Susan E. Greisen's Blog, page 6
June 2, 2023
A Lesson in Genocide
To be honest, I went back to Africa in 2023 for one main reason. I wanted to trek to see the gorillas in the wild in Rwanda before my body failed me. However, the trip was so much more than the gorillas, as you will read in the following paragraphs. I traveled with a great tour group called OAT, Overseas Adventure Travel, with 9 other American tourists and two Rwandan guides. (Click on any highlighted links below for more information)
On day one, I entered my hotel in Kigali, called the Hotel des Milles Collines (which means 1000 hills). This was the actual film location of the famous movie “Hotel Rwanda”. This was the true story of the Rwandan genocide, the systematic slaughter of about 800,000 Tutsis in 100 days led by the Hutu-led assault. If you saw the movie, you may recognize the swimming pool.
Our guidebook forewarned us that it would be difficult learning about the genocide that became an organized assault on April 7, 1994. Sure, I knew about the death camps built by the Nazis in the 40s, but I didn’t realize what I would experience in the following days outside Kigali in the Nyarubuye Roman Catholic Church in Kibungo, now referred to as the Nyarubuye massacre. We spent a couple hours at the church where the Tutsi slaughter of families took place. Its presentation was poignant and painful.
The most horrific was the barricaded church where the Tutsi refugees took harbor and were then allowed to be massacred with the knowledge of the church staff. The bomb blast of the barricaded front door where entry was gained was a strong symbol of determination and shear brutality of their killers.
The clothing of the dead remained in the church pews that we were forbidden to film. Of the very few who survived it was revealed that the church staff and priests told the Tutsis that “their fate was willed by God, they were ‘cockroaches’ of the community, and they must die.” Pope Francis recently visited Rwanda in 2017 to ask for forgiveness for such a horrific act committed by the Catholic church.
I was sickened, nauseated, and felt tremendous grief of this government sponsored slaughter of innocent men, women, and children in the House of God. I thought the greatest impact of this memorial was over as I began my museum tour. But the worst was yet to come. The museum guided me through the exhibition called “Wasted Lives,” the timeline in parts of the world where genocide had occurred including the Holocaust, the Balkans, Cambodia, and Namibia. Over and over again, humankind never seems to learn that the killing of others who don’t look or believe like we do has NO merit or lasting impact. By the time I exited the museum, two hours later, every cell in my body was drained.
My fellow tourists and I were somber on our bus ride back to our hotel. One summed it up by saying “each genocide throughout the world was government sponsored, planned, and organized by the leaders of that country.” Hate that permeates so deeply that it justifies the extinction of a species, tribe, or an ethnic group is absolutely the most heinous crime possible. Think twice before you vote for anyone who supports hate.
Having no personal experience and little understanding about genocide, I never thought that the 1990 slaughter of the people in my village in Zorgowee, Liberia as genocide. I wrote about this in my memoir Epilogue, In Search of Pink Flamingos. Yes, I knew it was in response to hate and revenge, but I never considered it as literal obliteration of an entire ethnic group of the Mano and Gio in Liberia. When President Doe’s soldiers pursued the Gio and Mano wherever they lived in the entire country and elsewhere, including the refugee camps in Ghana and Ivory Coast, he had ethnic cleansing as his mission.
When the people you love/loved and cared about, including children, were innocently killed because they were of the same ethnic group as the warring opponent, the pain in my heart and soul ran very deep. I cried then and I cry now. It was less than a year ago that I learned the complete story of the massacre of the people in my village that occurred 23 years earlier. Read my previous blog entitled “War and Reunion” to learn more.
Of course, all was not doom and gloom in my visit to Rwanda. Many of you have read about the reconciliation after the genocide 28 years earlier led by World Vision. But to see the country thriving, and warring ethnic groups now living together in villages was heartwarming. OAT took us directly to a village where that happened. We sat in a large circle with Hutus and Tutsis now living together harmoniously.
We were able to query the villagers about how this transpired and how long it took. This Tutsi village now has a Hutu Chief (first photo) chosen by the villagers. The second photo is a Tutsi leader who lives there also. If we had not seen it firsthand, it would have been hard to believe. See the wonderful villagers below.
Susan & Elizabeth with her basket
Beautiful womenSo many lessons were learned about genocide and I departed Rwanda with a renewed hope of humankind. Maybe there is hope for us all.
P.S. Did I see the gorillas in the wild? YES! I will include this story in another blog.
