Population 11
Imagine you are 20 years old and away from your family for the first time on a trip overseas from Europe. You answer an ad on an internet site asking for volunteers on a remote island. It sounds like a fun, adventurous idea. So you drive to literally the ends of the earth where a man you have never seen before in your life and with whom you have only exchanged a couple of e-mails, beckons you to get on his boat. You have recently watched the movie “Wolfe Creek - Based on a True Story” of the backpacker murders. You look to the departing volunteers for assurance that this guy in the boat isn’t a psycho. Their only advice (after a hearty laugh) is “look out for sharks”.
So it is that three new German volunteers arrived a couple of days ago. They are very young and very timid, but I guess just getting this far proves they are either foolhardy, naïve, or have major intestinal fortitude.
The truth is, once you reach the island, the family is terrific, the beach is lovely, everyone is very welcoming (including the resident Governess). But I understand it takes a major leap of faith to get on that boat.
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