My Wild and Precious Life
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Product Details
Publisher: Bush Baby Press
Release Date: August 7, 2019
Formats: Paperback, Ebook, Audiobook
ISBN: PB: 978-0-578-50095-9; EB: 978-0-578-50096-6
Trim: 5.5 x 8.5
Page Count: 285
A Memoir of Africa
Susanne Rheault
From walking with lions in the bush to dodging bombs in Tanzania’s largest city, psychologist Susanne Rheault recounts with candor and humility the hard lessons learned during a life working to help impoverished communities in Africa.
The daughter of a Green Beret, Susie has lived a transient life ever since she was a young girl. In her engaging memoir, we come to discover her fierce spirit as she seeks out a life of purpose, never shying away from adventures that often carry unseen dangers.
After grieving the sudden death of her first husband, Susie begins to explore Africa, quickly falling in love with the continent, where she starts by running AIDS prevention programs for the Clinton Foundation. Ultimately, she focuses on her last ten years transforming a small two-room orphanage in rural Tanzania into an NGO that boasts a home, an organic farm, and a primary school for 350 children. Throughout her journey Susie forges lifelong connections with her African partners who teach her about local culture and traditions.
With raw authenticity, My Wild and Precious Life shares the tough realities of living alongside families in desperate poverty, while also highlighting the extraordinary warmth of the African people Susie and her colleagues have come to know. This is a story of people working together as they strive for a common goal, always persisting with hope.
About the Author
A PhD psychologist, Susanne Rheault has worked for over ten years in sub-Saharan Africa, serving as a special advisor to the Clinton Foundation Health Access Initiative. As the cofounder of the Precious Project, a school and home for vulnerable children in rural Tanzania, Susie serves as a key advisor and advocate for the organization, working alongside her husband and two Tanzanian cofounders, William and Sarah Modest. My Wild and Precious Life is her first book.
Reviews
“A captivating, candid, inspiring, and beautifully written memoir by a former Clinton Foundation consultant who fell in love with Africa and stayed to make a difference. The narrative of a learn-as-you-go effort filled with joy, humor, breathtaking success, and heartbreaking disappointments.” —Beryl Singleton Bissell, author of The Scent of God and A View of the Lake
“If you’re seeking purpose, connection, and the thrill of making a difference in the lives of others, Susanne Rheault’s encore journey is a well-told tale of adventure that will inspire your own.” —Marc Freedman, CEO of Encore.org and author of How to Live Forever: The Enduring Power of Connecting the Generations
“This is a book about adventure, mission, and calling. Real adventure. Real mission. Real calling. The kind of calling most shy away from once they learn the hard way that in this, there will be pain, confusion, and mistakes.” —Kate Braestrup, bestselling author of Here if You Need Me
“Her journey is a transformation of not only her life, but the realization that life is precious and it’s meaningless if we don’t start helping each other get through it. A wonderful story for a world needing more happy endings.” —Marty Nadler, staff writer for The Odd Couple, Happy Days, and Laverne & Shirley
“Susanne Rheault has written a marvelously entertaining and eye-opening memoir of her years of volunteer work in Africa, first fighting the AIDS crisis with the Clinton Foundation and then founding an orphanage and elementary school in Tanzania.” —Ed Wood, former COO of the Clinton Foundation Health Access Initiative
“Rheault’s book is an engrossing autobiography of a New Englander who makes Africa her second home, the record of remarkable results achieved by a philanthropist and good Samaritan (with her husband), a moving account of children, their parents and community on a journey to create a school where none existed, and the story of an intrepid woman on a mission.” —Harry Hutson, coauthor of several books on leadership including Navigating an Organizational Crisis: When Leadership Matters Most