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My Wild and Precious Life: A Memoir of Africa
After stumbling upon a tiny orphanage in rural Tanzania, Susanne Rheault knew her life was about to change.
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.
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.
- GenresMemoir
287 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 10, 2019
98 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Susanne Rheault
1 book6 followersA 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.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 14, 2020
I was more in love with the author's project than with her book. The first half of it was based pretty much on how she became involved with the Precious Project. For me, the exciting part of the book was reading about life in Tanzania and her work helping to build a school and better life for the children.
Having lived in West Africa for five years helped me to relate to a lot of Rheault's experiences. The descriptions of Tanzania and the people brought back memories for me. I hope to also go back to Africa someday to volunteer, and maybe it will be with the Precious Project.
Thank you for your selfless story, Susanne Rheault. Thank you Smith Publicity.
Having lived in West Africa for five years helped me to relate to a lot of Rheault's experiences. The descriptions of Tanzania and the people brought back memories for me. I hope to also go back to Africa someday to volunteer, and maybe it will be with the Precious Project.
Thank you for your selfless story, Susanne Rheault. Thank you Smith Publicity.
September 20, 2019
“Never doubt that a small group of committed people can change the world. For indeed it is the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead
In this stunning memoir, Susie Rheault talks about how her life has lead her to The Precious Project in Tanzania and how this project has evolved over the years. This book is heart-breaking, encouraging, cheerful, tear-inducing, and beautiful all at once. I enjoyed this book from the very start and by the time she mentioned my hometown in German, she had me wrapped around her finder. I could not put it down until I was done with it and then went straight to researching the Precious Project online. I highly encourage readers to learn more about this project and support it as well.
In this stunning memoir, Susie Rheault talks about how her life has lead her to The Precious Project in Tanzania and how this project has evolved over the years. This book is heart-breaking, encouraging, cheerful, tear-inducing, and beautiful all at once. I enjoyed this book from the very start and by the time she mentioned my hometown in German, she had me wrapped around her finder. I could not put it down until I was done with it and then went straight to researching the Precious Project online. I highly encourage readers to learn more about this project and support it as well.
August 22, 2019
When Susanne Rheault began working with the Clinton Foundation to stem the tide of the HIV epidemic in Africa, she had no idea how meaningful and gratifying this work would become for her. Over a period of years she visited Ethiopia, Tanzania, Malawi, Lesotho, and Swaziland multiple times, working with local volunteers to create fast track plans to galvanize this effort. While the oscillation between her two worlds—grinding poverty and suffering in Africa vs. the affluence and privilege of American life—is difficult to manage, Rheault is fueled by the grim scenarios in these struggling countries: soaring HIV infection rates and plummeting life expectancy, seeming to baptize her in a sort of trial by fire. Rheault has learned a great deal from the Clinton Foundation projects, but now engages her husband, Gil Williams, in a new project, which will undeniably change their lives.
The speed with which the Precious Project is adopted, subsequently funded and grown from its Spartan beginnings (with no running water, no electricity, and housing nine orphans, to a campus offering organic gardens, a two-story primary school for 350 children, a community center, library, dining hall, women’s empowerment groups, education, and food for local village children, etc.) is mind-boggling. What really draws the reader in, though, are the everyday stories of the people involved. The daily challenges facing corruption, theft, physical abuse, cultural dilemmas, gender bias, government controversies, and all the tragic lives impacted by this project bring reality into sharp relief. What Rheault, Williams, and their Nshupu partners, William and Sarah Modest, have accomplished is nothing short of miraculous. What this story reveals is how this epic journey began and the evolving transformation at its core.
The speed with which the Precious Project is adopted, subsequently funded and grown from its Spartan beginnings (with no running water, no electricity, and housing nine orphans, to a campus offering organic gardens, a two-story primary school for 350 children, a community center, library, dining hall, women’s empowerment groups, education, and food for local village children, etc.) is mind-boggling. What really draws the reader in, though, are the everyday stories of the people involved. The daily challenges facing corruption, theft, physical abuse, cultural dilemmas, gender bias, government controversies, and all the tragic lives impacted by this project bring reality into sharp relief. What Rheault, Williams, and their Nshupu partners, William and Sarah Modest, have accomplished is nothing short of miraculous. What this story reveals is how this epic journey began and the evolving transformation at its core.
August 5, 2019
Susanne Rheault has written a thoroughly engaging book that not only gets one's attention but holds it to the last page. Each chapter paints a truthful and vivid picture of what it means to live a life of purpose. She also accurately describes Africa with all its complexity and challenges. This is a wonderful book filled with lessons to be learned.
