Category Archives: aid work
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Ebola is real. Our risk is not. Protect front line health-workers.
Posted on October 28, 2014 by nikki in aid work, health and beauty, politics and religion, science/research.As a field epidemiologist, I have responded to disease outbreaks all over Africa during the past 10 years, from cholera to meningitis to Hepatitis E. Any other year, I’d be in Liberia right now, in gumboots with a map and a spreadsheet, trying to track and contain Ebola’s spread alongside my colleagues. Because of a […]
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this old house: my life in a highly permeable membrane
Posted on May 10, 2013 by nikki in aid work, odds and sods, unexpected adventures.My house breathes. That’s not the technical term for it, of course – the technical term is that it has “excessive air infiltration.” I had an energy efficiency audit last week that confirmed it. Jim from the energy utility here in Austin hooked up a blower door to my entryway and let it rip. The […]
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absence makes the stomach grow fonder: food variety deprivation, fantasy and phenomena in the humanitarian aid worker life
Posted on October 21, 2012 by nikki in aid work, odds and sods, rituals, unexpected adventures.Food cravings are a motherfucker. After a few weeks of being in the field with the same slop every day, my gastronomic fantasy life takes on a bigger and bigger portion of my conscious and unconscious mind with debilitating consequences. I’ve been through this cycle enough times now to recognize the signs and symptoms, which […]
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refugee camp outbreak: a father, his sick daughter and the tiniest baby
Posted on September 2, 2012 by nikki in aid work.Jamal is the Blue Nile grampa I never had. He is a slight figure, even in his size 42 gumboots. He wears an Islamic cap and always comes early to work, perching on a chair to my right. While there are many younger men on my team, none compete with Jamal’s vigilance. Most mornings at […]
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shitty in pink, part two: lots of refugee ladies, no ladies’ rooms
Posted on August 26, 2012 by nikki in aid work, odds and sods.Easy enough for me to tell my latrine sob story, but let me give an even stronger piece of advice: really, really try to avoid being a refugee in a newly created camp that only has trench latrines. As an aid worker I’m supposed to encourage all refugees to use only the designated camp latrines. […]
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