How I Became an Aid Worker
9:05pm Start At the time of writing, I have been in Iraq for 611 days, 17 hours, and 32 minutes. Throughout that time, I have worked in 3 Syrian refugee camps, 1 IDP collective shelter for Assyrian Christians, 5 Yezidi IDP camps, and am now beginning to identify the...
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Dear (American) Christian, It’s Your Turn to Help Refugees
Dear (American) Christian, I don’t normally write just to you, but here goes. It’s been over a year, maybe two, or even three (I can’t keep track anymore) since we’ve begun regularly reading about “migrants” drowning in the Mediterranean or left adrift in the Andaman...
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Reflections on World Refugee Day – The Heroes I Know
In 2012, I didn’t really know that World Refugee Day was a ‘thing’. It was my first deployment and I hadn’t been working in Yida for very long when I was invited to a planning meeting for the event. Four of us sat around a white plastic table in a thatch-roofed tukal...
read more10 Things I learned in HEAT (pun not intended)
Poncho? Check. Granola bars? Yep (though they’ve been smashed at the bottom of the bag for at least six months). Flashlight? Technically no … but isn’t that what smartphones are for? The pre-arrival information packet for HEAT (Hazardous Environment Awareness...
read moreItalians Do It Best
I’m no statistician, but I’d wager that Americans in humanitarian aid are outnumbered by Europeans 10 to 1. Working for a Danish NGO, it certainly feels that way. Unless IRC (International Rescue Committee) shows up to an event, I’m usually one of two. Being...
read moreCar Bombs Aren’t Okay
I don’t always believe I work in Hard Places. South Sudan wasn’t exactly easy, but it was still doable. You would be surprised how long you can live out of a tent and think it’s normal. As long as you have a fan and a bed you’re good to go. Pack a hammock and a mister...
read moreRethinking What I’m Good At
This was a hard week. I didn't think it was going to be. I thought it would be easy (I like easy). I expected to be at my best: engaged in a camp management training, learning how to train others (the classic, usually underwhelming, TOT [training of trainers]). But I...
read moreNot What You Think
I work in hard places. Sometimes the thing that is hard is the environment - the housing, the food, the logistics, the language. I cut my aid worker teeth in South Sudan where for two years I lived in a tent, nightly battling families of mice and frequently stepping...
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