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What exactly do they do?
Before I arrived in Timor-Leste, I didn’t know a whole lot about NGOs, aid work or any of that business. I’d heard people talk negatively about NGOs, but never really grasped why. Here in Timor-Leste, I’ve come to the conclusion that aid workers are a misunderstood group — misunderstood because it’s difficult to really fathom exactly what they do.
I usually try and avoid talking about work with people I’m unfamiliar with. I do this for a few reasons. The first is that my job is simple to explain: I write stories. That’s all I do. Sometimes I also edit stories, I guess, but there isn’t a whole lot of variation in what I do to make a living. It really doesn't sound all that impressive.
But when aid workers start talking about what they do, it’s like a foreign language to me. I’ve been in Dili about a year and a half now and there’s still so much about the aid world that baffles me.
But it isn’t just NGOs. It’s everyone, from the UN to USAID. So many times I’ve been listening to people talking about what they do and had to really think about what the words mean. It’s like a sudoku puzzle, of sorts, and I'm rubbish at sudokus.
Part of the problem, I’m sure, is that people have complicated jobs. This is why I don’t like talking about work. I just write stories. Other people are advisors coordinating capacity-building outreach programmes to assist the general development of the Ministry of Such and Such and… well, I made that up. But you see my point. I'm not all that important in the grand scheme of things.
Everyone here seems to be saving the world. Even their job titles are impressive. I have a little booklet full of business cards. In it are things like “General Development Officer” and “Development Outreach and Communication Officer.” Very exciting stuff.
I have this nagging feeling that I’m alone in my confusion, but sometimes I think the weird job titles and descriptions serve the sole purpose of deflecting attention away from the fact that the person in question doesn’t really do very much at all.
There are, after all, a lot of people in Timor-Leste on ludicrously huge salaries. I know at least some of those people don’t do a whole lot.
But I’m probably just jealous.
You'll have to excuse me for generalising here. I do try my best, but, alas, I have much to learn. Obviously there are a good number of people doing really great stuff here in Timor-Leste. Check out PDT or L'ao Hamutuk or HAI for starters.
