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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
As told to Emma Joyce

The moment I knew: I was ready to paddle back to shore when she leaned in to kiss me

Andrew Ngeh and Kath Oliver
Andrew Ngeh and Kath Oliver fell in love while volunteering in Vanuatu: ‘Our worldviews were very similar. We could both sense the chemistry.’ Composite: Andrew Ngeh/Guardian Design

In 2015, I’d been living in Vanuatu for a year, coaching the Vanuatu women’s beach volleyball team as they aimed to qualify for the Rio Olympics. I was a volunteer through an Australian government program, and a new intake of Australians was arriving in Port Vila one afternoon in February, so I went to the Australian High Commission to meet them.

I got chatting with this gorgeous and bubbly girl called Kath, who’d been volunteering in Indonesia. I thought we were meeting for the first time, but as I introduced myself, Kath explained that we had in fact met before, walking across Pyrmont Bridge in Sydney during our training weekend.

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