August 6, 2019
A splendid read, it transported me to Africa as Rheault works to improve women's health outcomes and is instrumental in the transformation of a one-room "school" in Tanzania into a campus that includes a primary school for 350 children. She shares honestly the successes and the learnings from the mistakes as her understanding of the culture and values deepens.
February 22, 2020
Rheault bases the title of her book on a poem by Mary Oliver and it's a perfect choice. She explicates her evolution from being a professional consultant for the Clinton Foundation, living in New England, helping varied African groups build AIDS prevention teams. Her connection to Africa begins with periodic (sometimes terrifying) trips to particular places targeting one group. Ultimately, along with her husband, she builds her own NGO, Precious, in Tanzania -- a school, orphanage, community outreach -- pretty much everything the small community in Tanzania needs.
What is most fascinating about this book -- for me -- is Rheault's continually growing understanding of the different African cultures in which she finds herself. She writes with great affection and clarity about the people she comes to know, the challenges they face and the challenges she faces, challenges that are often too immense to be overcome.
I don't want to say too much, but I heartily recommend this book. It's serious, and certainly not exactly light reading. Rheault's experiences are fascinating. She and her husband, Gil, become ever more deeply involved in the world with which they've fallen in love and the people they have determined to help.
What is most fascinating about this book -- for me -- is Rheault's continually growing understanding of the different African cultures in which she finds herself. She writes with great affection and clarity about the people she comes to know, the challenges they face and the challenges she faces, challenges that are often too immense to be overcome.
I don't want to say too much, but I heartily recommend this book. It's serious, and certainly not exactly light reading. Rheault's experiences are fascinating. She and her husband, Gil, become ever more deeply involved in the world with which they've fallen in love and the people they have determined to help.
November 2, 2020
Susanne takes you on a journey to many countries in Africa and her experience there. As someone who has both traveled back and forth and lived in a third world country, I could relate to her struggles of trying to reconcile her "rich American life" with her life's mission to make a difference in the lives of children and adults in Africa. As she navigates life in Africa, she learns the hard way like most ex-pats about the true in and out's of living in poverty. However, in the end, her hard work pays off as the orphanage and school that she once dreamed about became an amazing reality expanding and affecting the lives of many adults and children. Thank you Susanne for your service to the African people.
October 26, 2020
Educational
I found this book to be fascinating, how one womans dreams intersected with others to create the Prescious home and school. I liked that she didnt just portray the successes, but the trials and losses as well. I was disappointed to learn that people she employed or helped still tried to steal from her. Learning how much poverty there is is hard to read about, yet some people have to live it. Fascinating. I will definitely check out their website.
I found this book to be fascinating, how one womans dreams intersected with others to create the Prescious home and school. I liked that she didnt just portray the successes, but the trials and losses as well. I was disappointed to learn that people she employed or helped still tried to steal from her. Learning how much poverty there is is hard to read about, yet some people have to live it. Fascinating. I will definitely check out their website.
November 27, 2020
Eye opener
I eagerly read all of Susie and Gil ‘s adventures. Having volunteered in the Dominican Republic I could relate to some experiences and visualize so much. It is still very difficult to realize all of this until one has an opportunity to be there. Thank you for dedicating so much of you to this cause. I am so happy I choose to read this story.
I eagerly read all of Susie and Gil ‘s adventures. Having volunteered in the Dominican Republic I could relate to some experiences and visualize so much. It is still very difficult to realize all of this until one has an opportunity to be there. Thank you for dedicating so much of you to this cause. I am so happy I choose to read this story.
April 10, 2021
Captivating, purposeful dreams fulfilled and grounded in reality.
Susie shares a slice of life - foreign, hopeful, loving and bittersweet. Surely the good works folded together with the amazing tenacious African culture will plant seeds of hope for both peoples. Very sweet. Very sobering.
Susie shares a slice of life - foreign, hopeful, loving and bittersweet. Surely the good works folded together with the amazing tenacious African culture will plant seeds of hope for both peoples. Very sweet. Very sobering.
February 18, 2021
This is a wonderful story how a husband and wife help
fund a school in Tanzania. The book explores all the experiences they have including problems, government issues and successes. Now 10 years in the school is thriving and growing. A great read.
fund a school in Tanzania. The book explores all the experiences they have including problems, government issues and successes. Now 10 years in the school is thriving and growing. A great read.
April 9, 2020
We are proud to announce that MY WILD AND PRECIOUS LIFE: A Memoir of Africa by Susanne Rheault is a B.R.A.G.Medallion Honoree. This tells readers that this book is well worth their time and money!
February 19, 2021
Inspirational
Wow if only more could give like Susie. What an amazing life and treasure they built. Wonderful book of some of her experiences.
Wow if only more could give like Susie. What an amazing life and treasure they built. Wonderful book of some of her experiences.
