If you have ever been overseas—especially to Africa—or are planning to go, you must read Circling Home. The book is written with such honesty and vivid details of both people and places that readers are guaranteed to find many inspiring gems. It's the author’s ability to be open and honest about relationships with friends and family that struck me as unusually perceptive and enlightening. I found myself nodding and smiling—and occasionally crying—from the first page to the last. A great read.

—Pamela White, former US Ambassador to Haiti and The Gambia,
and former USAID Mission Director in Tanzania and Liberia

What did I learn by living elsewhere?

When I was young, I wanted to leave home and learn by living elsewhere. It was less about re-inventing myself and more about exploring different aspects of the self, i.e., discovering who I was in relation to others and in unfamiliar settings. —Circling Home

Terry Repak and her husband moved to West Africa with two small children at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1990s. He did AIDS work while she wrote and raised their children to become global citizens like their parents.

Living in different countries —from Ivory Coast and Tanzania to Switzerland — Terry embraced every opportunity to meet people of other cultures and to bear witness to the ravages of AIDS.

Like many expats, she was torn between the pull of home when a parent's health declined or her siblings needed help and the draw of epic landscapes and foreign cultures. The lessons she learned while living overseas — though not always easy — were deeply transformative.

Candid, thoughtful, and instructive, Circling Home explores the notion of home and how the bonds we form with people from other countries and cultures can profoundly change us.

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Published by She Writes Press

Articles, Essays and Other Media by Terry Repak

Balancing Acts in a Baltic State | Published in The Association of Americans Resident Overseas | October 2024

The Allure of Living Globally | Published in The Association of Americans Resident Overseas | April 2024

Raising Global Citizens" | Published in Expatclic | November 2023

“Raising Global Citizens for a More Tolerant, Compassionate World”
Published in The Seattle Times | September 2023

“What I Learned By Living Elsewhere”
Published in Women Writers, Women’s Books | September 2023

“The Other Reason to Go on Yoga Retreats”
Published in Natural Awakenings Atlanta | September 2023

“At Home In the Pacific Northwest”
Published in NW Book Lovers | September 2023

“The Best Books About Writers Struggling to Find Their Way in the World “
Published in Shepherd | July 2023

Read what author Terry Repak chose as her five favorite books about what writers go through to become who they are as writers and individuals.

Podcasts and Other Media Featuring Terry Repak and Circling Home

Praise for Circling Home

Terry Repak opened herself up to living abroad in the company of her epidemiologist husband and their two young children. Her honest book captures not only the beautiful people and landscapes and wildlife they encountered at every turn but the moments of stark loneliness and confusion. She quickly learned to make friends and seek out local women and expats who became mentors and confidantes. This is how she found "home" wherever she landed. The difference a friend can make stands out as this book's most valuable bit of wisdom.

— Melissa Fay Greene, New York Times Bestselling Author of 
Praying for Sheetrock and The Temple Bombing

Whether she’s recounting a trek up Mount Kilimanjaro with women friends or describing what it’s like to raise children during stints in Africa and Europe with her husband, Terry's memoir is a graceful and inspiring book about the rewards and challenges of an adventurous, fulfilling life as a global citizen.

— Misha Berson, former Arts Reporter for the Seattle Times
and author of Something’s Coming, Something Good: West Side Story and the American Imagination.

Terry Repak draws on her sharp eye as a journalist and her heart in connecting with others wherever her husband's career took their family in the early days of AIDS work. After living in West and East Africa and Europe, she shows us how home is a place we must access within ourselves while raising children overseas, taking care of aging parents, and building community again and again. The takeaway from this absorbing memoir is one worth pondering: ‘After years of living overseas, I concluded that connecting with people instead of focusing on differences was the most fulfilling way of being in the world.

—Jennifer Haupt, bestselling author of Alone Together
and In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills, and
recipient of the Washington State Book Award for General Nonfiction.   

Terry Repak writes about her family’s experiences as American expats in very personal ways, without being afraid of sharing some of the unvarnished realities. With candor and humility, she demonstrates how living overseas can be a rich and fulfilling experience. For Americans, she shows the value of opening ourselves to global perspectives and viewing the rest of the world differently while being more analytical of our own actions. This is a warm and insightful contribution to global understanding and particularly to a more textured understanding of the beauty and the complexities of Africa.

—Dr. Helene Gayle, President of Spelman College
and former Director of the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center (NCHSTP)

Anyone contemplating living abroad for either her own or a spouse’s career will find Terry Repak’s memoir about her family’s long stints in two African nations and in Europe invaluable. While offering lots of practical advice, Terry shines in contemplating both the difficulties and the lasting enrichment she, her husband, and children experienced.

—Liza Nelson, author of Playing Boticelli

Terry on Meru

Meet The Author

Terry Repak has worked as an investigative reporter, an editor, a television producer, a research fellow, a freelance writer, and a volunteer. She has lived in Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), London (U.K.), Salzburg (Austria), and Geneva (Switzerland). In the U.S. she has lived in Seattle, Atlanta, Santa Fe, Delaware (OH), Boston, and Washington, DC with her husband and two children.

Her travel and journal articles and poems have appeared in newspapers and magazines in the US and other countries, including the Seattle Times, Christian Science Monitor, Dar Guide, Geneva Talks, Offshoots, Hello Switzerland, The Harvard Journal of Hispanic Policy, Gender and Society, and Social Problems. She is also the author of two scholarly works.

Her travel memoir, Circling Home: What I Learned By Living Elsewhere, was published by She Writes Press in September 2023.

Terry earned a BS at Ohio Wesleyan University, a Master’s degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and a Ph.D. in Liberal Arts at Emory University.

Full Bio Read the latest Musings from the Road post.