The Museum of the American Military Family & Learning Center releases its newest anthology, HOST NATION HOSPITALITY.

When US military troops serve abroad, they are often accompanied by their families. Host Nation Hospitality presents more than a hundred first-hand stories and commentary documenting their living and working experiences in all parts of the world. There are memories dating from the rubble of World War II to the present. The stories come from US and Host Nation perspectives and cover topics from friendships to fiascos.

Compiled by MAMF’s 2020-2022 Writer-in-Residence Valerie Bonham Moon, editors Circe Olson Woessner and Allen Dale Olson, and illustrator Joan Y. Olson, this book is a companion to Schooling with Uncle Sam, MAMF’s tribute to the 75th anniversary of the Department of Defense world-wide school system for the children of military personnel. Schooling is available on Amazon.

HOST NATION HOSPITALITY is available on Amazon and other book retailers.

 

Some quotes from the anthology:

“When they asked me for my “shot record,” I was bewildered as I had never had a shot in my life. That first day, they gave me Tetanus, Small Pox, Yellow Fever, and a TB test. Thankfully, no horrible reaction resulted!”

 

“The village custom is to gather everyone together during the Qingming Festival for a communal dinner, a ‘block party’ as it is known in the USA. We walked down the road to the community center where dozens of tables and red plastic chairs were waiting for the entire population of Baiqi.”

“The first night my mother went to cook dinner in our new flat, we learned a lot! For starters…there was a coin-fed meter in the cabinet under the stove burners. When Mother went to cook, she first had to feed the meter a few coins. If cooking took longer than expected, and she used up her gas purchase, the gas burners on the stove would start to go “pop-pop-pop” as the gas ran out. Like most folks back then, we learned to keep a cup in a drawer near the stove with coins to feed the meter.”