Inspiring Women Magazine May 2021

PROFILE
The Importance
of Walking For a
Healthy Lifestyle
Maggie Palu, member of AW
Aquitaine, is the FAWCO Clubs in
Motion Coordinator and a keen
walker. She works hard to
encourage clubs to move more.
I was born in Albany, New York, where my father
worked with Governor Dewey. After a change in
administration, we moved to the suburb of
Delmar, and my mother, younger sister and I
spent a year in Minneapolis at the home of my
maternal grandparents while my father was
setting up his own business. I remember stealing
a piece of penny-candy from the corner shop
while walking “home” to my grandparents’ from
school. My mom marched me back to the store
and made me give back the candy in front of all
the other shoppers. I have been unnaturally
honest ever since. I also remember road trips with
my family every summer (which probably
encouraged my love of travel), and my mom
teaching me to cook.
Leaving home
Maggie Palu
I left home for the University of Chicago and got a
degree in linguistics. Languages have remained a
large part of my life, as has travel. I stayed two
more years, taking graduate courses and working
at the cancer research center at the University
Hospitals. I met a Scotsman who lured me to the
Isle of Skye, but then took off and left me with his
parents. My visa was only valid for six months at a
time, so I travelled regularly to the European
continent, taking truly “odd” jobs, working in an
olive oil factory in Crete, planting watermelons in
the Peloponnese, selling jewelry in street markets
in Italy and France, playing tour-guide in Madrid,
and busking with my guitar in Athens, Rome, and
Copenhagen. Four years later I returned home
because of my mother’s ill health, but she
recovered, and I stayed home only a year.
Wanderlust
By now the wanderlust had claimed me. I joined
the Peace Corps, and was sent to Chad, where I
was given some French language training before
being sent to the bush to teach English. I had no
electricity and no running water, and for several
months I lived on pasta and tomatoes, until I
found the slaughterhouse. Less than two years
later I was evacuated from Chad because of the
civil war. I got a job at the US Embassy in
Cameroon and bought an air ticket to visit eastern
and southern Africa. I met a Frenchman at the
beach in Cameroon. We were married six months
later and have since lived in Arizona, Québec,
Indonesia and Vietnam. We adopted our
daughters in Indonesia and Vietnam and have
been in France since 1999, from 2002 to 2020 in
Me aged 4 with my family in Albany, NY
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