Read this: The Thirsty Palmetto (and The Road to the Horizon)

(author's note: I edited this post and added a second blog after getting a comment from Alanna to the original below. The original post highlighted only the first)

Thanks to Alanna Shaikh (Blood and Milk blog), I've come across two wonderful blogs to follow called The Thirsty Palmetto and The Road to the Horizon. They are aid workers' diary blogs about life in the field (both have very different styles). Puts life in perspective!

Here's a sample from her post on April 17 from The Thirsty Palmetto (note: she is terrified of cows):

Evil cows...or the pesky 23 year civil war

Yet another reason why cows are evil – last week a young boy near one of our program sites was herding his families cows by throwing small stones at them (as kids do here, they’re clearly insane). One of the stones bounced off the cow, hit a landmine and blew, taking off his arm and, I believe, part of his leg.

Clearly all the cow's fault.

And here's one from The Road to the Horizon:

The Perfect Balance

Finding the right balance in life is so difficult to achieve that some people choose it as their sole undertaking in life. A common mistake made by many, though, is to think that the perfect balance is an absolute concept. It is not. The perfect balance is a moving target. That goal differs depending on where you live, what you do,.. Working in a remote location in South Sudan, today was one of those days where I felt that target was further away for me than ever.

Here is the deal: I am in charge of a humanitarian operation that covers an area in South Sudan which is five times the size of Denmark. The country is amazingly challenging with little or no infrastructure, and plenty of insecurity. Luckily, things only turn real bad during the rainy season. Unfortunately, the rainy season lasts an average of eight months a year. [...]