Hi all,
Will you be surprised if I start the typical way, by saying `it has been a while since my last post`?
Because it has been a while since my last post. :)
As usual, I feel I have too much and nothing to say at the same time. I sit here in Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo on a Sunday afternoon, having spent most of the morning trying to sleep through the local Sunday morning services going on, eventually giving up my efforts and moving on to catching up on signing documents that were processed and awaiting my signature while I have been away the past two weeks.
I think it might be best to take some time to give you an idea of my context, both in the moment, but also a bit broader as well. This post may seem a bit bland, but may still be a bit informative if one wishes to better understand the context and some jargon of aid work.
I think each of us in our own way both feel our life is ordinary and extra-ordinary. Let me elaborate. As we go through life, how often do you have someone ask you to explain what your life looks like? Ok, maybe not so often for some, but if someone asked you this, what would you say? I imagine that you might find it challenging to explain to some random person who had no basis for understanding your life, what it was really like. There are after all, many layers to our lives and selves. Thus, in the spirit of wanting to share and perhaps have some fun with providing more information to those who may not be directly involved in humanitarian aid work with a bit more insight, so when next you ask someone (me, or someone else) working in aid work about it, you might hearken back to this and other posts to give you some grounding on which to build your conversation(s).
More simply put, we all get tired of answering certain repeat questions in our lives and so lets talk about one phrase that could, can, does, lead to a lot of questions and confusion. I often find it challenging to relate to friends and family what field life is like and even to explain the dynamic of what a particular individual means when he or she says `field life`.
For example, if you ask someone at the HQ (ahh, right there, see, this is culture, abbreviations. The aid world, NGOs are known to be over users of abbreviations. Whether this is due to laziness or efficiency is arguable.) (FYI, HQ = headquarters, NGO = non-governmental organization, aid world = Humanitarian aid global community, FYI = for your information :))
Ok, we should be good to continue now. As I was saying....if you asked someone at HQ what field life is, they would likely mean the main office in any particular country of work (or any office actually) in some far flung nation where their colleagues work. In my current country of work, the main office would be considered the Goma office (not the capital, but still the main base in DRC). If you speak to someone working in the Goma office and they refer to the field, they are talking about one of the offices further away from the main entry point of the country. So when speaking with people when one is physically in Goma, who refers to the field, it is a reference about both geographical location, but also an inference as to the level of difficulty (and time it takes) to actually arriving at the office. Thus, one option in my context would be the Beni office, where I am currently based.
To get here, one can fly into Goma and take a small UN plane north to Beni. Or, one can fly into Kigali in neighboring Rwanda, drive 3-4hrs to cross the boarder into Goma and then do the flight north. There are overland routes, but due to a variety of groups of militia/rebels on the road around in eastern Congo, it is not advisable to travel the ground routes in many areas. If one prefers to travel via road you will exit DRC into Uganda go north or south (depending on if you are going or coming from Beni), and then re-enter DRC at destination city.
If you speak to someone in Beni about working in the field, this will then be referring to our team members who go by land cruiser or motorbike for several hours, or days in some cases, out to small communities to work directly with beneficiaries. Even among this group of people, still, there may be another leg to travel, and again referred to as those going to the field to work. So you see, such a simple phrase as field work, can take on a great many meanings, depending on who is saying it and where he or she might be physically and geographically sitting when saying said phrase.
In many cases, those at one level, often give an extra measure of awe and respect to those at the next level of field work (those who are "further out", in the field, as it were), due to the fact that general comfort decreases and insecurity increases as you go "further out".
So of course, at this point, when I say that I work in the field you all know what I mean, yes?
For me, I work in the field, at the Beni office level, which is extreme to some while also being not as extreme as others. When one considers field living, it is pretty comfortable, especially when one considers the local context and the average life of our neighbors.
[Note, this is where I give you a visual/mental picture to grab on to for this particular level of in fieldness. You're welcome.]
