Posted by Have you ever met someone and said, “I want to be like that person some day?” When I was twenty, serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia in 1971, I met such a woman, Ruth Jacobson. Here she is in 1940 graduating with her 3-year diploma of nursing from Tacoma General in WA State.…Read more »
Posted by Once a year, my local bookstore, Village Books provides a writing challenge. This year I was to write something relating to the theme Interconnectedness. Yes, it’s a mouthful. But in the end, we and everything on this planet from the solar system right down to the food chain is connected. I knew immediately what I…Read more »
Posted by 5 decades later I would have hoped things could be better for young girls and women in many parts of the world. But click on this article in the Guardian to learn that the beliefs about womanhood run very deep. Read this article in the Guardian a few days ago. (Delete all the popups so…Read more »
Posted by I arrived in Tonga in 1973 as Peace Corps volunteer supervising a TB and Typhoid vaccination campaign throughout the islands. Here is an excerpt from my memoir, In Search of Pink Flamingos, Chapter, An Island Paradise, about the my work and the wonderful people of Tonga. Despite the general good health of the population, I…Read more »
Posted by No, I didn’t experience the Dust Bowl. I didn’t grow up during the Great Depression, although I was raised by parents who lived through them. The media is having a heyday with our stores having empty shelves depicted with this bone-chilling image. Check out this recent story in the Washington Post. Social media is adding…Read more »
Posted by (New photo to behind the scenes of In Search of Pink Flamingos) In Chapter, Indigenous Midwives (Part III) I explore how the head midwife, Bendu, wanted the midwives to begin charging families $1.00 for delivering their babies. I had just completed a midwifery course with eleven other midwives and supplied them with a starter delivery…Read more »
Posted by If I ever wanted to be mentioned in another author’s book under a specific chapter, I would want it to be entitled “Truth.” My developmental editor, Laura Kalpakian, author of nearly 20 books with numerous awards, mentioned me and In Search of Pink Flamingos as an example in her chapter called Truth. Her newest book,…Read more »
Posted by Oh yes, the young and restless – I was 19 and Steve, 24. We met in the Virgin Islands at the Peace Corps training in 1971. I was heading to Liberia and he was on his way to Niger. A brief encounter…well because, I was spoken for – pearled to my high school sweetheart. But…Read more »
Posted by Friday, August 13th was my lucky day. I was camping on the Olympic Peninsula when I drove to access cell phone reception to check the ferry schedule. My first email was a “Hurray!” from one of my sage counsels. Here is what I read: Peace Corps Worldwide has selected In Search of Pink Flamingos as…Read more »
Posted by I am an occasional poet. Unexpectedly, stanzas flow from my brain, to my hand, to the keyboard. I took a poetry class recently that helped me create these two pieces that I want to share with you. Both reflect stories written in my memoir. The first poem of Fulani Woman helped to write the second…Read more »
Susan E. Greisen 