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May 19, 2023
Hidden Volcano Abyss
On May 9th 2023, NOVA on PBS broadcasted a documentary, entitled “Hidden Volcano Abyss,” about the largest volcanic explosion documented in our lifetime in the Kingdom of Tonga. The Hunga Tonga – Hunga Ha’apai explosion occurred on January 15, 2022. The documentary explains the geologic and human impact this explosion had on this tiny nation. Click on this YouTube link to view this 53-minute program.
I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Tonga from 1973-74 as a health educator, supervising the TB and Typhoid vaccination campaign that was conducted throughout these peaceful islands. I am a member of Friends of Tonga (FOT), a nonprofit group of individuals who care about the Tongan people. This group has made a valiant effort in Tonga’s post-explosion recovery. Recently FOT transferred $22,000 USD ($51,000 pa’anga) to the Civil Society Forum of Tonga (CSFT) to continue financing the installation of rainwater cisterns across the Kingdom of Tonga.
This wire transfer will fund purchasing, shipment, and installation of 13 rainwater collection systems/tanks in the Vava’u and Tongatapu island groups. The water tanks will be installed at locations to support segments of the population that have difficulty accessing clean drinking water, specifically the elderly and individuals with disabilities.
FOT is committed to assisting the most vulnerable communities throughout the Kingdom of Tonga. This can only be achieved in collaboration and with guidance from stakeholders in the community. In this instance, the Civil Society Forum of Tonga identified this specific need and mapped the locations to maximize this project’s impact. We are incredibly grateful to our partners, donors, and our entire community for making this relief possible.
To continue supporting efforts like these, you can do so here!
Sincerely,
The Friends of Tonga Board
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May 13, 2023
Former President of Liberia Recognized
Published May 2023 (verbiage taken from the Forbes article), read the entire article here. However, I have highlighted President Sirleaf’s acknowledgment below.
Introducing FORBES AFRICA’s 50 Over 50 list – our first-time compilation of 50 women over the age of 50 scaling newer heights and inspiring the next cadre of leadership on the African continent. Age is just a number for them and retirement not an option or the end of the road, as they continue to power their way into history books and the hearts of Africans. From business tycoons to technocrats, founders to CEOs, and activists to entertainers, they have broken barriers throughout their impactful careers, and taken up spaces to ensure others have a voice in those very spaces and beyond. Read on: the senior-most change-maker on this list is 98 and still unstoppable!
Chanel Retief, Lillian Roberts and Marie Shabaya – With inputs from West Africa by Peace Hyde
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf 84 | First Female President of Liberia, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate | Liberia
(Photo credit should read JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images)Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made global headlines as Africa’s first democratically-elected female head of state of Liberia in 2005, as well as winning the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2011. As Liberia’s President, she helped usher in the transformation of the country after its civil war as well as the Ebola Crisis. Sirleaf is the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest civilian award, and the Grand Croix of the Légion d’Honneur ¾, France’s highest public distinction — for her bravery and steadfast commitment to expanding freedom and improving the lives of Africans.
Her two terms as the President of Liberia brought in over $16 billion of foreign direct investment into the country and further attracted $5 million in private funding. She was also responsible for wiping out over $4.6 billion in external debt as well as lifting UN trade sanctions on Liberia. With the country under her direction, she also increased the national budget from $80 million in 2006 to over $672 million in 2012 with a GDP growth of about 7%.
“I am proud of rural women of Liberia being given a voice. In the departing ceremonies at the end of my tenure, women openly claimed their right to participate and provide opinions on social issues, including men in the audience who acknowledge this right,” noted Sirleaf in an interview with FORBES AFRICA for the Africa’s 50 Most Powerful Women edition in March 2020.
Please add your comments below in the reply box for us to hear your voice about this article.
I envision that Africa will continue to progress with more powerful women in their future. Women who can and will give all African women a voice and be truly recognized as the backbone of their continent. Read my poem written about Fulani Woman, Liberia Woman in this BLOG. This was the image of African women as the strength and beauty of their homeland, but also the hardships of a Liberia woman in my village in the early70s. Susan E. Greisen
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April 15, 2023
I Wish I Had Known Him
To my followers: I have not written many blogs in the past months due to my intermittent international travel since December 2022. There is so much to write about after visiting the Middle East and Africa in that time period. But, today I want to focus on the passing of a man who I wish I had known. After reading his obituary, you may understand. Some of my readers did know him, others may have known someone like him. We all need a hero to look up to.
