This is a
nonfiction work which was suggested to me by my daughter, Jenna, who is working
as a writer for the International Medical Corps, an agency that is a first
responder to worldwide natural disasters. Chasing
Chaos: My Decade In and Out of Humanitarian Aid was written by Jessica Alexander. If you are interested in the ins and
outs of international aid, as I am, then this is a must read. Alexander worked
in Darfur, Rwanda, Sri Lanka and Indonesia after the tsunami, Sierra Leone
following the atrocities of Liberian President Charles Taylor, and Haiti. She
told about the expected horrors, the staggering loss of life, and interruption
to all life-sustaining services which occurred at each site. However, the
unique part of this book was the honest description of what it was like to be
an aid worker on the ground while facing overwhelming human needs with
inadequate resources. Alexander did not identify herself as being saintly for
having pursued such work and wrote that she had gotten involved in it when she
was seeking adventure. Her views were not always favorable about the various
agencies who do such work, the people who are hired to do so, and Americans who
wanted to be involved. What was most painful was the fact that she ended up
feeling that she did not fit in anywhere. She certainly was not accepted as a
member of any of the cultures where she was delivering aid, and after seeing
the difficulties of life in those places, she no longer felt like she fit in
with her old friends in the United States who could not appreciate the disasters
she was managing. Alexander also talked about how international aid can best be
delivered without creating dependencies that are impossible to break. This is a
good book, definitely worth reading if you ever follow stories in the news about
natural disasters in the world. Also, you might check out the website for the
International Medical Corps. It is an impressive organization. (https://internationalmedicalcorps.org/)
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