A Gap in the Jungle by Rog Thomas


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AUTHOR’S NOTE
These are the recollections of a Generation X-er starting a “gap year” in Papua New Guinea (PNG) which led to the adoption of an abandoned baby girl born with a rare skin disorder that society chose to reject (The Girl Behind The Face).



PROLOGUE

It culminated in a hurried outbreak of almost intolerably excessive shrieking
                            Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

Gapun Village, Papua New Guinea,
June 1987 

Standing next to an anthropologist and a Swede with all my clothes off is a new experience for me.
The anthropologist suggests I take them off. I’m hot, it’s midnight, I’m in the middle of a tropical jungle. I get undressed. The anthropologist and the Swede take all their clothes off, too. This culminates in an outbreak of almost intolerably excessive shrieking by some thirty women and children.
Being laughed at in a tropical jungle by some thirty women and children with all my clothes off is another new experience for me.
Some weeks earlier I was fully clothed and listless in London. Now, I’m naked, hopping around and waving my arms about in a jungle in Papua New Guinea frantic no mosquito should bite me on the...

CHAPTER 1

“I grew up in the shadow of Ernesto. I could never escape it.”
Che Guevara’s brother, Juan Martin

On the road to Gapun Village:
London to Wewak – Call me Tim… Wewak to Angoram – Big Brother suggests…


Some thirty years ago, at a desk in London, I telephone my brother in Papua New Guinea. The call is short but the impact's lasted 30 years.



Please contact for a copy of the book. And please leave a comment below and share with friends, if you've enjoyed what you've read. Thanks, Rog.



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