Eliciting the eros of subtle presence, Melissa Fischer wrests poetry from the caustic cauldron of Obuasi, a mining boomtown in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. West Africa Gold dams the Gyimi River, stagnating the water source of Gyimiso Kakraba, a village of subsistence farmers who refuse to accept a modern world that has forsaken the art of human connection. Compelled by the devastation of water-borne diseases, Gyimiso Kakraba enlists Louisa Lehmann, a civil engineer and Peace Corps volunteer, to intercede on their behalf. Lehmann exudes pride in her profession, honors her fluid gender, and yields to the greatest lesson of all taught by the people of Gyimiso Kakraba deep in Ghana's equatorial forest.

Melissa Fischer was born and raised in Southern California. They earned bachelor's and master's degress in Civil Engineering from Stanford University. Melissa has lived five years in Africa, including two in Ghana, where they managed a water and sanitation agency in a region impacted by gold mining. They have worked over thirty years as a civil engineer in construction, public works, development, and relief work.