Dr. Paul Mertens was a person I had only heard of when I lived in Liberia from 1971-73 as a Peace Corp volunteer. He worked in another part of the country at that time and our paths never crossed. When I became the chief editor of Never the Same Again and two of our anthology authors wrote about him in their stories, I knew my reverence of him was accurate. Then in 2021, I met him in a Zoom gathering of Friends of Liberia (FOL) members. There he was on my monitor, bigger than life. I choked and tear up as I greeted him on the screen. Dr. Mertens was as humble in his Zoom presence as everyone said he was.
Below are excerpts from the two stories in our anthology written about him.
Excerpt from “Zorzor, Liberia: One Health…One World” by Karen Hein, MD
As a twenty-five-year-old, fourth-year medical student from Columbia University’s College of Physicians in New York, I arrived in the fall of 1969 to spend my two-month elective in upcountry Liberia. It was my “Peace Corps equivalent” experience, since it was the only time I could carve out in my burgeoning medical career. I thought I was coming to learn about diseases and treatments. And I did, when upon arrival I ran directly into a measles epidemic in the villages around Zorzor….
During my first day, I was introduced to Dr. Paul Mertens, the only physician serving as part of the Lutheran Mission. His calm demeanor, coupled with his constant motion, made him seem omnipresent as he moved from making rounds on the patients, to being the surgeon in the operating room, often lit by a kerosene lantern when the generator was down….
Dr. Mertens wrote a four-by-six-inch reference guide for me containing the common illnesses, parasitic, and bacterial infections that we were able to treat with our limited supplies. The card contained the name of the medication, dose, condition or diagnosis, plus the cost of treatment: fifteen cents for a daily treatment for hookworm or ascaris worms; four dollars for a fourteen-day course of tablets to treat Onchocerciasis volvulus (the cause of “river blindness”). I carried this card with me wherever I went on the hospital grounds, on vaccination treks through the jungle, and on short flights to reach more isolated communities.
Dr. Mertens knew everything about each person. The X-ray machine produced images that had to be read immediately before the ever-present mildew and mold would turn their images of lungs or broken bones into a picture of opaque fern patterns, making it impossible to read….
Excerpt from “A Lassa Fever Journey” by Judy Marcouiller
I guess the fact that I’d survived a rare hemorrhagic fever virus didn’t sink in until after I was discharged from the hospital and regained my strength in a Monrovia guesthouse in January 1979. I overheard the guesthouse owner talking on the phone about a “contagious” Peace Corps volunteer…
…I later learned that the reason I had no visitors while hospitalized was because of Dr. Paul Mertens, a USAID researcher who stopped in to ex-amine me after he’d heard that a Lofa volunteer was hospitalized. He took one look at the rash on my face and body, guessed it was Lassa, and spread the word that no one was to visit. He knew that approximately fifteen to twenty percent of patients hospitalized with Lassa fever died from the illness….
After a few weeks (and twenty pounds lighter), I recovered enough to be discharged. Once I was moved to the Peace Corps staff house, Dr. Mertens reappeared to draw a blood sample that he sent to the CDC in Atlanta. When it came back positive for Lassa antibodies…
(Judy and Dr. Mertens in Minneapolis years later)
Here is the cover book blurb Dr. Mertens wrote regarding our Anthology, Never the Same Again: Life, Service, and Friendship in Liberia.
I laughed and wept alongside the authors as they told of their experiences in the steamy, tropical country of Liberia. I couldn’t put the book down until the final page. These powerful stories and poems still resonate deep within me.
Dr. Paul Mertens, Physician, Curran Lutheran Hospital, Zorzor, Liberia, 1963-75, Lofa County Rural Health Project, 1975-80.
I will be thinking of Dr. Mertens this month of April 2023 as he lay to rest with his family by his side and his multitude of friends from around the world.
Please consider purchasing our Anthology, Never the Same Again. All proceeds will benefit humanitarian programs in Liberia.
Click on this link below for previous blogs regarding our anthology including readings from some of the authors.
Enter your thoughts and memories about Dr. Mertens below.
February 20, 2023
Peace Corps…Alive and Well?
(Click on any of the highlighted links for these blogs)
This message goes to all those in the “service industry.” I’m speaking of people like teachers, nurses, NGO workers, Peace Corps volunteers, and others: people who want to make a difference. I have often wondered if I made a difference or influenced others because of my Peace Corps (PC) experience in Liberia, 1971-73 and Tonga, 73-74. This blog also answers another question: Since its inception, over six decades later is the Peace Corps is “Alive and Well?”
Here is Dontae during his internship with Friends of Liberia (FOL) in Washington DC in the spring of 2021.
In 2020, at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, Friends of Liberia proposed an analogy project collecting and publishing stories from those who lived and worked in Liberia over a 60-year-span of time. I was asked to lead this endeavor and one of my tasks was find a University Intern to help us with the project. Low and behold, Dontae McFadden, a sophomore at the University of Stockton in New Jersey, and I found each other. He worked diligently with me as I mentored him for one semester. Even though he had a great interest in African history, he had no first-hand knowledge about those who served in those countries or the Africans, themselves. After working (virtually) with approximately 60 returned volunteers, Liberians and others, he began to fully appreciate the level of commitment and compassion of those who served and work in Liberia. Dontae is now in his 3rd year at the University and has made a conscious decision to join the Peace Corps after graduation in 2024 to hopefully serve as a volunteer teacher in Africa. My question: Had I influenced someone positively about my PC service?…I have my answer. I am still in touch with Dontae by Zoom, even though we have never met in person. I am so proud of him!!
Once our Anthology, Never the Same Again: Life, Service and Friendship in Liberia, was published in 2022, we had a virtual hybrid book launch in my hometown of Bellingham Washington. Here is Shirley and Susan.
At the end of the book launch event, a woman, Shirley, raised her hand and spoke from the back of the room about being a Liberian and and how she was taught by a Peace Corps volunteer. She said, that volunteer made an incredible impact on her life and changed her forever. She began to believe in herself and her abilities. She attended college and had a successful career and now lives in Washington State just 60 miles from my home.
After attending the Never The Same Again Book Launch in Washington D.C. in July 2022, Mark and Sally (Salisbury) Zelonis, Group 28 PC Liberia, decided that it was time to share their Peace Corps experiences and stories with friends in Zionsville, Indiana. They reached out to their local Hussey-Mayfield Library and on February 7th, 2023 they did an hour-long program to over 50 attendees about their time as volunteers and an update on current events in Liberia. Sally and Mark’s Liberians stories are in our anthology publication, Never The Same Again. Here is Mark and Sally sporting their Liberian attire.
At the end of their program, another generation of PC volunteers came to light when, Rachel, a young Zionsville resident in attendance stepped forward to tell them she had just interviewed with Peace Corps the day before for a position in Paraguay! Mark and Sally invited her to their home for a post-presentation gathering and whole-hardheartedly encouraged her to continue her pursuit for the Peace Corps.
After over a two-year hiatus when PC evacuated all the volunteers due to the COVID pandemic, they are gradually returning to their host countries around the globe. From Sally, Mark and myself as Peace Corps volunteers in the ’70s, to Shirley, the Liberian who was taught by a Peace Corps volunteer, to the young woman, Rachel, who is currently in the interviewing process to enter the Peace Corps, to Dontae who has his eyes set on Peace Corps Africa in 2024, we have six-plus decades of Peace Corps’ influence continuing to make the world a better place.
We have answered another question, is Peace Corps is Alive and Well? I would say emphatically, YES!
Donations and books sales brought in about $410 from Mark and Sally’s event alone. Overall more than $4,500 in profits from all FOL book sales and donations will go directly to current humanitarian programs in Liberia. Click here to learn more about FOL and donate or purchase a book.
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February 12, 2023
Tonga, Post Volcanic Explosion
I was on a hiatus, traveling internationally, but I’m back and wanted to give attention to and an update about Tonga where I served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1973-74.
As a member of Friends of Tonga (FOT), this past year has been the most challenging for FOT since their inception. January 14th marked the one year anniversary of the Hunga-Tonga Hunga-Ha’apai eruption. Thanks to those who gave financial support, FOT Inc. was not only able to meet its mission of designing and implementing education programs across the Kingdom of Tonga, but we were also instrumental in providing disaster relief services in response to the volcano and its aftermath.
In fact, FOT along with a slew of international partners, we have invested over $500,000 USD that has impacted over 30% of the entire Tongan population, across every island group. Since we are a volunteer organization, all of this was accomplished without anyone on our board receiving a salary and with minimal overhead.
In 2022 we have provided the funding for the following initiatives:
● 36+ ten thousand liter rainwater cisterns for outer island communities that provides clean drinking water to 10,000+ individuals
● 3 aquaculture farms in the Ha’apai island group
● Vegetable propagation and distribution to 439 families across 26 villages
● Water, Sanitation and Hygiene services to over 5,000 individuals
● Emergency Scholarships and student support to every student displaced by the tsunami.
● Counseling certifications for community leaders
● Funded disaster relief scholarships for every student displaced by the tsunami
● Partnered with private businesses and international nonprofits to provide 1,500 emergency kits and 5,000 sandals and distributed them across the Kingdom
● Funded the renovation of a warehouse that is used as the staging point for supply distributions
● Financially supported 24 students for their annual high school tuition and school fees,
● Continued to enhance and add to our video-resource library
● And so much more!
I want to personally thank Michael Hassett, our president of FOT, Inc, who helped to lead these effoerts. I hope you are as proud as we are; it really is amazing what we are accomplishing/doing! Thank to you who have supported these Tongan efforts. To continue helping our programs for 2023, you can do so here!
Feel free to leave a comment below.
Ofa Atu, Susana
Tragedy in TongaJanuary 20, 2022Empty ShelvesJanuary 13, 2022Going BackAugust 19, 2022December 3, 2022
“Letters Never Written”
John Kucij served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 1971-1973 in Voinjama, Liberia. John returned to Liberia in 1997 with a Friends of Liberia (FOL) delegation to be an “Observer” of the Liberian presidential election that was to end to civil war. His heart wrenching story of what he found when he returned to Liberia will stay with you for a long, long time. Read 62 others stories and poems from 50 authors in our anthology, Never the Same Again: Life, Service, and Friendship in Liberia.
Friends of Liberia (FOL) sponsored this book and all proceeds will benefit humanitarian programs in Liberia. To learn more about the anthology, click on this LINK. You may purchase our publication by either clicking on the button below, ordering on Amazon (US and our international readers) or ask for it where ever fine books are sold. They make wonderful gifts for the special people in your life.
BUY NOWYour applause and comments below will let us know how our efforts have impacted you. The remaining videos will be posted in the next days/weeks.
Credit goes to Dontae McFadden, Eddie Soccer and our authors for the making of these videos.
November 26, 2022
“Ripping Out the Seams”
Rebekah Schulz reads an excerpt of her story about the deep bond she formed with a Liberian woman who taught her a valuable lesson during her sewing classes. The fragility of life in Liberia culminated with an ending that Rebekah will never forget. Read the full story and 62 others from 50 authors in our anthology, Never the Same Again: Life, Service, and Friendship in Liberia.
Friends of Liberia (FOL) sponsored this book and all proceeds will benefit humanitarian programs in Liberia. To learn more about the anthology, click on this LINK. You may purchase our publication by either clicking on the button below, ordering on Amazon (US and our international readers) or ask for it where ever fine books are sold. Please make wonderful gifts for the special people in your life.
BUY NOWYour applause and comments below will let us know how our efforts have impacted you. The remaining videos will be posted in the next days/weeks.
Credit goes to Dontae McFadden, Eddie Soccer and our authors for the making of these videos.
November 19, 2022
“The Concerned Women of Weamamuo”
Nimu Sidhu shares an excerpt of her touching story of how she joined the women in her village in Liberia to protest a dangerous bridge.Their success shows the power of uniting for one common cause. Nimu served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Vaye Town, Liberia from 2013-14. Read her full story and 62 others from 50 authors in our anthology, Never the Same Again: Life, Service, and Friendship in Liberia.
Friends of Liberia (FOL) sponsored this book and all proceeds will benefit humanitarian programs in Liberia. To learn more about the anthology, click on this LINK. You may purchase our publication by either clicking on the button below, ordering on Amazon (US and our international readers) or ask for it where ever fine books are sold. These make wonderful gifts for the special people in your life.
BUY NOWYour applause and comments below will let us know how our efforts have impacted you. The remaining videos will be posted in the next days/weeks.
Credit goes to Dontae McFadden, Eddie Soccer and our authors for the making of these videos.
November 13, 2022
“Peace Corps Goals Liberian Ways”
Maxwell Sines writes a beautiful story contrasting eating, sleeping and living in the Silicon Valley, his home in California, versus Tappita, Liberia where he served as a Peace Corps volunteer from 2010-2012. Read the full story and 62 others from 50 authors in our anthology, Never the Same Again: Life, Service, and Friendship in Liberia.
Friends of Liberia (FOL) sponsored this book and all proceeds will benefit humanitarian programs in Liberia. To learn more about the anthology, click on this LINK. You may purchase our publication below by clicking on the BUY NOW button or ask for it where ever fine books are sold. These make wonderful gifts for the special people in your life.
Your applause and comments below will let us know how our efforts have impacted you. The remaining videos will be posted in the next days/weeks.
Credit goes to Dontae McFadden, Eddie Soccer and our authors for the making of these videos.
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