Aaron Tait

You know, you'd said to your mum before you left, I'm going to be back, man.

What happened when the two of you saw one another at the airport?

You were then off to the Defence Force Academy in Canberra.

How did you, now this sort of decorated war veteran at the ripe old age of 20, feel about living on campus and being a student?

Back then, you didn't talk about all this with your mates in the Defence Forces, but you did do a lot of drinking with them.

You lost a good friend in a car accident at this time too.

How were you starting to think differently about your own future and own legacy?

You decided that you did want to see the world as a civilian, not a soldier, though you were still, you know, serving out your time with the military.

Why did you choose India as your first destination?

How comfortable was that?

On another trip away from your training, this time to Spain, you fell madly in love with a young American woman, Caitlin.

You eventually managed to find a way to be together, firstly living in Sydney while you finished up your contract with the military.

You know, you would have had such a big career ahead of you in the Navy.

Did you have any qualms about deciding to walk away from that?

You and Caitlin left Australia and landed in Kenya.

What were you hoping to do in Kenya?

So you'd done a lot of academic study, the both of you, and you'd had all of your, you know, military experience.

But looking back, Aaron, how naive were the two of you in terms of this different space of development in international aid?

So what did you find once you arrived at the school that you and Caitlin were going to be in charge of?

Was your enthusiasm being dented at all by this point?