mackenzieberg

Happiness is finding a full jar of nutella in the fridge.

May 8, 2011 Uncategorized

Outside the window, the sound of an old-fashioned, metal sewing machine is chugging away erratically, mixing with the music of the birds, the dogs, the chickens, the donkeys, the children playing soccer across the street, the cars beeping up on the main road, the lorries laying on their horns, and the hammering of construction somewhere nearby. The breeze is cool and life-giving in the heat of this second-floor room. Yesterday, I arrived in Faizabad via a UN flight from Kabul.Read More

Oh, the usual.

April 27, 2011 Reflections

Today on the carpool ride to work I glanced out the window as we turned onto a busy street in Kulola Pushta, and did a double take. Sticking out from the trunk of the little red toyota corrolla next to us were the raw legs of an animal carcass. With the trunk tied down over the protruding body, four hooves and glistening, flesh-pink legs bounced around as the car manuevered the potholed dusty street. The remainder of the bare bodyRead More

Friday night reading.

April 22, 2011 Reflections, Uncategorized

Some more insight on aid, donors and the relationships that affect both the appropriateness and efficiency/overall impact of this industry on the people it’s supposed to help — from a great article by Waylaid Dialectic: Aid’s boosters and its bureaucrats do, of course, have their shortcomings (they’re human, in other words). And this does contribute to worse aid. But that ain’t the real story. The real story is that they’re working with the money of, and are accountable to, aRead More