June 2, 2020
Powerful and poignant memoir by a brave woman! Susanne Rheault finds her mission in life in Africa. She and her husband Gil build an orphanage in rural Tanzania. They develop lifelong relationships with local people who help them. This is an inspiring read.
September 22, 2019
Fascinating read about the work of NGOs and local African individuals who collaborate with them. There is a lot to unpack in this pager-turner of a book!
Written as a memoir of life in Africa, the book centers on American author Susanne Rheault in this engrossing narrative. Starting with her own upbringing as the daughter of a green beret, she describes a life of both privation and privilege, outsider status, loss, and search for a life of meaningful service.
Once Rheault brings the reader to continental Africa with her, she is frank about the tension and unintended pitfalls that service-oriented white westerners bring to formerly colonized countries. In Tanzania she goes deeper, unguardedly laying out her own instances of the assumptions, privilege, and cultural illiteracy that her outsider status inevitably brings. But we are glad because the questioning and grappling educates us about the community of Nshupu. Her persistence, humility and profound respect for her adopted community inspires us. There are beautifully written vignettes about the children, the individuals she works with and befriends. Not all endings are happy in this book. Rheault does not present a tourist postcard view for her reader. The people and their situations here are complex, making this book a great read that left me wanting more! More about the successes and failures of the Clinton Foundation projects; more about the relationships between different African counties and mutually beneficial projects. And, most importantly, more stories about the children at Precious. I hope there is a second book coming!
Written as a memoir of life in Africa, the book centers on American author Susanne Rheault in this engrossing narrative. Starting with her own upbringing as the daughter of a green beret, she describes a life of both privation and privilege, outsider status, loss, and search for a life of meaningful service.
Once Rheault brings the reader to continental Africa with her, she is frank about the tension and unintended pitfalls that service-oriented white westerners bring to formerly colonized countries. In Tanzania she goes deeper, unguardedly laying out her own instances of the assumptions, privilege, and cultural illiteracy that her outsider status inevitably brings. But we are glad because the questioning and grappling educates us about the community of Nshupu. Her persistence, humility and profound respect for her adopted community inspires us. There are beautifully written vignettes about the children, the individuals she works with and befriends. Not all endings are happy in this book. Rheault does not present a tourist postcard view for her reader. The people and their situations here are complex, making this book a great read that left me wanting more! More about the successes and failures of the Clinton Foundation projects; more about the relationships between different African counties and mutually beneficial projects. And, most importantly, more stories about the children at Precious. I hope there is a second book coming!
December 19, 2021
What would you do if you came across a small orphanage in a small town in Africa? A home for AIDS orphans; a small grey concrete building surrounded by dirt with no toys, no bedding, no books. Would you walk away? Or would you effect change, somehow? Susanne Rheault does the latter, with an incredible energy and determination which underlines this memoir of her life.
Susanne was brought up an ‘army brat’, travelling the world with her family. She was probably destined to be a nomad and always had a desire to ‘do good’, working at a day centre for the mentally ill, at a counselling centre for women seeking abortion, an in-patient psychiatric unit and finally, in Africa.
My Wild and Precious Life is a memoir of changes, of hopes and dreams, and of incredible achievements against the odds. Susanne’s life has certainly been made to count, has been more than a little wild and for those she has helped, more than a little precious.
Susanne was brought up an ‘army brat’, travelling the world with her family. She was probably destined to be a nomad and always had a desire to ‘do good’, working at a day centre for the mentally ill, at a counselling centre for women seeking abortion, an in-patient psychiatric unit and finally, in Africa.
My Wild and Precious Life is a memoir of changes, of hopes and dreams, and of incredible achievements against the odds. Susanne’s life has certainly been made to count, has been more than a little wild and for those she has helped, more than a little precious.
September 23, 2019
Persistence, resilience and dedication dusted with the grit and dirt of the real Africa.
Honest and balanced introspection shared in straightforward and unvarnished observation and description of family, relationships, cultures.
A moving and heartwarming tour de force of what is possible, what it takes and what can be accomplished in the most difficult circumstances that rural Africa epitomizes.
Honest and balanced introspection shared in straightforward and unvarnished observation and description of family, relationships, cultures.
A moving and heartwarming tour de force of what is possible, what it takes and what can be accomplished in the most difficult circumstances that rural Africa epitomizes.
September 6, 2019
I LOVE this book. Full disclosure, I know Gil and Susie and my parents have both been on the board of Precious at times so I am aware of many aspects of this story. But, a lot of it was new to me. I am so in awe of what Susie and Gil have done and several times in the past few years have said this is what I would like to do--if only I could be so lucky. Great book--highly recommend to everyone!
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews