Whitewashed Jacarandas

Hope looms in a vast land wide open with possibilities... Dr. Sunny Rubenstein travels the night train through the black void of Africa to check out his 51st job prospect on the rich Cheetah Gold Mine. Along the way he hears that the mine might be running out. But the appendage to it, Umzimtuti, the smallest municipality in the world, could be big-even King George VI will stop off for tea on his Victory Tour on the Royal White Train. The mine's bonus is a free rambling house with the only indoor toilet in town. It's the perfect antidote to his wife Mavourneen's difficult war years with their ailing son, Douglas. Sunny cannot afford to lose a case in his first year to secure the post permanently. There's plenty to challenge him. Early morning sick parade under the shadeless blue gum trees is followed by surgery, then on to afternoon clinics ending with calls to far-away farms and mud huts. Umzimtuti's a town where poker stakes are high. Liquor flows freely at the Umzimtuti Hotel bar. Bullet holes in the wall attest to its wild past. Sunny will have to unseat the tight-fisted, short-sighted Mayor if Umzimtuti's ever going to put in street lights, get rid of bucket toilets and the honeysuckle brigade so the town can capture the new surge in post-war industry. Sunny's belief that competence, hope, hard work and idealism are enough will be sorely tested.