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I Miss the Rain in Africa: Peace Corps as a Third Act

I Miss the Rain in Africa: Peace Corps as a Third Act

by Nancy Daniel Wesson
I Miss the Rain in Africa: Peace Corps as a Third Act

I Miss the Rain in Africa: Peace Corps as a Third Act

by Nancy Daniel Wesson

Overview

  • Winner - Nautilus Book Award 2022
  • Winner - Moritz Thomsen Peace Corps Experience Award 2022
  • A Top Ten Expat Book for 2021 from Expat Nest

    • At a time when her friends were planning cushy retirements, Nancy Wesson instead walked away from a comfortable life and business to head out as a Peace Corps Volunteer in post-war Northern Uganda. She embraced wholeheartedly the grand adventure of living in a radically different culture, while turning old skills into wisdom. Returning home becomes a surreal experience in trying to reconcile a life that no longer "fits." This becomes the catalyst for new revelations about family wounds, mystical experiences, and personal foibles.

    Nancy shows us the power of stepping into the void to reconfigure life and enter the wilderness of the uncharted territory of our own memories and psyche, to mine the gems hidden therein. Funny, heartbreaking, insightful and tender, I Miss the Rain in Africa is the story of honoring the self, discovering a new lens through which to view life, and finding joy along the path.

    "Inspiring and educational when it comes to what we can accomplish when we put our best foot forward, I Miss the Rain in Africa shows how Nancy Daniel Wesson and others are putting the needs of others ahead of themselves--and what we can all do when it comes to stepping out on faith and choosing to act." -- Cyrus Webb, media personality and author, Conversations Magazine

    "I would think that many of us could learn or strive to live life to the fullest by following Nancy's example. Imagine venturing into new realms-especially at a later time in life when we possess meaningful knowledge for analyzing, but also for applying a critical philosophical perspective on new experiences." Gary Vizzo, former management & operations director, Peace Corps Community Development: African and Asia

    "I Miss the Rain in Africa is an absorbing record of the exploration of self by a woman who, at age 64, enters a remote area of Africa to work with an NGO. Part adventure, part interior monologue, this is an account of a 21st century derring-do by an intrepid, intriguing and always optimistic woman who will, undoubtedly, enjoy a fourth and maybe even a fifth act wherever she may find herself." --Eileen Purcell, outreach literacy coordinator, Clatsop Community College, Astoria, Oregon

    "Wesson offers a montage of stories and experiences that introduces the reader to the colorful people and challenging life in Uganda. Wesson's observations are shared with humor, respect, and compassion. For anyone who has ever won-dered what serving in Peace Corps or immersing oneself in a radically different life overseas might be like, this book provides a portal." --Kathleen Willis, Retired Peace Corps Volunteer-Community Organizer, former organizational development consultant

    Learn more at www.NancyWesson.com

    Product Details

    ISBN-13: 9781615995745
    Publisher: Modern History Press
    Publication date: 05/01/2021
    Pages: 296
    Product dimensions: 6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.62(d)

    About the Author

    Honestly, when I began, this is not the book I set out to write. My initial intention was to share what it was like to totally step out of the mainstream and jettison a business, an old identity and comfy-trappings at a time when most of my friends were planning cushy retirements. I felt driven to share this rich world I experienced in Uganda, and I had so many stories to tell, I literally couldn't carry on a conversation without another one spilling out. As I told these tales to friends, and spoke about my experiences at various events, people admitted to being shocked out of their safe-zones into a realization of their lack of awareness of their own privilege and of the challenges other people faced, just to survive. After seeing what Ugandan children sacrificed just for the privilege of going to school, high school students, bored with life and school, left with a little more appreciation for the opportunity to learn. I thought these stories were worth sharing, and as a writer...well, I had to write! As I wrote and got to what I thought was going to be, "The End," I realized it wasn't the end at all. And that's where the mischief started and my inner muse took over, and I literally had no idea where we were going...but I hung on for dear life! When I'd come home from Africa, I felt like a total stranger in the life and world I'd left. All of my reference points-physical and emotional-had changed; things I'd taken for granted had become treasures, and those I'd once valued had become irrelevant. The events that made up the stories I so wanted to tell became a catalyst for distilling life-going-forward into its most relevant and sacred parts.
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