Page 169 - Exile-ebook

168 AN EXILE OF THE MIND BROMIDE IN MY TEA 169

An unsealed section of the Nullarbor, Australia. rules only stated a dress code for to look for Yamamoto’s aircraft in
admittance, we provided the ap- the jungle, shot out of the sky 60
the telephone wires overhead. Not been more effective had it been put propriate clothing and escorted the kilometres to the southwest. Ad-
a good omen on my first day on the in the beer. foreman into the club where we also miral Yamamoto was command-
island. The Kieta Club in the town’s cen- drank too much. er-in-chief of the Japanese Navy
I shared a three-metre-square tre was a whites-only club where Fierce fighting against the Jap- and responsible for the sneak attack
donga at a camp near Loloho Beach, 16 the expatriates drank too much. anese under dense jungle canopies on Pearl Harbour. We found some
kilometres north. Set amongst a grove An indigenous foreman, Australian during World War Two left relics war relics but not the famous plane
of coconut trees it was surrounded by trained but poorly paid, was refused scattered in the undergrowth all wreck. I wasn’t very good at finding
a high fence. Not to keep us in, but to entry despite his status. Since the around us. A friend and I attempted things in jungles.
keep out the indigenous population Nicole arrived and stayed at the
airing murderous grievances over Kieta’s only hotel near the shoreline.
the inadequate sharing of Rio Word soon got around that a good-
Tinto’s Panguna Mine profits. This looking ‘French sheila’ had arrived
controversial copper mine, opened on the island. With no means of
only the year before, was to cause a transport I remained at the camp to
civil war. cop envious looks from the inmates
Curious rumours circulated in when I left to spend my Sundays
this all-male camp that bromide off in Kieta. The French sheila and
was covertly added to the tea to I later lived in a sak sak hut on a
quell sexual tension. It would have My donga duplex in Loloho Camp. Sak sak hut made from sago palms. cacao plantation until we could hail