Where Are You This Time?: Making a Difference in Places from Kabul to Kiev, Kosovo to Kazakhstan and Kismayo to Qatar

by Mary Venner

Mary Venner gave up a secure job to travel to the other side of the world to work in foreign aid. She soon discovered that it isn’t always about feeding the hungry and tending the sick. It’s also about red tape and regulation, spreadsheets, computers and accounting.Mary arrived in Kosovo in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars and found a new career providing advice to politicians and government officials on how to manage their country’s finances. With a wry sense of humour, she describes the strange working conditions, the daily security challenges, and the lively social life of expats living in cities that tourists avoid. This book provides a first-hand account of the devastation caused by war, the hardships created by government corruption and incompetence, and the problems that need to be solved to make life better in these places. It also provides insights into the lives of the locals who live with the consequences after the foreigners have moved on.

Genres: Travel

316 pages, ebook

Published December 1, 2019

About the author

Mary Venner has lived and worked as a technical adviser in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Libya, the Philippines, Somalia, East Timor, the Solomon Islands and Ukraine. Before that, she was a public servant in Canberra, Australia.

Proceeds from sales of Where Are You This Time? will be donated to charities working to improve life for people affected by conflict and poverty.

Reviews

[Darya Silman · Rating 5 out of 5]

#memoir #travelnonfiction #politics #history

The review will be available after August 31, 2023.

I received an advance review copy through Reedsy Discovery.

[David Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have just finished reading the paper back version. It's a great memoir and travelogue about one person's experiences in difficult locations. It is a real page turner.

[Isabel Ogilvie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well-written and informative insider look at the work of foreign aid workers in many war zones.
Mary Venner has helped to rebuild bureaucracies despite the major obstacle faced by Mary and her fellow aid workers - red tape.
A must read for anyone interested in the behind the scene intricacies of the world of foreign aid.

[George · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had a great balance of technical, cultural, and bureaucratic insights into the foreign aid and advisory world. It wasn’t fluffy and idealistic and it wasn’t written with some political agenda in mind. It seemed like an honest memoir with enough detail to give you a sense of the obstacles developing countries face without being too academic and dry. Effortless read.