DIVING

Living on the Togian Islands was Paul, our Australian dive master, but that wasn't Paul's most distinguishing feature: he had got blonde dreadlocks, something of a unique sight in an island community full of Indonesians. When Paul first arrived in the Togians, he would visit Wakai, the main village on the islands, and the kids would run up to him and shout: 'Hello mister, what's your name?'

Before long everyone in Wakai got to know Paul: the shopkeepers, the ferrymen, the hotel owners. He'd been there for eight months when I met him, and when he walked down the street; the kids still ran out and followed him. And what did they say to Paul when he walked down the street after eight months?

'Hello Paul, what's your name?'