Here’s why I’m here

I read a post on Tales from the Hood* a while ago about how you shouldn’t be working in international development if you feel like you’re making a “sacrifice to help poor people.” That you are holier-than-thou because you’re doing this amazing work, giving up your good life, good salary, and personal luxuries to help save the world.

I can’t agree more.

It’s no sacrifice for me to work in development and be “in the field.” (I would vehemently disagree that Dar is “the field” anyways. I have probably ranted about how much I actually want to be in the field, with maize fields and dairy goats). I wouldn’t be here if I felt like I had to give up more than what I gain. Bury the “I’m your saviour” attitude. The moment we think we’re ‘saving’ anyone, the power dynamic tips. We stop listening, we stop focusing on making sure what we do actually has an impact, and start basking in our own (imagined) glory.

For sure, I believe in the work I do. I believe it will make a difference in people’s life, hopefully. I do not, however, feel like I deserve special treatment, or am more ethical, or more saintly because I chose to be in development work.

Tales from the Hood also had another post about needing to be very honest with ourselves about both our professional and personal motivations of working in development. “Helping people” is all fine and good, but we need to be brutally honest about our other incentives to avoid the risk of fooling ourselves. So allow me to be honest:

1.       Adventure: this probably would be in air quotes if I were speaking – one person’s adventure is someone else’s daily life. I like seeing different places, eating different foods, meeting different people. Any scene that makes me go “wow!” or “huh?” spices up my day. Seeing gazelles dotting the savannah or advertisements selling “Chinese medicine” with a painting of a voluptuous female. Walking around a new neighbourhood. Discovering a tasty food stand. Finally being able to navigate the traffic to cross the road during rush hour. Looking out the window. Sitting on a street corner. Having conversations about the most mundane topics. The little things that make me annoyed at home make life interesting. (Other than lining up at the bank and trying to fix the leaking washroom, that still annoys me).

2.       Work experience: due to the insufficiency of very skilled labour in the economy here, even people with my level of tertiary education are considered more than just employable. If you have a good work ethic, and are semi-good at networking, you’re bound to find an interesting, paid, job sooner or later. In the jobs I have worked so far, I’ve always been allowed to take on much more responsibility than I would have had back home. I can stretch to the edge of my current abilities because there’s too much work and too few people.

3.       Pay: while I am earning less (or maybe even much less) than I would have in Canada (not in Hong Kong though, which is quite crazy when I think about it. This is probably because most people my age are not expected to move out and pay for all their own bills in Hong Kong), I save about the same and I don’t have to watch my spending as much. Dar is expensive, but still not as much as in Vancouver or Hong Kong.

4.       It looks good on my resume: cross cultural skills. Language skills. Ability to persevere through obstacles. Willingness to step outside of my comfort zone. This might not even be true, but people assume so when they see an “exotic” country name on your CV.

5.       Networking: the expat circle is small (probably not as small as, say, the Central African Republic) and places to hang out few. We’re all away from home somehow so it’s easy to make friends and meet people (it also really isn’t that easy to break out of the expat circle). Plus, I’ve stopped viewing ‘networking’ as a dirty word a long time ago.

6.       Cool people: 80 percent of the people I meet here are super cool. They’re doing super cool work/research. They’re interested in development issues or at least politics. Usually multicultural or at least less ethnocentric. Travelled lots. Full of stories. And to some extent, strange and quirky. Back home, this percentage is probably around 1 to 10 percent (maybe 30%, depending on how many university conferences I go to). It’s a self-selective process – people who come here in the first place are already a bit off the beaten path. Dar’s also a bit of a development industry hub.

7.       Grad school research: I’m heading back to grad school in a year or two. Since I want to work in this field (not necessarily development, but most likely agriculture economics/public policy), there’s no better place for me to be learning about the topics I’m going to be studying. Theories are useless unless they are grounded in the real world. Change in the real world require theories.

8.       White sandy beaches, crystal clear blue skies, giraffes, lions, and elephants! Where else can I be a tourist and a resident?

After finishing this list, I’m starting to wonder why aren’t all of my friends living abroad.  ^__<

*which is, sadly, not only on hiatus, but also half of the posts are password locked; hence I can’t find said post anymore.