eleven months has gone by

since I arrived to start a two year contract with PNG Univ of Technology. I got the job through Australian volunteers International. A volunteer is actually paid but not at international contract rates. We get a subsistence allowance that enables us to live modestly but comfortably. We can't afford to buy a car so we travel by Public Motor Vehicle (about a 22 seater bus size). This is the way to meet people anyway.
I started to wilt at about the 6 month mark and I didn't think I would get through to this far. I have been supported by my fellow AVIs, ex-AVIs and their families, my work colleagues and my Chuirch and Rotary colleagues, and particular friends through circumstances which brought us together.
My nephew Byron had a Ben Franklin motivational statement to keep him going, something to the effect that so many brilliant inventions were on the point of discovery when the inventor gave up. Winston Churchill's best speech was his shortest to a School Speech Day. "Boys and Girls, never give up. Never, ever, ever give up. Thank you."
I am glad I persisted. I didn't know this was me until I came here.