I've got such a book to share with you today. A Memoir of ground-breaking intercultural work in both the Peace Corps and the US Foreign Service, Drinking from the Saucer: A Memoir, by Charlene C Duline, is an incredible read. Charlene's 25+ years of serving the United States through diplomatic work reads like a movie script - challenging diplomatic situations, wars, coups, emerging nations, race relations, intercultural differences - through it all, her ability to creatively problem-solve while simultaneously representing our country's best interests is extraordinary. Her navigation through the minefields of race, nationality, and gender while coping with the same in host countries shows an extreme sensitivity to intercultural differences - and the knowledge (and fortitude) to work through them. I read this book with awe and inspiration.

Charlene is a graduate of Indiana University and Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies. As a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Information Agency, she wrote press releases, speeches and toasts for ambassadors and visiting congressional delegations; met heads of state, hosted dignitaries and won friends and influenced people to accept U.S. foreign policies, unpalatable though some of those policies were to her personally. Her memoir takes the reader on what is often a wild ride from country to country and from adventure to adventure. She has represented the US Foreign Service in Haiti, Liberia, Tanzania, Swaziland, Panama, and the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and finally Washington, DC. She is an avid animal lover and is a volunteer at the Indianapolis Zoo. Before joining the U.S. Foreign Service, she was a Peace Corps volunteer, and a United Nations International Secretary. Since retiring she has volunteered at the Indiana Women's Prison, and was a tour guide at Crown Hill Cemetery.

We were lucky enough to sit down and talk with Charlene about her book, living overseas, learning about other cultures, and more. Here's what she had to say...

WE: Please tell us about your book, Drinking From the Saucer: A Memoir...

CD: This book is about an incredible life – my life – and it sometimes amazes me that I survived the things I survived and did the things I’ve done.  It took courage, a great deal of courage, to continue life as an 11 year old after a brutal rape, and having to live with my rapist every day for the next seven years without telling anyone what he had done to me.  I had grown up in a one room palace, to me, with my beloved grandmother. I loved and was dearly loved.  Her sudden death was the crucible that made me what I am today. I have been told that the book is deeply moving, and even close friends are in disbelief about the life I’ve lived. I never wanted anyone to know of the bad things that happened to me, but at this age, I felt it was time for people to know my story in order, perhaps, to understand me better. And so I shared in my book my unhappy childhood, my move to Harlem in New York, and my desire to reach out to help others as a Peace Corps volunteer, one of the first, in Cuzco, Peru.  The years as a volunteer were the best two years of my life. I wish every American had the opportunity and the desire to join the Peace Corps to see how others live and to know that whatever little bit you contribute to their lives, will be of great advantage to them. That was the beginning of my love of travel, of learning new cultures and languages, and always being aware that I represented the people of the United States of America, even when it was not official. Afer completing Peace Corps service, I joined the United Nations as as international secretary and I worked in New York City and Dacca, East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.

WE: Can you please share with us one of the reasons you chose the Peace Corps?

CD: The Peace Corps was my introduction to serving others and I loved it. I believe that the Peace Corps shows another face of the United States.  The poor people of the world saw that we were willing to live the same way that they lived, to carry water in buckets, to use outhouses, to forego baths and showers, to eat what they ate, and above all, to work with them side by side to help ensure a better life for them and for their children.  To the people we worked with, we were not the official Americans, but the “real” Americans, and we were welcomed and loved. .

WE: What was it like, to represent the U.S. in the foreign service?

CD: Representing the U.S. has always been a pleasure of mine. For the most part, I worked in countries where people were very familiar with the United States and its ethnic blends of people. It was a definite joy to be able to award fellowships to students and university professors to allow them to come to the U.S. to study their disciplines. In Tanzania the government party, beat a path to our doors seeking fellowships.  It was thrilling to work with the press in Liberia and Swaziland because the media is usually in the forefront of the news, and the foreign media was no different. I also had the opportunity to award International Visitor Grants for selected individuals or groups to visit the U.S. for one month to meet with experts in their fields, to explore some five or six U.S. cities where they would be feted in ordinary homes of Americans, or stay several nights in private homes. 

