Gloucester's Kerry Marston has taught and learned aboard

So when the opportunity came up to live in Chiang Mai, it was an easy decision for her. She believed it would be a great opportunity for their young children to learn what life is like for other people living outside of Australia.

"I wanted them to have a multicultural experience. To learn there is a different way of doing things," Kerry explained. "The biggest culture shock was feeding the family because everything was different from the cuts of meat to the types of fruits and vegetables."

The family lived there for four years from 1981 to 1984. During that time, Kerry got herself immersed into the culture and the community. Having completed a degree in biochemistry and botany with a post graduate diploma of education, she contacted the local university to see if she could teach English.

"I taught English there for 12 months - mainly the technical topics due to my science background," she said. "Then I got a job teaching science and math at the school my kids went to."

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She continued to work there until they moved back to Australia. But Kerry didn't only just teach while in Thailand, she also learned.

"I had language lessons five days a week. I wouldn't say I was fluent in Thai, but by the end, I was able to hold a conversation and could read at a year two level."

She also learned to cook authentic Thai cuisine.

The family returned to Australia in time for the eldest child to prepare for high school and they stayed until all three had moved onto university. Then the opportunity came up for David and Kerry to work on a project in Xingtai, northern China which they took up on their own.

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This time the experience offered new challenges with language and navigating the different types of foods available at the market. But the couple spent the next two years in the mid-90s working on the rural development and travelling whenever they could.

When their time was up, they returned to Australia for a few years before the next opportunity for an overseas project arose. At that stage, Kerry had landed a job working for the National Standard Commission regulating measurements for Asia Pacific exports. So when David was offered a project in Xingcheng, southern China in 2001, Kerry was able to continue work a little while joining him on the move.

As always, she also helped out on the project. However, this time she pushed for a wage instead of the free labour she'd provided in the past.

"I whinged about the partners volunteering and so they paid me. It was Chinese wages but it was something," Kerry laughed.

She worked in the office with the translators and helped ensure there was an accurate translation on the documentation.

"I loved it. It gave me a reason to be there and gave them extra tuition in English," she recalled. "I worked with the staff on an outcome based system for when they approached the villages.

She was essentially training the trainers.

Just like in Thailand, Kerry had language lessons five days a week. In the end she was able to hold a simple conversation and was able to bargain at the markets.

"Thai was not as hard to learn as Chinese. Chinese was hard because there is no alphabet. I was not as fluent as in Thai but I got to a basic conversation stage."

After their last two year stint in China, the couple returned to Sydney and were ready to leave the big city life behind.

"After living in southern China, where we had a house overlooking the rice fields and karst mountains, we felt claustrophobic in Sydney."

Soon after, they purchased a property in Gloucester. Since moving to the region, Kerry has become involved in a few organisations - Energise Gloucester for her love of science and the Gloucester Garden Club for her passion for botany.