I can paint the picture for you. I sit here in a walled compound, with plenty of razor wire around it, some green areas- minimal, both a generator and the updated humanitarian approach of solar panels and batteries for power can both be seen and heard at times. We drink from large 20 L containers of bottled water, boil water if we wish to have a warm bucket shower, and wonder of wonders have (most of the time) flushing toilets. We cook with a gas burner (yes, those things most people use when they are roughing it when camping, or not at all) attached to the gas canister a meter away (if you dont know what a meter is I will let you look that one up). They say the full gas canister should be several yards away from the open flame, but who really has tubing that long and a place to put the canister outside of the kitchen room? Just put it on the other side of the room and call it good.The guard is more aptly called a gate keeper, except when they are not [a gate keeper] and let random people into the compound and then get fired (true story). Which was the case last weekend. Generally to have one^s own room is a luxury and in community living, depending on the mix of ethnicities and cultures you have living together all space can be considered common space, unless specified otherwise. Even then, you take your chances.
Wifi, yet essential for work and sanity, can still be hard to come by, and having expectations that this will always work at those critical moments is a foolish hope and one that will regularly be dashed. Washing of clothes generally happens by the local mamas who are local women employed to support our busy lives with cooking and cleaning for us. (Have not doubt, they are highly valued and capable women, let me tell you.) Of course if you have any expensive, delicate or meltable clothing items you want to hide these away so they are not completely destroyed via the hand washing (not delicate cycle) and ironing that takes place after the line dry outside to ensure no unfriendly larva are living in the clothes and thus transfer to you upon wearing. Taking the personal hand washing and drying your things inside approach, is advisable for the a fore mentioned items which require greater delicacy.
Privacy, noise, calmness, volume controls on sound systems, all seem to have time and place in the world I grew up in, yet I have found, quite often, that one's need to adapt is of the utmost importance.
In western cultures, privacy is highly prized, understood, and generally easily given. In many developing countries, community living is the norm, large families, or large mixes of families due to many deaths, as well as small land plots, and limited funds for sound proof houses, etc. all play into a sense that someone is always around and always watching. The close living conditions are not stopped by mere walls or some razor wire. The school out the back of our compound somehow always seems to have children in it playing, singing, or chanting their lessons (do they EVER go inside?!). The church a hundred feet away, by turning up their sound system to distortion, is typical in giving a warm welcome to all who which to come and participate, and even to those who wish to stay home and participate because there is no need to move from one's home if you can hear the entire service within a mile radius. Having said that, I am very grateful that they are not as other typical local churches in several ways.
First, they seem to begin their services at the reasonable (and consistent) hour of 9am, instead of 7am or 5am as many churches have it. Secondly, the main singer actually seems to be quite nice and there is an actual band which generally seems to know the songs and play well together (together being the key word in that sentence). This is also not the norm, as it is more often recorded music blaring out, generally crowd and music in competition to overwhelm the other when it is only the neighbors who end up being overwhelmed. Additionally, our neighbor church seems to take breaks between songs, so you can remember yourself during the breaks, and lastly, their sermons seem to be well communicated, opposed to someone yelling angrily, as loud as possible into the mic. In the end, there are a lot of cultural differences, which do not encourage my appreciation for a generic local church service, but the times I have the courage and motivation to go, I always find something to appreciate about them. In this case, I can enjoy the good voices and music, and reasonable timing of it all, usually only from about 8 or 9am to 11 or 12, which occasional additions for several hours in the afternoon.
There of course are other local noises, such as the heard of goats passing outside while I type, and more often than not the humm of the generator in the back ground. In our case as well, we have managed to have a pet cat - kitten, who you never really know is there until she decides she is hungry and whines around trying to find the most sympathetic and kind-hearted team member to feed her (or the biggest sucker. All in how you look at it). The cat some how makes me think of children who are clever enough to manipulate their parents, knowing who and when will be the most vulnerable to his request. As the cat always knows who is going to give in first and hand her some food instead of allowing her to strengthen her hunting skills and make herself useful around the compound by rat and mouse catching. (I can let you guess where I fall on the scale).
Indeed, I am not sure if I have enlightened you or simply run out of breath before you fell asleep from boredom, but we have arrived at the conclusion of my stream of consciousness for the moment. Congratulations on your survival.
As this has been a catch up post from more than 6 months ago, I hope to bless you with a more updated post very quickly, indeed, perhaps even several additional posts in the near future. But do not get your expectations too high.
