Former ABC Newcastle radio host Aaron Kearney has completed a year in East Timor.
Aaron, of Merewether, lived in the island nation with wife Kip Shrosbery and daughter Edith.
He worked for an international aid contractor that runs the Australia-Timor Leste Partnership for Human Development.
He led a communications team on projects for nutrition, education and social protection.
In a heartfelt post on his Facebook page, he said it felt like a "lifetime in 400 days".
"As we enter our last 24 hours in Timor-Leste we are riding waves of joy and sadness and pausing to reflect.
"I have been incredibly fortunate to have a role here where I worked with upwards of 100 Timorese every day, allowing me a rare opportunity to dive very deep very quickly - to learn the language, immerse in the culture and be entrusted with many deeply personal stories, often of terrible trauma suffered during the war."
He spent time in the island's 14 municipalities, working on "emerging education, health and social protection systems".
"Kip got to work with the prime minister and president and helped set up a program that will have a major impact."
They learned a lot.
"The Timorese people are a beacon to the world about how to forgive unimaginable pain, forgo the desire for vengeance, and use community to find peace and light in the deepest darkness," he wrote.
"Many places around the world, who've gone through a fraction of what the Timorese have, descend into generations of hateful spirals of brutal revenge. Not here."
The people want more for their future.
"I have met many of the hardworking architects of that future. There's a lot that doesn't work and some harsh realities yet to be engaged but, my word, if a country is the sum total of its people, Timor-Leste is 'fuan boot no forte' - a place pure and strong of heart. Australia must continue to help this young nation emerge from a broken past to a bright future."
His family felt honoured to be welcomed into homes, families, weddings, wakes, parties and sacred spaces.
"It has deeply affected us," he said.
"Then there is our foreign community here - the Aussies and Kiwis, Brits, Americans, Indonesians, Malaysians, French, Portugese, Brazilians, Pakistanis, Nicaraguans and many more.
"We knew when we came here we would find some cool people, but we could not have imagined the calibre of friends we would make here."
He said these people work to drive economic and social transformation and develop "functioning health, nutrition and education systems in a place where one in two children is stunted and impassable roads make getting produce to the hungry or the sick to medical care often impossible".
"They are remarkable people but unfathomably generous of spirit. They honestly engage with the enormous challenge without losing hope."
Aaron has taken on a new role as the ABC's international development director of engagement and programs. He'll be based in Canberra.
He'll work to develop new ways to improve media development throughout Asia and the Pacific, liaising with government and international media to support "free, fair, accessible media that serves the citizens of the Indo-Pacific".
They decided to leave Timor as Kip is taking on a new diplomatic role with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
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