Andrew RC Marshall
Papua New Guinea, 1997
Dimensions: 160 mm x 240 mm
One night in 1997 I boarded a speedboat crewed by armed rebels and snuck across the maritime border into Bougainville, a remote Pacific island torn apart by civil war. I was young and stupid and wanted to interview the rebel com- mander. He lived on a mountain top, along jungle paths supposedly draped with magical cobwebs that made his enemies’ testicles swell up until they could no longer walk. The hike there and back took nine grueling days.
Afterwards, I was chased by soldiers with shoot-to-kill orders, then ambushed by militiamen while fleeing by speedboat. Fearing searches by border guards, I ripped the spiral binding from my notebook and hid its pages beneath the dirty laundry in my bag.
Back home, I wrote up a breezy adventure piece for Esquire magazine, but
my notebook tells a different story. I was often sick, lonely, or exhausted on Bougainville, and occasionally – for example, in that speedboat, cringing on the floor as bullets cracked overhead – absolutely terrified.
