Volunteer swan song  
 

	A single or ‘normal’ rainbow. The double rainbow I saw was like this but...double...And of course I didn’t have a camera on me. That’s always the way - you see a sasquatch or bunyip or double rainbow and of course you don’t have a camera...

We're almost at the end of my volunteer assignment. I say ‘we’ because you’ve been on this journey alongside me, dedicated readers. (And by ‘dedicated readers’ I do, of course, mean you, Ma.)

It’s a happy and sad time. I get to go back to Oz and see my family who I love very much, but I also have to leave my Solomon family who I also love very much. Sorry if this post prematurely ends mid sentence - my tears very well may short circuit the keyboard...

Now I’m about as honest as they come so let me paint a truth picture for you here:

Twenty-one months ago on my first night in Buala I curled up in a ball on my bed alone in my empty house, listened to the song ‘Boy’s Don’t Cry’ by The Cure on repeat and alternated between stuffing salted peanuts into my mouth and whispering ‘WHAT HAVE I DONE? I’M GOING TO DIEEEEEEEEEE HERE.’
(Side note: I’m Greek. We’re a dramatic people.)

Twenty-one months later I can happily report that (spoiler alert) I didn’t die and that the answer to my strangled question is ‘Had the most amazing experience OF MY LIFE, that’s what!’

Simply put, I am a better person for having done this. I have made lifelong friends. I have learnt so many things. I have seen the FM stations grow from eight inactive dusty leaf hut studios to a network of brilliant, committed community-driven resources. I have sat in a hammock drinking from a coconut and watched a DOUBLE RAINBOW form in the sky. A double rainbow - as in twice the leprechauns and pots of gold.

I’m a major proponent of volunteering which is why my bank account is full of nothing but a handful of redundant 2 cent pieces and some ten-foot-tall dust bunnies. But my memory bank is full to the brim with the most amazing, indescribable, life-changing experiences imaginable. (I’ve never met a single person who says ‘Man, I wish I had never been a volunteer.’ I don’t think they exist. If you find one, trap them by deceit and then hand them over to a museum because those types are RARE.)

So I say this again: Volunteer. Whether it is with this program or some other one, do it. Sign yourself up because it will probably be the best decision you’ve ever made in your life. Or, if that’s not really your thing, sign up someone else like your neighbour or kid and tell them they’re just going on a nice holiday and then BAM! suddenly they’re in a slum in India handing out permethron-treated mosquito nets to orphans and moonlighting as extras in Bollywood movies and they’re enjoying it so much they forget all about being angry with you...

Volunteering is, at its heart, about people and people, alongside gravity, make the world go round. So, as the sadness tears start to fall again, my final words of wisdom in this heartfelt, passionate post are ....(keyboard fizzles and explodes)