Why did I john PBI?

Mainly because it's an organization I believed was worth working for. Looking at the things it does and hearing other people's experiences I thought it was something I believed in. As well as that, an amazing chance to work in a part of the world in which I hadn’t worked in before and to come into contact with another culture in a very real way, which is really hard otherwise.

High points?

Yes there have been lots. Certainly meeting local activists, hearing about their work, their stories, their hopes and fears can be exhilarating at times, getting to know people.  The first time when I flew into Papua, seeing what's going on - there's this whole world which you don't understand.  On the flipside of that, when you have been here for a while and you do start to understand little bits of what's going on that’s amazing as well.

Anything that has been particularly hard?

Life in the team isn't always easy, you are five sometimes six people living in a house and working together. You have to make all your decisions together using consensus so you lose a lot of your privacy not just in terms of space but in terms of ability to make a decision individually, because these are decisions that affect predominantly work and also in some cases the way you live. For work it’s undoubtedly true for PBI as a whole to say everyone works very hard, sometimes too hard, that can be stressful as well.