snaked throughout the village leading to people blaming the family. Nelson and Leah put ashes in the chicken coop and find his footprints in the morning near the mamba snake. "Tata Ndu threatened to exile Tata Kuvundu for planting the snake in our chicken coop, which he was known to have done, since Nelson pointed out the footprints."-Leah page 417 -
Ants
Driver ants come and swarm the Congo and everyone flees for safety, Orleanna chooses to save Ruth May over Adah. -
Ruth May dies
When they find the snake, it lunges out at them. They look in the trees for it but then realize it has bitten Ruth May on the neck. They watch helplessly as she turns blue and dies. Nathan runs out and baptizes the children as it pours the rain during Ruth May's funeral. -
The girls leave Nathan
They travel with some of the Congo women until Leah gets sick with malaria. Leah and Rachel end up staying in Africa while Adah and Orleanna travel back to Georgia. -
Adah's Disability
Adah begins to speak and loses her limp, she goes to college and becomes a doctor. She uses science as her religion and ends up becoming a researcher instead of a doctor. She believes the viruses she was working on deserved to live just as much as anyone else. -
Rachel's marriages
Rachel ends up marrying Eben Axleroot, and then two other guys. Her last husband dies and she inherits the Equatorial. -
Leah and Anatole
Leah stays with Anatloe and ends up marrying him and having his children. While he is in prison she pretends to be a nun. They name their kids after important people in their lives such as Pascal and Nathan. -
Nathan's death
The girls find out their father died in a fire. He tried to baptize a group of kids in the river but the boat was overturned by a crocodile and all of the kids drowned. The villagers chase him up to a tower and catch it on fire with him inside.
