Development - a 2 way street

Friends & family often ask if I've come from Europe to the Pacific to stay forever. Certainly there's more than enough to keep me here. I've started a family, a business, a school here. But I often explain to them that I see my time here as part of an unwritten bargain. I get to come from Europe, if you force me to focus on one nation it would be Scotland, to bring certain talents, skills, mindsets which 'may' be of potential use in the development of some Pacific nations. But the other side of the pact is that I get to learn about many things that the Pacific has that I need to bring back to where I grew up and received my education; because that is the deal. 

I get to be a conduit both ways, from European values to the Pacific, and then from the Pacific back to Europe.

This of course means that when we speak about 'development' we're really talking about BOTH the development of individuals, organisations, institutions in the Pacific, AND the development of myself so that I might return someday to bring back what I have learnt and which may help in the further development of Europe (ok Scotland if I have to be narrowed down).

I don't know when that will happen but I have so much to learn from the Pacific that I imagine I'll return to Europe in the latter years of my professional career. In my mind I will have 5-10 years to try and bring back what I've learnt from the Pacific. 

Where I will live after that time of course dependent on factors that I cannot foresee at the moment, it might be back here in the Pacific, it might be back in Scotland, or maybe Ecuador will suddenly look interesting both for me and my wife.

Of course I've no idea if for my part I will have any success either here in the Pacific or later in Europe, but at least this way I'm mindful that so called 'development' is a two way street.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.