2013-42 - Chasing Chaos, by Jessica Alexander

42 - Chasing Chaos, by Jessica Alexander
WHY I PICKED IT: My friend Vicky knows the author
ELAPSED TIME: 3 days
RATING: REQUIRED READING

Wow.  I loved this book.  Jessica tells her story... from naive first missioner going to Rwanda (2003), then her two stints in Darfur (2005), Sri Lanka and Indonesia (2005), Sierra Leone (2006/7), and Haiti (2010).  With a broad range of experiences in humanitarian relief, Jessica takes us through her story.  I won't ruin them in this review, but I do love that she addresses a few key themes that all aid workers I know have experienced and considered:

a) The difficulty of adjusting to life in the field the first time you go out.  And the challenge of fitting back in when you go "home" and how it's easier to go out.  The difference between having a life (living a somewhat balanced existence doing work you enjoy) and making a life (all of that and planning a future).

b) The question of value being delivered to the population in crisis.  And the abnormal relationship between aid worker and recipient (unlike government or business, the aid worker is not beholden to their "customer," they are beholden to the donor).

c) The unintended economic impact of humanitarian relief (from the balance of providing relief, but not to a standard higher than those in the region who do not qualify because they were not impacted by the natural disaster / war / incident, to hiring local doctors and teachers to serve as NGO drivers and translators, and to the inflationary impact to rent in East Jerusalem as that is where the UN employees choose to live)

d) The people who you encounter (burnt out colleagues, underpaid national staff, recipients of aid, friends).

If you donate money to humanitarian crises, read this book.  If you ever want to "go and help for a few weeks," read this book and reconsider :).  Most of all, if you want to do field work, this book should be required reading.