This is not your usual â??I grew up as a white person in Africaâ?? combined with an â??I worked in a difficult, dangerous place and this is what happened to meâ?? aid worker story! 'Three earthquakes, a handful of revolutions and one coup d'état' is a travel memoir of the funny, ridiculous and sometimes alarming events the author experienced.

3 Earthquakes, 1 Coup d'état and a Handful of Revolutions is a light account of the often ridiculous and sometimes alarming situations the author encounters while working as a psychologist with the United Nations. Tracing the path from growing up in South Africa and as a young student opposed to the apartheid regime in the 1970s, her subsequent work takes her to a string of humanitarian crises, starting in Albania in 1999 where she meets and falls in love with a younger man, a coup d'état in Madagascar in 2009, the 2010 revolution in Thailand and to places off the beaten tourist track such as Liberia, Haiti, Syria, and Darfur. The tales of her extraordinary experiences and those of the humanitarian workers she encounters in these challenging contexts reveal the impact of this work on their lives and the toll it takes, highlighting the shortcomings in their protection and care.