ABSTRACT
Aid workers are presented with unremitting chaos, moral issues for which nothing, even in their imagination, could prepare them, and inadequate responses from their supervisors; and, they receive marginally relevant stress management paradigms from mental health and security professionals. One aid worker, seeking relief from the Somali sun under the wing of a loud C-130 engine required to be kept running at all times for fast takeoff, pulls out a cigarette and a lighter. After prolonged exposure to danger, it is common for people to accept it as part of everyday living. Aid workers can also decide that since the local population must live with this danger and are suffering so much more than they are, it is almost unconscionable for them to protect themselves overtly in ways the local people cannot. Local people have knowledge of the situation, and a better understanding of the dangers and how to assess the risks and minimize the threat.
