The last seven years

The end of March 2016 is the seven year anniversary of my first short-term overseas contract. I left my last 'proper job' in the UK in October 2008 with a vision to do this kind of work but with no definite idea of how I would accomplish it. In March 2009 I went to Juba in South Sudan to work with MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship) for three months and I haven't looked back since. I consider myself very fortunate to have sustained a lifestyle that allows me to split my time between my home, family and friends in the UK and the opportunity to live and work in different cultures around the world where I have had incredible experiences and met some amazing people.

In the 7 years I have:

• Worked for 3 organisations
• Been in 6 countries
• Had 11 contracts
• Lived in 16 houses
• Taken 79 flights (I think!)

Here are 10 random facts about my experiences during this time:

1. The hottest temperatures experienced were in Chad and South Sudan (over 40C and sometimes closer to 50C)
2. I lost the most weight in Melut, South Sudan (I haven't ever re-used the extra notch I had to put in my belt whilst I was there)
3. The strangest thing I've eaten is in Kampala, Uganda (fried grasshoppers)
4. The noisiest place I lived was Dulag, The Philippines (a combination of barking dogs, fighting cats, karaoke and the local population's love of racing through the streets on motorbikes with faulty exhausts)
5. The loudest call to prayer was in Kampala, Uganda (for a couple of months I lived very close to a small mosque with a big megaphone)
6. The most animal life in a kitchen was in Dulag, The Philippines (the space was shared with countless ants, cockroaches and rats)
7. The noisiest night-time animals were in Melut, South Sudan (those frogs could really croak)
8. The most expensive places to live if you want to have a more varied diet were N'Djamena, Chad and Juba, South Sudan (land-locked countries with very limited local production)
9. The worst internet connect was in N'Djamena, Chad
10. The biggest language barrier was in Chad (French and Arabic) and Tanzania (Swahili)

I'm often asked which country I've enjoyed the most and the truth is that they all have something unique to offer and I have special memories of each one. The countries I found the most challenging to live in were Chad and South Sudan but they are also where my 'best' stories come from and where I'd return to without hesitation. 

Refugees are people too

A few weeks ago a journalist and a photographer visited the Medair programme in Jordan to gather stories and pictures for publication to mark the 5th anniversary of the Syria crisis. As well as getting articles published in their home country of the Netherlands the stories have been picked up by other media outlets such as Al Jazeera.

One of these articles (which you can see here) focusses on three women: Jamila, Umm Mohammed and Shemkha. All are single mothers struggling to bring up their children and keep their families together in a country that is not their own. When I read this article it brought home to me again the scale of the human tragedy that has unfolded over the last five years.

When you read and hear about the huge numbers of refugees who have fled Syria it is easy to forget (or to try not to think) that each one of those people is not so different from you or I. They have families that they love and that they work hard to provide for. They have hopes and dreams for themselves and for their children. They live in communities sharing their lives with friends and neighbours. They know what it is to experience moments of great joy and, increasingly, moments of terrible loss and sadness. They have just had the misfortune to be caught up in events that they have no control over and their lives have been turned upside down.

Refugees are people too.

Being in the Middle East

The crisis in Syria has now been going on for five years. That's 5 years of fighting, gun battles, bombing, air assaults, displacement, injury, death and destruction.

It's a complex situation and it's hard to see how it will ever be resolved (see previous post for a good overview of the history of the crisis). The latest truce between the warring factions may have seen a reduction in hostilities but there have been violations on all sides. If you are on the receiving end of this continual violence then a return to peace must seem a very long way away.

Being in the Middle East has brought the reality of this crisis home to me in a way that no amount of media coverage in the UK ever could. At home it's a news story of something that's happening in another part of the world - no matter how moved I am by the human tragedy, how overwhelmed I am by the hopelessness of the situation, my life continues largely unchanged. 

Even here my life can still seem far removed from the humanitarian crisis happening on my doorstep. Amman is a fully functioning, modern city and I live in a comfortable apartment in a safe neighbourhood. I have hot running water, electricity, internet. I can make a phone call and get food delivered to my door. I walk to work passing shops that sell everything you could ever possibly need (or want) in life.

But Jordan is hosting over 600,000 Syrian refugees and when I get to work I hear just some of the stories of those directly affected. How they have fled their homes in fear of their lives, desperate to keep their children safe. Now they are living in a foreign country, often in substandard accommodation, unable to work (refugees are not allowed to work in Jordan) and struggling to provide for their family. We work with just a small number of these people in different ways. Over the winter we gave unconditional cash to around 1,000 families so they could buy whatever was needed to protect their homes and families from the cold weather. We also work with pregnant women, giving health education and providing financial assistance so they can attend ante-natal classes and give birth in a Government hospital (there is no free health care in Jordan for refugees and although the Government hospitals are heavily subsidised they are still unaffordable to those who have so little).

I sit in an office and work at a computer. I send e-mails, compile spreadsheets, write reports and attend meetings. It's not glamorous, it's not particularly exciting but it's what I can do. It is a small link in a chain of people and events that maybe, just maybe, can make the life of someone who has been through events I cannot imagine just slightly more bearable - if only for a while.

Syria's War: Who is fighting and Why