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Headshot 1.jpg About Alanna

Professional: health consulting, writing about global health for UN Dispatch and about international relief and development at Blood & Milk, developing winning proposals, monitoring and evaluating social sector projects, helping small groups avoid beginners' mistakes [read my resume] [connect on LinkedIn]

Personal: mothering, food blogging, caregiving, living abroad, taking the occasional picture

Want to contact me? Use the form at the bottom of this page or reach out by skype - I'm alanna.shaikh.

News: I was on metafilter

Blood and Milk

  • A story about donated shoes
    [8 Feb 10, 7:51pm] There is a woman who works for a friend of mine. I’ll call her Gulia since half the women in this country go by Gulia, so it’s safely anonymous. Every winter, all winter long, Gulia wears the same pair of battered brown ankle boots. They are too…
  • Welcome metafilter visitors
    [5 Feb 10, 10:35am] Hello to everyone coming in from metafilter. For the record, I don’t consider myself to be an iconoclast. I am fairly certain that my ideas are 1) very ordinary and 2) shared by most people who work in international development. I’m just the pers…
  • Three bad ideas for helping Haiti
    [29 Jan 10, 11:32am] In the rush to engage on Haiti, a lot of well-meaning groups are jumping in to help. Some are brand new, and some have never worked on a disaster like this before. Most of these groups are going to be useless. Some will actually do harm to themselves…

UN Dispatch

My Tajikistan

  • umbrellas
    [8 Feb 10, 6:35pm] Umbrellas carried in snow showers.Permalink | Leave a comment  »
  • driving
    [15 Jan 10, 10:31am] Any time I perform a tricky car maneuver - parallel parking, k turn, backing up - every pedestrian in the vicinity starts making hand gestures to guide me.Permalink | Leave a comment  »
  • birds
    [27 Dec 09, 4:13pm] Flocks of birds chattering their way home through the twilight sky.Permalink | Leave a comment  »
  • geology
    [27 Oct 09, 5:07pm] I am not normally a big fan of rocks. But here - they're glorious. Multi-colored river rocks, everywhere.Permalink | Leave a comment  »

Twitter

Global Dashboard

  • Obama explains climate deal at G8
    [22 Sep 09, 10:49am] Related posts:Charlie Brooker explains the newsObama/Cheney – Duelling speechesReax to Obama in Jerusalem – you’re a pussyRelated posts:Charlie Brooker explains the newsObama/Cheney – Duelling speechesReax to Obama in Jerusalem – yo…
  • Modern Piracy – No One Say Arrr
    [23 Jul 09, 11:24am] I was all set to write a doom and gloom report on ocean freight for my first Global Dashboard post.  After all, fuel is getting more expensive, and piracy is getting worse. This can’t bode well for the industry that transports at least 90% of the…

Recipe Blog

  • Recipe: Embarrassingly Easy Quiche
    [9 Dec 09, 12:52pm] I am bitter about this quiche because it’s so good. Why have I wasted so much time making real quiche when I could done this all along? Tools: Oven, pie plate Ingredients: ½ cup bread crumbs Butter to grease pie plate 3 eggs 1 cup whole milk…
  • Recipe: Vaguely Asian Roast Chicken
    [15 Nov 09, 3:01pm] Chicken breasts have vanished from Dushanbe’s grocery stores. I’ve roasted a lot of chicken as a result, and this is the recipe I’ve come to rely on. It takes a little extra work, but it’s well worth it for the deep flavor (not easy to achiev…
  • Middle Eastern Lentil Soup
    [15 Nov 09, 12:32pm] This is my version of a soup I loved to eat when I lived in Cairo. I'd get it at the university cafeteria along with a small bowl of deep-fried croutons. Ingredients:2 cups red lentils2 medium tomatoes1 small onion1 large bay leaf1 teaspoon chil…

Photos of Central Asia

IMG_0035mausoleum doorstonesminaret3Khiva photos mom 026Khiva photos mom 166

Contact Me

Advice for Caregivers

Selected Writings