Train the Brave, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 10Live by design, not by default

Two months prior to meeting my husband Andrew I'd returned from a year of backpacking around the world. So on our first date I think he hardly got a word in as I regaled him with my adventures. (He'd probably tell you nothing's changed, which would be nonsense!) We were engaged the following year (another time where my intuition served me well) and married 10 months later. During that ‘honeymoon' period we talked a lot about the life we wanted to create together. We wanted at least three kids, maybe four. We wanted to share adventures and we wanted to spend time working and living abroad.

At the time, we both worked for large multinationals so we set about speaking with our employers about the possibility of international assignments. I was thinking London, New York, Hong Kong … somewhere cosmopolitan and pulsing with life. So, I remember the evening when Andrew and I sat down to a pasta dinner and he shared a promising conversation he'd had that day with his manager about a possible overseas posting. I also remember nearly choking on my meatball when he said where: Papua New Guinea. While it wasn't our ideal destination, it was the only offer on the table, so we decided, ‘What the heck!'

Four months later we were packing our belongings into boxes to embark on a three-year assignment living in PNG's capital Port Moresby, an adventure that would both shape us and expand the horizon of our life together. Of course, not everyone is excited ...