There have been many books written about poverty, crisis and development countries. Few of them focus on the development workers. The book “Missionary, mercenary, mystic, misfit” does exactly this. It follows the lives of several aid workers during a humanitarian crisis on the Ethiopian-Somali border. Instead of self-sacrificing care, the story is suprisingly much about the aid workers themselves. The beneficiries are almost completly absent in the story and whenever they show up they are merely there, without having an actual voice in the story. Does this reflect aid work in general? Is it much more about the organizations, the donors and the workers, rather than about the people for which it is all supposed to be? The author, through the characters, communicates that there is still some hope. Most of the people involved have good intentions. Aid is just so complicated that it is difficult to achieve actual change. The best intentions can reflect completely different on the ground. There are thus serious changed to be made.

The book does not only give an interesting insight into the aid world, but is also an interesting read. It is a captivating story, that is well-written. There narrator follows different charachters, thereby giving the reader different perspectives. The book refers to many organizations that also exist in real life. For a person like me, with very limited experience in this world, it was sometimes a bit cryptic but still understandable. It gave me (at least one) perspective of how aid actually functions. It might be broken and complex to fix, but we should at least give it a try. We might often, while trying to improve it, push it in wrong or contrary directions. Maybe we should listen more to the aid workers or the beneficiaries. Especially the latter, did not even feature in this book. An opportunity that might be explored in a sequel!

For more information about the book or to buy it: http://www.amazon.com/Missionary-Mercenary-Mystic-Misfit-J-ebook/dp/B00D0HDN2C

I can stronly recommend it!