International Diplomacy isn’t all glamour

A very good friend of mince works for UNICEF and he’s just been posted to the Maldives.

When you think of the Maldives, you probably think of something like

this, your basic tropical island paradise, and if you’re on one of the resort islands that’s pretty much what you get.

If you’re not on a resort island – it’s a different story. My friend has been posted to an island that is 775m long and 450m wide, and has a total population of around 1300 people.

Here’s a picture

He’s around 200km from the capital, and over 2kms over open water away from the nearest resort island (the nearest place to get a beer.)

Fortunately my friend grew up in outback Australia, so small, remote communities is nothing new – the lack of alcohol is a different thing…