Author Noreen Reeves Shares an Emotionally Challenging Life in a Remote and Isolated Island
Australia (PRWEB) November 12, 2013 -- Author Noreen Reeves’s husband John, having taught Agriculture and Science in technical schools for three years, had resigned from the Victorian Education Department and was desperate to teach outside the state school system. However, little did they know, John will be sent hundreds of kilometres away from mainland - Papua New Guinea. His next posting is on Bougainville Island, a tiny, isolated are surrounded by massive expanse of the Pacific on all sides. But to an immature 23 year-old mother of a two-year-old toddler with another baby on the way, Noreen wasn’t happy about living in such a remote and isolated place.
“Two Shakes of a Dead Lamb’s Tail” shares the story of the author as a young, naïve and courageous woman who have lived in isolation and whose path of dreams, expectations, frustrations and disappointments along with a good dose of reality and a wicked sense of humour would stand her in very good stead years later.
Noreen’s husband John departed Melbourne in January of 1971 for Port Moresby. It was there he learnt his posting would be to Tinputz Vocational Centre on the north-eastern tip of Bougainville Island. John was quite pleased as the Bukas (as Bougainvilleans are called) are one of the most peaceful tribes of the islands. They are also one of the blackest peoples in the world. All Noreen can remember feeling was pure dismay and being four months pregnant only made the tears in her eyes flow longer and her sobs very much louder.
Being pregnant and trying to keep an eye on her son Andrew, coping with the humidity, and attempting to settle in their new geographical location, its climate, and the food, everything began to take its toll on both husband and wife. The language barrier became a problem too. But Noreen and John were determined that their situation should not dampen their spirits. Noreen is a woman who is not afraid to bite the bullet. She is a woman with fierce determination and self-belief. Blended with an amazing sense of loyalty, integrity and empathy, her journey on a remote island allows readers to look through the window of her life – warts and all.
Sharing Noreen’s story in “Two Shakes of a Dead Lamb’s Tail” has been a journey that at times has been emotionally challenging for her but it has given her an amazing opportunity to reflect on how life is full of ups and downs and swings and roundabouts – and how she wouldn’t change any of it. Her resiliency and tenacity in living life on a remote island sends an inspiring, positive message for readers to build strength and character even in the most trying situations because after all, life is a test and can also be a triumph.
This book will be featured at the 2013 Guadalajara Book Fair in Guadalajara, Mexico, on November 30 - December 4, 2013.
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About the Author
Noreen Reeves was born in Melbourne, Australia. Her love of life on the land began as a small child, having heard the stories her Mother told regarding her upbringing on a farm. From that time on, all she wanted to do was live on a farm and own a horse. This dream eventuated when she met and married John. The isolation of living on a primitive outstation with three young children in pre-Independence New Guinea, on Bougainville Island, and dealing with the day to day challenges would probably have broken many young women at that time, but this experience not only helped mould her character but stood her in very good stead for the hard and sometimes gut wrenching life she would later lead on the sheep station they later bought in Western Australia.
Two Shakes of a Dead Lamb's Tail * by Noreen Reeves
Publication Date: September 27, 2013
Trade Paperback; AU$29.99; 193 pages; 978-1-4931-0183-2
Trade Hardback; AU$49.99; 193 pages; 978-1-4931-0184-9
Ebook; AU$9.99; 978-1-4931-0185-6
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