The World Needs More Engineers than Fashion Photographers

I guess this post and even this blog site is directed towards those noble people who want to go out into the world, live in a tent with no running water, eat food out of a tin and put themselves in mortal danger just so they can help other people less fortunate then themselves.

On August 17 1999, Istanbul had just experienced a massive earthquake and it was reported that 50,000 people had been killed and another 500,000 were left homeless. It had been a few years beforehand however I had been to Turkey and while I was there it had captured my imagination. To imagine it lying in ruins compelled me to want to do something.

For the five years before that I had been playing at being a photographer in a rather cool and chic part of Melbourne, enjoying it but not making much headway professionally or financially. In an earlier lifetime I had been an engineer working in the construction industry and it occurred to me that my dubious talents as an engineer were possibly more in demand at that time than my current application at being a photographer in the fickle Australian fashion industry.

I spent several hours that morning on the internet trying to find out how to go about getting my self engaged as an engineer. Bear in mind that the net has moved on since then but the number of relevant websites for Turkey were few and far between. I managed to find about 20 sites that had some relationship to construction or humanitarian aid work that gave me some email addresses. I quickly wrote up a letter and sent it out and then went to the Pub to declare my intentions to a incredibly doubtful group of friends.

Nothing came back for several weeks. I grew increasingly despondent that perhaps my talents were no longer required when out of the blue, I received an email from an organization in Sydney saying they didn't have a job in Istanbul however they did have a vacancy in Kosovo.

Gulp, and I mean mega-gulp. I remember thinking to myself, they are shooting each other in Kosovo, why would anyone in their right mind want to go there? I thought about it for about 20 minutes and then rang the guy at an organizations called ADRA in Sydney to find out more (more about them later). They were in need of a Shelter Manager and I had the right credentials. I suppose it would seem that way if you were a church pastor in Sydney.

He didn't know much and gave me the email address and phone number of the organization in Kosovo. I wrote off to ask about the job expecting to hear back. Nothing came so I decided to ring them. When I first rang I spoke to a young American accountant who knew even less than I did and she put me onto the logistician who was also vague about what was required for this particular post. He did give me some idea of what to expect and so with that limited amount of information, I rang Sydney again and said yes, I accept.

Within 7 days I had packed my house up and was flying out of Melbourne towards the unknown, intending to devote the next 3 months of my life doing something more positive than I had been for the past few years.

What went on after that was a significant learning curve. Lots of mistakes and lots of lessons learned. After 18 months working in Kosovo and some travel around Europe, I went to Afghanistan for two and half years and then for a few months to Aceh in Indonesia. I worked with NGO's in the freezing cold and blazing heat, I was employed by the UN as a volunteer and moved up through their scales as people left, 6 colleagues were murdered and others were kidnapped. It is from some of these aspects of my experience and the things I have learned that I would like this blog to concentrate on. There are plenty out there that offer personal experiences and good advice, mine is just another. This is one area where you not have too much information of what to expect once you first decide to go into the field. Hopefully with the help from some friends I shall aim to offer some good advice on how to adapt to field living and the work that all those many wonderful people who make a similar personal commitment can and have achieved.