For the time being, let me say how grateful I am that you would bother to read this far and I hope it has added a bit of joy and zest to your day - if only to offer a distraction from whatever was a less desirable task in front of you in comparison - which assisted in my writing holding your attention this long. :)
Until next we meet. Blessings.
Jessica
Will you be surprised if I start the typical way, by saying `it has been a while since my last post`?
Because it has been a while since my last post. :)
As usual, I feel I have too much and nothing to say at the same time. I sit here in Beni, Democratic Republic of the Congo on a Sunday afternoon, having spent most of the morning trying to sleep through the local Sunday morning services going on, eventually giving up my efforts and moving on to catching up on signing documents that were processed and awaiting my signature while I have been away the past two weeks.
I think it might be best to take some time to give you an idea of my context, both in the moment, but also a bit broader as well. This post may seem a bit bland, but may still be a bit informative if one wishes to better understand the context and some jargon of aid work.
I think each of us in our own way both feel our life is ordinary and extra-ordinary. Let me elaborate. As we go through life, how often do you have someone ask you to explain what your life looks like? Ok, maybe not so often for some, but if someone asked you this, what would you say? I imagine that you might find it challenging to explain to some random person who had no basis for understanding your life, what it was really like. There are after all, many layers to our lives and selves. Thus, in the spirit of wanting to share and perhaps have some fun with providing more information to those who may not be directly involved in humanitarian aid work with a bit more insight, so when next you ask someone (me, or someone else) working in aid work about it, you might hearken back to this and other posts to give you some grounding on which to build your conversation(s).
 |
| Random view along the roadside. |
More simply put, we all get tired of answering certain repeat questions in our lives and so lets talk about one phrase that could, can, does, lead to a lot of questions and confusion. I often find it challenging to relate to friends and family what field life is like and even to explain the dynamic of what a particular individual means when he or she says `field life`.
For example, if you ask someone at the HQ (ahh, right there, see, this is culture, abbreviations. The aid world, NGOs are known to be over users of abbreviations. Whether this is due to laziness or efficiency is arguable.) (FYI, HQ = headquarters, NGO = non-governmental organization, aid world = Humanitarian aid global community, FYI = for your information :))
Ok, we should be good to continue now. As I was saying....if you asked someone at HQ what field life is, they would likely mean the main office in any particular country of work (or any office actually) in some far flung nation where their colleagues work. In my current country of work, the main office would be considered the Goma office (not the capital, but still the main base in DRC). If you speak to someone working in the Goma office and they refer to the field, they are talking about one of the offices further away from the main entry point of the country. So when speaking with people when one is physically in Goma, who refers to the field, it is a reference about both geographical location, but also an inference as to the level of difficulty (and time it takes) to actually arriving at the office. Thus, one option in my context would be the Beni office, where I am currently based.
To get here, one can fly into Goma and take a small UN plane north to Beni. Or, one can fly into Kigali in neighboring Rwanda, drive 3-4hrs to cross the boarder into Goma and then do the flight north. There are overland routes, but due to a variety of groups of militia/rebels on the road around in eastern Congo, it is not advisable to travel the ground routes in many areas. If one prefers to travel via road you will exit DRC into Uganda go north or south (depending on if you are going or coming from Beni), and then re-enter DRC at destination city.
If you speak to someone in Beni about working in the field, this will then be referring to our team members who go by land cruiser or motorbike for several hours, or days in some cases, out to small communities to work directly with beneficiaries. Even among this group of people, still, there may be another leg to travel, and again referred to as those going to the field to work. So you see, such a simple phrase as field work, can take on a great many meanings, depending on who is saying it and where he or she might be physically and geographically sitting when saying said phrase.
In many cases, those at one level, often give an extra measure of awe and respect to those at the next level of field work (those who are "further out", in the field, as it were), due to the fact that general comfort decreases and insecurity increases as you go "further out".
So of course, at this point, when I say that I work in the field you all know what I mean, yes?
For me, I work in the field, at the Beni office level, which is extreme to some while also being not as extreme as others. When one considers field living, it is pretty comfortable, especially when one considers the local context and the average life of our neighbors.