WE: How can travelers best learn about other cultures?

CD: With the Peace Corps and with the Foreign Service, I was privileged to have extensive training and classes at the Foreign Service Institute for language and cultural sessions.  We were taught the cultural sensitivities for our particular country.  For people going abroad for an extended period of time, I would suggest that they read as much as possible about that particular country (and surrounding countries), especially on the culture. Too often Americans focus more on hotels, restaurants, museums in a country, and not on the people themselves.  Some cultures are more open to sharing with you than others.  I have found that Hispanics proclaim that you speak their language even if you only know how to say “good morning.”  They are thrilled. On the other hand there are countries, France in particular, where no matter how fluent your French is, they feel that foreigners can never speak their language. In that case, one must persevere and keep speaking it even when they address you in English, and eventually they realize that you do indeed speak their language. I lived in Paris for almost three years and I spoke French when I arrived, but it took several months before the French believed that I did indeed speak French.

WE: What is it like, to be home again after such a long period abroad?

CD: I do miss being overseas. When I retired I returned home to Indiana and it took quite awhile for me to adjust to being back at home and not in the nation’s capitol where “the action is,” and where most of my Foreign Service friends either live or transit often. I don’t feel isolated thanks to the Internet and email. I am able to keep in touch with many friends of Peace Corps and Foreign Service years, and that is truly a joy. I was a volunteer animal handler at the Indianapolis Zoo and that was the joy of my life. I did that for about six years until that particular program was discontinued.  I met and took to various venues reptiles, opossums, guinea pigs, ferrets, blue-tongued skinks, and an amazing array of animals for people to meet and to learn about.  For the past two years I have enjoyed working at the world’s largest shark touch tank where people can actually touch the sharks.  This summer we will be introducing Komodo dragons to the public, and I am anxiously looking forward to begin training for that.  Working with animals has contributed greatly to my settling well back home in Indiana. 

WE: How can Americans travel safely abroad?

CD: It is difficult for Americans to be completely safe in the world these days.  Unfortunately, there is a target on many nationalities, and we are certainly one of those. Americans should register at  the U.S. embassy in any country they visit, so if there are problems, or if Americans become definite targets, they can be advised. The embassy will make every effort to contact you. Most people carry cell phones with them and the embassy certainly should have that number. Another tip:  if you don’t want to risk having your cell phone stolen and precious names and numbers lost, when you travel purchase an inexpensive, disposable cell phone with a certain number of minutes on it and that way there is no risk of losing your main cell phone. I would also caution travelers to stay with a group and not to wander off alone.  Be aware of your surroundings at all times, and listen to your intuition.  If you think something or somebody is suspicious, then leave that area immediately.  Watch for abandoned packages; do not touch them; notify someone, and move away to a safe distance.  Got to know the local people and really enjoy yourself!

WE: Is there anything else you'd like to share with us?

CD: I would just like to share a bit of a review from a reader about my book: This memoir is the crowning achievement of a life and career best summed up as "United States Ambassador of America's Promise." The central character of “Drinking from the Saucer”  is not Charlene Duline herself, but her irrepressible and inestimable esprit de corps. If there is a paradigm of human spirit and potential that could have best portrayed America abroad during times of turbulent political, social and moral upheaval at home, it was Charlene C. Duline, whose very life is a monument not so much to America's promise, but to its progress.  “Drinking from the Saucer” takes its readers - and they should be many -on a tour of the human spirit and its potential to rise above any past, to embrace a future of hope and hope's power to endure. It is a roller coaster ride with sheer triumph at its end as this brilliant spirit takes her spark of life to the mountains of Peru, then on to life as a diplomat in Haiti, the United Nations, Africa, Central America, and the corridors of power in Washington, D.C.  In the end, we celebrate the life not of a victim, but of a brilliant scholar and ambassador, the life of a woman of depth, of faith - Good Lord, such faith! - and personal triumph whose very life paved the road less traveled.

WE: Thanks so much, Charlene! I enjoyed your book so - you've forged so many new pathways, and done it with intercultural understanding and great style. THANK YOU for sharing your life with us, your readers.