20 Years in War Zones: Timor, Syria, Haiti, Sudan — He Tells It All

From a small New Zealand town with no traffic lights to Antarctica, East Timor war zones, Syrian roundabouts, and now Cambodia — this is the story of a simple Māori boy who built a life everywhere except where he started. John Cassidy (JC) grew up in Blenheim, New Zealand — population 20,000, zero traffic lights, and enough kids on the street to fill a rugby team. He worked in a mussel factory, had no plans for university, and definitely didn't think he'd end up flying prime ministers, coordinating COVID vaccines in South Sudan, or living in a tent surrounded by snakes in East Timor. But life had other plans. In this raw, hilarious, and deeply reflective conversation, JC walks us through 20+ years in the New Zealand Air Force, a decade in UN humanitarian aviation, and what it's like raising third culture kids while moving countries every few years. From his first flight (which made him violently sick and almost ruined his aviation dreams), to six months on ice in Antarctica watching Adélie penguins judge him, to navigating Damascus traffic with zero preparation, to being the "grocery man" smuggling supplies into Sudan during sanctions — JC's life is a masterclass in saying yes to opportunities even when you have no idea what you're doing. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔥 What we cover: Growing up in a town where seeing traffic lights was a field trip The mussel factory boss who changed his life The military interview where he froze and thought he blew it His first flight: Top Gun dreams meet vomit reality Flying prime ministers and British military across the globe Damascus 2003: Russian roulette roundabouts and lollipop wielding traffic cops Antarctica: 85 beds, 10 winter survivors, and penguins with personality East Timor in a tent: snakes, netting, and desensitization Meeting his wife in Haiti and joining the UN The 2010 Haiti earthquake: the UN's biggest single loss of life South Sudan during COVID: becoming the vaccine coordinator when no one else could do it Life in Jordan (lovely) vs Sudan (challenging): the grocery smuggling operation Cambodia: why it's safer than expected and why his kids can take tuk tuks alone Food disasters: the crab salad that took him out for 5 days Paris disappointment: why Jules Verne didn't live up to the hype Business class upgrades and the secret to getting them (hint: it's not about the shoes) Advice for expats: question your motivation or you won't survive the hard posts Identity and family: what it means to be Māori when your kids speak French and you live in Cambodia ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⚠️ REAL TALK: This episode is for anyone who's ever wondered if they should take the leap, move abroad, or say yes to something that scares them. JC didn't plan any of this. He just kept saying yes. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 💬 TELL US IN THE COMMENTS: Would YOU have gotten on that first flight after getting violently airsick? Could you live in a tent in East Timor with snakes? What's the most unexpected place life has taken you? Drop your thoughts below 👇 We read every single one. 🔁 Share this with someone who needs to hear that you don't need a plan — you just need to say yes. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🎧 About the show — "Babes, How Did You Get Here?" Hosted by entrepreneur & former Miss Jamaica April Jackson, this podcast dives into the raw, unfiltered stories of people who left the script — swapping comfort for courage, and choosing a life "elsewhere." 🔔 New episodes every week from around the world. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ CHAPTERS: Chapters 00:00:00 Introduction: A Simple Maori Boy from New Zealand 00:00:56 Growing Up in Blenheim: Life Without Traffic Lights 00:03:23 From Mussel Factory to Military: An Unexpected Path 00:06:24 The Interview That Changed Everything 00:12:27 First Flight Experience: When Top Gun Dreams Meet Reality 00:15:31 Global Adventures: From Prime Ministers to Antarctica 00:17:32 Damascus Memories: Lollipops and Russian Roulette Roundabouts 00:21:19 Antarctica: Six Months on Ice 00:34:26 East Timor in a Tent: Military Operations and Snake Encounters 00:39:03 Meeting His Wife and Joining the UN 00:40:27 Haiti Earthquake: The UN's Biggest Loss 00:46:01 South Sudan During COVID: Vaccines and Challenges 00:52:34 Life in Jordan and Sudan: The Grocery Man 01:00:58 Cambodia: Finding Home in Southeast Asia 01:03:02 Food Adventures: From Crab Salad Disasters to Paris Disappointments 01:06:50 Business Class Upgrades and the Art of Travel 01:14:17 Advice for Future Expats: Question Your Motivation 01:27:02 Identity and Family: What It Means to Be Maori ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #JohnCassidy #NewZealand #MaoriPride #MilitaryLife #AirForce #UNLife #HumanitarianWork #Antarctica #EastTimor #Syria #SouthSudan #Haiti #Cambodia #ExpatLife #ThirdCultureKids #MovingAbroad #AviationLife #COVIDResponse #LifeElsewhere #BabesHowDidYouGetHere #AprilJackson #TravelStories #SayYes #AdventureLife #GlobalCitizen #Kiwi