The Beginning

EVERY JOURNEY HAS A BEGINNING – JOIN ME ON MY JOURNEY.

I believe, “it is written” that everyone has a certain journey in life to live, it is not us who chooses the path. Join me on my life altering Journey.

Over the last 24 years of my life I have realised that normality is only a state of mind by an individual. I have lived in 3 counties and experienced so much. I often think about how I, an individual born and raised in western society, sees incidents that happen on a daily basis as normal but frustrating by others and hilarious by others. 

Having been born into a family which has a heightened sense of fun, jocularity and are great story tellers I can, eventually, see the funny side of each incident.  With this in mind I began regaling my family and friends with my daily life.  In turn they have convinced me to write this blog.

The Beginning

I was born in the Adelaide Hills, Australia in 1950 to a very solid hard working family.  We grew up on a farm, were happy, well fed and comfortable.  Zoom ahead to my teens I enjoyed a wonderful teenage life and at 24 fell in love married and we had two wonderful sons.  After a few years we sold everything we owned and headed North to a new life.  Sadly that life never eventuated and my 14 year marriage fell apart with my husband heading back to where we started (it was his idea to move in the first place).  My boys and I stayed in Darwin and began a wonderful new life.  I met a new partner and we were together for 8 years.  In that time my staid life changed dramatically until the day he decided someone younger was his future.

The Journey Begins

Devastated I felt the biggest failure in life.  In my work life I had been doing relief administration work for an agency The Settling Infor the last few months.  They contacted me to offer a  1 month position on an Aboriginal Community in Arnhem Land.  This was way outside of my comfort zone, I consulted my boys who were all for Mum heading out bush. To this day I still believe they had plans to turn my house into a party house. Instead they worked together and turned my 5 acre block into a thriving tropical flower business.

That weekend I went to dinner with a friend and his wife.  This friend had, unbeknown to me, been a police officer in Borroloola. Borroloola is an Arnhem Land Aboriginal community. That evening he convinced me I had been offered a great opportunity in this position and encouraged me to accept the position. His last words to me that night were “remember you’re a long time dead”.  So with his words still fresh in my mind I accepted the position.  Once again my life would take a 360 degree turn.

Arnhem Land

Arnhem Land is situated along Australia’s northern coast the area holds some of the largest Indigenous groups in Australia. Approximate population 16,000. 

I kept a daily diary at that time mainly to heal my soul, it has turned out to be a wonderful canvas for this blog  and brought back great memories of a wonderful time spent “out bush”. I now relive it often thinking of the humor which we lived every day.

Time For Change

My very dear friend and I, whom I met in Arnhem Land, have a very good rule to live by.  We always say there is a use by date for working remote.  This is not our home, the life is quite unreal and although we make many life long friendships it is not where we belong.  So after 15 months it was time for me to return to my world. I headed back into Darwin and began a small book keeping service.  By this time I knew I could not work with the politics of the Public Service and although I had been working for Local Govt organisations I was not ready to work for other people  on a 9 to 5 basis.  My little business grew very fast and soon I was making the same wage as I had been out bush.

East Timor

In 1999 the people of East Timor voted to become Independent from Indonesia who had invaded 24 years earlier.  In response to this vote pro Indonesian militia groups began attacking Timorese civilians.  This resulted in a bare earth withdrawal. The UN and INTERFET sent forces to support Timor.

I was approached by an NGO (Non Government Organisation) from East Timor and offered a 1 month contract, based in Dili East Timor, to help computerise their financial information.  The dilemma of should I go, shouldn’t I go began again.  Once again it had to be a decision made over 1 weekend. Having lived in unusual circumstances “out bush” my city dweller life had become rather boring, mundane and I was also beginning to miss having that one special person in my life.

Once again I turned to my family for advice.  As it turned out one of our neighbor’s had just returned from a stint in East Timor so I spent many hours talking about safety, it was still declared a war zone, life in a foreign country and the type of work to be done. By now having lived out bush for so long my sense of adventure just took over. In early April 2000 I headed off for what I thought a 1 month assignment.

A Permanent Job

I returned to Australia after my 1 month to close off my small business, sadly online work had not really taken off by then. I then returned to East Timor to take up Director of Finance for the NGO. A very challenging but fulfilling position. This position I held for the 1 year contract.  In that 1 year my diving improved dramatically, more later, and my world was turned upside down, inside out and all round.

It was here I met Mr Right, and this meeting has taken me to Africa and a retirement which does not include lawn bowls.