Crocodiles and Kaleko
Imagine landing in a foreign country during a peace-keeping mission. You move into a compound where your taps run dry and then the generator blows up, leaving you with no water or power. It is hot, the sort of heat you cannot imagine and you have responsibility for a $60 million aid program.
This was Paula’s introduction to the Solomon Islands when she started a two-year posting for the Australian Government in 2010. Follow her funny and frustrating encounters with security guards, bank clerks and missing ferries as she started her new life in Honiara, the country's capital. Nothing was straightforward. Time was an endless piece of string and crocodiles lurked around every corner. She was tempted to run away.
But then she snorkelled with manta rays and swam with reef sharks in a tropical resort, discovered that Honiara's second-hand clothing stores were dripping with designer gems and made a truckload of new friends—including Constantine, a betel-chewing basket dealer and man full of surprises!
The Solomon Islands took Paula far beyond her comfort zone, but offered unforeseen bounties. She returned to Australia lugging a pile of designer clothes and love for a country that had changed her forever.
Imagine landing in a foreign country during a peace-keeping mission. You move into a compound where your taps run dry and then the generator blows up, leaving you with no water or power. It is hot, the sort of heat you cannot imagine and you have responsibility for a $60 million aid program.
This was Paula’s introduction to the Solomon Islands when she started a two-year posting for the Australian Government in 2010. Follow her funny and frustrating encounters with security guards, bank clerks and missing ferries as she started her new life in Honiara, the country's capital. Nothing was straightforward. Time was an endless piece of string and crocodiles lurked around every corner. She was tempted to run away.
But then she snorkelled with manta rays and swam with reef sharks in a tropical resort, discovered that Honiara's second-hand clothing stores were dripping with designer gems and made a truckload of new friends—including Constantine, a betel-chewing basket dealer and man full of surprises!
The Solomon Islands took Paula far beyond her comfort zone, but offered unforeseen bounties. She returned to Australia lugging a pile of designer clothes and love for a country that had changed her forever.
Imagine landing in a foreign country during a peace-keeping mission. You move into a compound where your taps run dry and then the generator blows up, leaving you with no water or power. It is hot, the sort of heat you cannot imagine and you have responsibility for a $60 million aid program.
This was Paula’s introduction to the Solomon Islands when she started a two-year posting for the Australian Government in 2010. Follow her funny and frustrating encounters with security guards, bank clerks and missing ferries as she started her new life in Honiara, the country's capital. Nothing was straightforward. Time was an endless piece of string and crocodiles lurked around every corner. She was tempted to run away.
But then she snorkelled with manta rays and swam with reef sharks in a tropical resort, discovered that Honiara's second-hand clothing stores were dripping with designer gems and made a truckload of new friends—including Constantine, a betel-chewing basket dealer and man full of surprises!
The Solomon Islands took Paula far beyond her comfort zone, but offered unforeseen bounties. She returned to Australia lugging a pile of designer clothes and love for a country that had changed her forever.