Reflections

So I found myself reading a report I drafted during my time at the Ministry of Education. It's always funny going back through previous work because I find myself pondering whether I've gone forwards or backwards.

Moving here was a huge change from life in Wellington. I went from being surrounded by friends and family and having a job with professional support to living in a foreign country where no-one was close to me and where skills in policy development were seriously lacking. It didn't take long before I was right in the thick of things and feeling under pressure.

12 months on I feel that I have grown a lot – and I've had to! The professional and personal challenges have been numerous and at times intense. I'm not one to back down so the only choice in my mind was to climb the mountain, and I have to say, the experience has been both rewarding and humbling.

And after all that hard work I'm finally starting to get some positive reinforcement: my CEO has said he wants to extend my contract, the head of the Administration wants me to work here as a local and I hope my volunteer organisation would like me to undertake another posting.

Personally, being offered a position to work as a local Bougainvillean with local Bougainvilleans is about the highest honour they could pay me, so it feels good to know that I'm being considered. I'm not sure what I will do next but for now I think I can say I'm moving in the right direction.