Author Caroline Kurtz

A citizen of two cultures

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As a child in Ethiopia, Caroline Kurtz absorbed sights, sounds, smells and customs of Africa, the subject of her memoir Down on Both Sides: Growing up in America and Ethiopia. Later, with her husband and three children she taught, advocated for women and supported peacemaking in Ethiopia and Sudan—experiences described in her second memoir, Today is Tomorrow.

Fluent in Ethiopia’s Amharic language, Caroline’s subsequent career bridged between donors and community-led projects: sheep banks, bee-keeping, and a highland apple orchard. She has raised funds for Muslim villages building themselves schools. She supported developing an alphabet and mother-tongue literacy for the oral language of her home area in Maji, Ethiopia. Now she works with community leaders (in Amharic over Skype-to-phone during Covid) to bring solar energy, clean water and women’s empowerment in Maji.

She also writes and designs bilingual early-reader books for Ethiopian children. When she’s not on the road raising money in the US and midwifing projects in Ethiopia, Caroline lives in Portland, Oregon across the street from 3000 rose bushes.

Select here to view just some of the photos from Caroline’s amazing life!

Books

” Caroline’s memoir of growing up as a “third culture kid,” a product of an Ethiopian childhood and American missionary parents, is both riveting and enlightening….”

Caroline Kurtz photo of her book jackets

Photos

Photos to help transport readers to the other side of the world. See the places and people that shaped Caroline and for whom she has spent her life loving and caring for.

Caroline Kurtz Photos of her life in Maji Ethiopia

MDC

Solar empowerment, community enhancement, and women’s engagement. MDC partners with an Ethiopian non-profit with a branch office in Maji.

Maji Development Coalition