Inside the Crocodile

I'm always drawn to books about people who've made life changing choices, done the unusual and had experiences that I will only ever read about. Trish Nicholson writes memoirs like this. Her other books about Butan and the Philippines were fascinating and this one more than equals them. We all hear and see through the media of television how people live in different parts of the world but back in the eighties to think of visiting such a place would never enter our head. Trish broke the mould, she accepted a job in Papua New Guinea in a place called Sandaun. She brought order to the chaos that was the Department of Personal Management,obeyed the local customs and endeavoured to work around bureaucracy within the local government. This is an adventure story too. Trish didn't just relax during her free time, she risked her life in small planes which sound like they were held together with blue tack to explore the surrounding islands. Walking across bridges made with vines which were fraying in the middle, swimming in rivers shared with crocodiles and shrugging off her repeated bouts of malaria as if they were the common cold. Each one of her adventures in the book is a story in its own right. You just never know whether she'll make it back to her home in Sandaun in one piece. The writing in this book is so descriptive that I felt I was walking alongside Trish frequently telling her not to get on that plane or cross that rickety old bridge. I enjoyed reading about her work colleagues, Jim, Martha,Sinur, Clarkson and I fell in love with Jim's dog Frisbie. The local lanuague was mostly Pidgin which I had fun trying to work out what it meant but a glossary at the end of the book helped. Local politics meant constant changes of staff with some being promoted or demoted frequently. Trish coped with it all with her pragmatic common sense and won the respect of the locals and politicians. Eventually the continuous bouts of Malaria catch up with Trish and it becomes a life or death situation. One of her colleagues makes a phone call which ultimately is a lifesaver. One thing I didn't expect from this book was for it to make me shed a few tears. At the end when Trish's time working there is over I felt sadness at her having to leave all the friends she had made over the years. I also wondered just how hard it would be for her to return to normal life with all the modern conveniences after living so frugally. More tears came when we are told what happened over the years to the friends who worked alongside her. I'm sure I'm not the only one who read this part and felt some sadness. I enjoyed this book so much and I'm so glad that Trish scribbled away in her diaries to bring us these memoirs.

‘By far the best book in this year's Wishing Shelf Book Awards. An intriguing look at life in Papua New Guinea from the POV of a development worker. The author's love of the cultures and the characters she meets shows in her writing. I'd recommend this to anybody interested in travel and understanding life in a different and often difficult country.'

‘The book starts so well with the crocodile and talks of sorcery. And, from there on, it keeps getting better. I was sad at the end when she left but the last line of the book made me smile. A lovely read, warm and packed full of cultural richness.'

‘A thoroughly fascinating story. I have never visited that part of the world but now I'd love to. The writing style was perfect for a book of this nature: light with an excellent balance of pace and descriptive prose.'

This account of Dr Trish Nicholson's five and a half years in Papua New Guinea in the late eighties and early nineties is absolutely fascinating. Using her extensive diaries as the basis of her narrative, she takes us from a chilly wind-blown Scotland to her arrival and consequent culture shock in tropical, humid Papua New Guinea. Nothing daunted, however, she uses her great people skills plus the help and friendship of fellow expats such as Jim, PNG colleagues like the marvellous Clarkson, Vero and Martha, and Frisbee the Hound Dog to find her way in the maze of PNG life and bureaucracy. Her job was to reorganise, restructure and give training to the Department of Personnel Management in Sandaun as part of a project financed by the World Bank. However, this was not a challenge for the faint hearted. So many personnel lived in remote areas, and the records were such a mess, it even involved paying staff who were already dead! In her task, I was often amazed at her ability to survive the mind-numbing procedural complexities combined with the sometimes petty and anarchic disregard for truth and transparency of those entrenched in the system. Fighting ongoing Malaria, dramas such as pay-back killings, vengeful jealousies and corrupt practices, it took more than Trish's strength to cope. Towards the end of her stay, she became dangerously ill with Malaria. Nevertheless, she builds wonderful friendships with her PNG colleagues and earns immense respect for her courage and pluck in tackling almost anything that comes her way. This includes a three day hike through dense and inhospitable bush that would have sent me scurrying for home about one hour into it, particularly the idea of crossing bridges made of rotting rope or vine over deep river gorges. There are delightful side characters, such as Sebby, who gate-crashed seminars and scribbled on blackboards intended for training notes. Frisbee the fly-everywhere dog also adds a special canine touch to the story. The book is quite long and very detailed, but this serves to underscore the chaotic situations Dr Nicholson, or rather 'Tris' had to unravel. I found it completely absorbing and was easily able to transport myself there into the time, period and place. I was also glad she provided a glossary of Pidgin terms at the end and enjoyed the photos that gave visual reality to some of the characters and situations. All in all, this is a wonderful journal, a great memoir and a riveting read.