3 out of 4 stars
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I've always been fascinated by the idea of going overseas to help impoverished countries. I've heard stories in church, but My Development Experiences in Asia, Africa and the Americas by Christopher (Chris) J. Roesel is the most in-depth look I've ever had at what it's actually like in some of these countries and the challenges they face. The nonfiction book is rather short - less than 75 pages in total - but full of information that's fantastic for anyone who would want to go overseas and give aid. Even for those not so inclined (or capable), it's incredibly enlightening to see just how badly other people have it and just how lucky we really are.
As the title suggests, Chris has done work in many places around the world. I was surprised that this begins right at home to some extent - in Chris's childhood witnessing racism. Even after segregation ended, Chris points out that African Americans lived in much smaller homes, with their roads in far worse shape and typically without air conditioning.
When Chris goes to college, he ends up joining the Air Force Academy. His insight here is fantastic as well, with one of my favorite bits being how the military breaks soldiers down to rebuild them. This ends up seeming rather familiar when a visiting POW tells them how the Koreans brainwashed him by breaking him down and rebuilding him with a communistic mindset.
He ends up leaving the military and working overseas with various groups to improve conditions. He points out some rather frightening things our military has done in other countries (like inspiring and assisting in a coup or taking "terrorists" into helicopters and dropping them out if they don't answer questions) as well as just how badly off some countries are. A lot of these solutions to the well-being of other countries are very creative, and with Chris being in charge of many of them as the book goes on, it's fascinating to see how solutions are brainstormed and implemented. It's also rather amazing to see what causes things like incredibly high infant mortality rates or disease-related deaths. In one area, for example, they learned the reason many girls were dropping out of school was because they were needed at home to make long trips gathering water and bringing it home. By working on irrigation they fixed an issue that would otherwise seem entirely unrelated at the same time!
While I was a fan of the book itself, I did have one really odd issue with it - the use of bold text. Typically words are in bold when they're emphasized, but in this one it seemed the bold was applied to random words surrounding important words or phrases. Sometimes an entire line is in bold when only a few words should be, and sometimes those few words even continue onto another line so they aren't in bold themselves. It's a minor issue, but worth mentioning.
My Development Experiences in Asia, Africa and the Americas is definitely a book I'd suggest to anyone who is curious about what it's really like in other countries that are less well off than we are. It's definitely a book I'd suggest to those who want to go overseas and do work themselves, as there are several points in the book where Chris specifically mentions different planning methods and strategies. Overall, I'd give the book 3.5 stars if I could, but because some parts get a bit dry and it's just missing a little perfection (the bolding and a tiny bit of additional editing work), I'm giving it 3 out of 4 stars.
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My Development Experiences in Asia, Africa and the Americas
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