Like their still-serving mates, former New Zealand Army personnel are scattered far and wide across the world, many of them using skills gathered in their Service years to forge careers outside the military. In this ongoing feature we look at where they are now….

Bogota, por favor

22 May 2007

Scotty Mochan laughs when he remembers being told the most important things to pack when he travelled to Columbia were sunglasses and a flak jacket.

“It does seem to have a bit of a culture of violence. The country suffers from armed conflict with guerrilla insurgents and other large para military groups. But that aside, it’s a great place to live. I'm really enjoying myself here.”

WO1 K Mochan, known to most as Scotty, is a member of the 7 Wellington and Hawkes Bay Battalion Group, and currently resident in Bogota, the capital of Columbia.

It’s a long way from home for the former Wellington man, who has taken two years leave from the Territorial Forces to teach English to students at an international English school. Most of his students are the children of diplomats, or are from families associated with large multi-national organisations with bases in Columbia.

His long experience in the New Zealand Army, and before that, the RNZAF, is proving “extremely useful”, he says. “The military instructional methods learned over the past 30 years in Defence have seen my services much in demand here by adults and young students alike.” He also works as a private consultant to schools in Columbia, teaching risk management plans covering areas such as the spread of disease should an outbreak happen.

Scotty was a Regular Force member of the New Zealand Cadet Forces staff which also gave him an excellent insight into youth training and development, and he worked with the Army’s Prince of Wales Trust which provides support for the long-term unemployed.

He served with the NZ Training Advisory Team in the Sinai, instructing members of the 11-nation Multi National Force and Observers in desert operations, and also completed two tours to Bougainville.

It was in the Sinai that he made friends with soldiers from the Columbian battalion which works alongside its Kiwi counterparts.

“I stayed in touch with some of my Columbian colleagues and they told me about this job. I thought, “Why not?”

Bogota is about the size of Wellington, with a population of 12 million. The native language is Spanish, although many people speak English. Scotty’s wife, Dolly, is Columbian, and he says working in Bogota is a unique experience.

He has been told that about 50 per cent of the world’s kidnappings each year happen in Columbia, and narcotic trafficking is a huge industry there. There are extremes of wealth and poverty, and very few of the social services found in New Zealand.

But he says Columbia isn't like the movies – all hit-men and drug dealing.

“It’s a vast, rugged place. You just have to be situationally aware.”

ANZAC Day was a special time for him and, in what he thinks may have been a first for Columbia, he organised an ANZAC commemoration in the city on April 25.

“About 35 of us gathered in the grounds of the Colegio Gran Bretana to commemorate our special day. There were no fly pasts, no brass bands, but the New Zealand and Australia national anthems were sung with gusto, prayers said and the ANZAC story shared with the small expat community and a group of Columbian nationals interested to learn of our contribution to world peace.”

The Ode was read, floral tributes laid, and a time for silent reflection observed.

“I suppose it was the soldier in me, but I couldn't let the day go unmarked. In a land continents away from the conflicts of World War One, and thousands of kilometres from home, a small group of expat ANZACs took time to remember.”

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