[Note, this is where I give you a visual/mental picture to grab on to for this particular level of in fieldness. You're welcome.]
 |
| Lounging on a porch across from my bedroom, near the front gate. |
Wifi, yet essential for work and sanity, can still be hard to come by, and having expectations that this will always work at those critical moments is a foolish hope and one that will regularly be dashed. Washing of clothes generally happens by the local mamas who are local women employed to support our busy lives with cooking and cleaning for us. (Have not doubt, they are highly valued and capable women, let me tell you.) Of course if you have any expensive, delicate or meltable clothing items you want to hide these away so they are not completely destroyed via the hand washing (not delicate cycle) and ironing that takes place after the line dry outside to ensure no unfriendly larva are living in the clothes and thus transfer to you upon wearing. Taking the personal hand washing and drying your things inside approach, is advisable for the a fore mentioned items which require greater delicacy.
Privacy, noise, calmness, volume controls on sound systems, all seem to have time and place in the world I grew up in, yet I have found, quite often, that one's need to adapt is of the utmost importance.
In western cultures, privacy is highly prized, understood, and generally easily given. In many developing countries, community living is the norm, large families, or large mixes of families due to many deaths, as well as small land plots, and limited funds for sound proof houses, etc. all play into a sense that someone is always around and always watching. The close living conditions are not stopped by mere walls or some razor wire. The school out the back of our compound somehow always seems to have children in it playing, singing, or chanting their lessons (do they EVER go inside?!). The church a hundred feet away, by turning up their sound system to distortion, is typical in giving a warm welcome to all who which to come and participate, and even to those who wish to stay home and participate because there is no need to move from one's home if you can hear the entire service within a mile radius. Having said that, I am very grateful that they are not as other typical local churches in several ways.
 |
| My room. Yes, I have a sink in my room and it is awesome. No, the bars on the windows do not mean I am in a jail cell. |
First, they seem to begin their services at the reasonable (and consistent) hour of 9am, instead of 7am or 5am as many churches have it. Secondly, the main singer actually seems to be quite nice and there is an actual band which generally seems to know the songs and play well together (together being the key word in that sentence). This is also not the norm, as it is more often recorded music blaring out, generally crowd and music in competition to overwhelm the other when it is only the neighbors who end up being overwhelmed. Additionally, our neighbor church seems to take breaks between songs, so you can remember yourself during the breaks, and lastly, their sermons seem to be well communicated, opposed to someone yelling angrily, as loud as possible into the mic. In the end, there are a lot of cultural differences, which do not encourage my appreciation for a generic local church service, but the times I have the courage and motivation to go, I always find something to appreciate about them. In this case, I can enjoy the good voices and music, and reasonable timing of it all, usually only from about 8 or 9am to 11 or 12, which occasional additions for several hours in the afternoon.
There of course are other local noises, such as the heard of goats passing outside while I type, and more often than not the humm of the generator in the back ground. In our case as well, we have managed to have a pet cat - kitten, who you never really know is there until she decides she is hungry and whines around trying to find the most sympathetic and kind-hearted team member to feed her (or the biggest sucker. All in how you look at it). The cat some how makes me think of children who are clever enough to manipulate their parents, knowing who and when will be the most vulnerable to his request. As the cat always knows who is going to give in first and hand her some food instead of allowing her to strengthen her hunting skills and make herself useful around the compound by rat and mouse catching. (I can let you guess where I fall on the scale).
Indeed, I am not sure if I have enlightened you or simply run out of breath before you fell asleep from boredom, but we have arrived at the conclusion of my stream of consciousness for the moment. Congratulations on your survival.
As this has been a catch up post from more than 6 months ago, I hope to bless you with a more updated post very quickly, indeed, perhaps even several additional posts in the near future. But do not get your expectations too high.
 |
| Just another day on the road. |
For the time being, let me say how grateful I am that you would bother to read this far and I hope it has added a bit of joy and zest to your day - if only to offer a distraction from whatever was a less desirable task in front of you in comparison - which assisted in my writing holding your attention this long. :)
Until next we meet. Blessings.
Jessica
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