field life

Answering my first reader question

By Alanna Shaikh | | 2 Comments |

I’ve got my first question to answer (and it’s not what I would have expected):

Q: I am moving to [redacted] in about a month, to work as a coordinator for a large NGO on a refugee project. It’s a one-year contract. This is my first field posting, and I really have no idea what to pack. I have no shipping allowance, just what I can carry in my checked luggage. I know what to do about clothing and toiletries and whatever. My question is – what about books? How many books should I pack? I don’t want run out of stuff to read but I do need some space for clothes.

A: Bring about a week’s worth of books, whatever that is for you. Chose things you can re-read, but you won’t mind giving away. You’re going to a major city. You’ll be able to get internet access, and probably satellite TV. You won’t die of boredom if you run out of books, and sharing and discussing English language books is a great way to make friends with other expats. (And if you want to stay sane in a new culture, you’ll need a couple expat friends.)

The Thirsty Palmetto

By Alanna Shaikh | | 2 Comments |

A moving blog entry about life for returning refugees in South Sudan. The Thirsty Palmetto is a new blog, but the entries which have been written really pack a punch. It’s a perfect slice-of-life, of an aid worker in South Sudan. If you’ve ever wondered what the work is like, or how it feels, follow this blog.

Dual Economies

By Alanna Shaikh | | 2 Comments |

Expats clearly distort the market in the countries they inhabit. The labor market for example, and the fancy restaurants. Distressingly often, the commercial sex workers. Chris Blattman has a nice post up on the phenomenon. He also links to a UN report on the macroeconomic consequences of peacekeeping missions. I haven’t read the report yet, but I plan to.

Two aid workers kidnapped in Somalia

By Alanna Shaikh | | 0 Comments |

Two UN contract workers kidnapped in Somalia. Murray Watson and Patrick Amukhuma were kidnapped in Somalia yesterday. Patrick is Kenyan, and Murray is British. Murray Watson is an ecologist with a long history of work in Africa. I am praying for a quick release, like last time an expat was kidnapped in Somalia.

One thing I find interesting about the media coverage on this is how few outlets have gotten their jobs right. They were contractors for an Indian company which held a subcontract with FAO to do aerial survey work. Not all that unusual if you’re used to how the system works, but hard for an unfamiliar reporter to grasp.

Trauma, kidnap and death (Iraq)

By Alanna Shaikh | | 0 Comments |

Trauma, kidnap and death: all in a day’s work for journalists in Iraq. I spent a week in Baghdad last year. It was minor, really – from the airport to our compound, from our compound to the green zone, from our compound to the airport again and put. I ate amazing meals prepared by the live-in cook (an IDP) and talked to the Iraq country team. It was the scariest thing I ever did, and it was nothing – absolutely nothing – compared to what the US military and the Iraqi people go through.

This article really resonated with me; the author struggled with the same feelings I did. Like you’re not allowed to be traumatized because your risk was so minor. Which it was. But…

I would, I think, have stayed in Iraq if I wasn’t a mother. We were doing good relief work there, and there was a vivid and immediate sense of why the work mattered. Time magazine has a nice article about the need for more humanitarian work in Iraq. Agron Ferati, who is quoted, is brave and brilliant and I worry about him all the time.

Business Life – Kabul’s war for talent

By Alanna Shaikh | | 0 Comments |

The Financial Times discusses recruiting for Kabul. FT often has excellent coverage on the nitty-gritty of relief and development work. This articles talks about the challenges of recruiting:

“Humanitarian-type people are attracted to the disaster circus, but we are beyond that here. It’s not a chronic crisis, but it’s not post-conflict either.”

I am not surprised by the staffing shortage. The world is full of altruistic adrenaline junkies who’ll go to a war zone if they can save people’s lives. It’s also full of warm fuzzy world savers who’ll spend 30 years teaching a village to grow their prickly pears more efficiently. What it’s not full of are people who want to do slow-speed capacity-building development work while also dodging bullets and kidnap attempts. The 50 people who do fit that profile probably all have jobs in Sri Lanka already.

I don’t really know what can be done to improve the staffing for development work in Afghanistan. Pay better, I suppose, but then you run afoul of donors and create an image of a bunch of mercenaries.

It could also point to a issue about the fit between the work being done and the context. Maybe we should move beyond the stereotypes, and trust in community knowledge. Maybe, if no one will go there, we’re doing something wrong and we need to re-think the kind of aid that’s being given.

Sarah Chayes on Bill Moyers

By Alanna Shaikh | | 0 Comments |

Sarah Chayes on Bill Moyers

“I don’t think hope is relevant.” Sarah Chayes was a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor in Afghanistan. She stayed in Afghanistan and is now running a soap co-op which markets its products in the US. This interview with her about Afghanistan sums up most aid workers’ approach to the countries they are in. Bitterness about the government and a focus on getting their own work done.