She describes her discomfort with being told that she is a modern day Mother Teresa. Her struggles in her personal and professional life are palpable from page to page.ĭoing so opens readers to the realities of aid work. The use of brutally, some times uncomfortably, honest stories makes Alexander easily to connect to as a reader. Alexander, only in her early-thirties, is feels more like a peer as opposed to the grizzled veterans talking about working in the 80’s. It will also connect with students and new aid workers. Alexander’s book one that aid workers should gift their parents, not the other way around. They will likely not find the book as informative as people who know little to nothing about aid work. She quickly learns that her belief that she could make a real difference in the lives of people in dire need may not be true.Īid workers will find many stories that they know well.
Little victories were worn down by the persistence of the problems faced by Sudanese that she could not help. There, she struggled to help manage the response to an ongoing conflict. In Rwanda, she proudly fought off cynicism and even secured housing with a Rwandan family. The bright-eyed Alexander’s outlook changed quickly with her next posting in Darfur. The honest telling of the life of an aid worker is a compelling read, even for aid worker set. “I need to get the hell out of here.”Ĭhasing Chaos: My Decade in and Out of Humanitarian Aidcovers the trajectory of an idealistic young girl who started aid work in Rwanda to a hardened aid veteran responding to the earthquake in Haiti. “I tossed the rocks aside, my hands stained brown from the scooped earth,” she writes. She knew she was at her mental tipping point. The rocks did not leave Alexander’s hands. She realized it when she reacted to being pelted by pebbles, thrown by two boys in Darfur, by grabbing rocks to throw back. The stress of aid work and the loss of idealism wore her down. Jessica Alexander opens her memoir with her breaking point.
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