First day of work today was pretty cruisy but ultra crazy at the same time. My place of work is basically a general store, they sell everything from basic groceries to washing machines and car parts. There isnt much to do so everyone kinda just bludges around all day. I felt like I spent most of the day on breaks. Very chilled. I will be taking my Ipod tomorrow so I can listen to it while I work, like most others do. It doesnt matter what I wear to work, some people dont even wear shoes.
My department today was the cigarette department. I was also in charge of selling phone re-charge, power and water cards (they have to pre-pay their power her - they being the Indigenous) and fuel cards (same deal as the electricity). The best part about this department is that I get to be in a cage all day. Which is awesome because I feel super safe in there. I had one customer spend over $500 on cigarettes. Apparently its not pay day until tomorrow so god knows where they get the coin from. Things seemed to be going pretty smoothly most of the morning, until one of the older ladies came in, in a rage and threw all our paper bags off the counter (they only have paper bags here because of the rubbish problem) then picked up the dustpan and broom that was on the counter and threw it on the ground and smashed it and walked out. I was baffled. Everyone just put their heads back down and kept working. A little bit later on another one of the ladies came in just screaming at everyone and picked up the paper bags and walked over to where my cage is and whacked her mother over the head with them who was using the ATM. Her mum just stood there and kept using the ATM like nothing had happend. The crazy daughter then went and got a trolley from the other side of the store, and ran while pushing the trolley towards her mother trying to ram her. The mother saw what she was doing and just turned around and kept using the ATM. The crazy lady ended up completely missing and ramming into the brick wall right in front of me. Then walked out screaming. The police came. And that was it, everyone went back to work. All before lunch.
Some of the people here have their money controlled by the government because they have sniffed too much petrol while they were younger and now have brain damage. Nothing here is out of the ordinary.
Walking to work this morning I could hear the song "The Fall of Rome" absolultely blaring. this is at like 7:50am. Then next thing I see this bus go past and notice that the song is following it. My brother then tells me how the bus driver drives around the whole community playing the music as loud as possible as its the only way to wake the indigenous up for them to go to school. After she does the first lap of the community she then does another to actually pick the kids up. Its totally crazy!! Possibly one of the most entertaining thing ive ever seen.
Aside from these spikes of entertainment I find myself uncontrollably breaking down and holding back my tears constantly. I never thought I could miss my friends so much. I always knew how close we were but I just thought I'd be sweet. At this stage Im totally not. I think my biggest fear is that I will go home and my friends will have forgotten about me and I will have nothing there. Realistically I know my mates will always be there for me but the isolation I am feeling here is feeding my paranoia. I am hoping this is just the instant hit of emotions as its all happend so quickly. I really hope I will get used to this super quickly and deal with it all quite well.
Only time will tell.
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