The Build Up.

At this time of year the Build Up begins. The build up to the wet season that is. On Wednesday night I heard rumours that the "wind had changed direction", meaning that the beginnning of the wet season is not fair away. I didnt really believe this much, thinking that the change of the wind direction happens all the time. Who could possibly know? Well by Friday it was over-cast, hot as hell and we had a shower. Its pretty crazy that after all of the influence that the white man has had, and considering that many these days have lost alot of their skills, that they can still determine the change of season. It is natural instinct to these people. The more I see here, the sadder it gets to think that they are lost in the white world and loosing so much of the precious skills and culture.
However, everyday I make a point of talking to and meeting as many locals as I can. The way I see it is that if they like me, they will help me if I am ever in a dangerous situation, or lost or anything of that sort. The more people that I meet the more I realise that there are alot of people - white and black, that are doing whats best for the community.
I met a young fellow in Jabiru on the weekend, Bernard. The more I got to know him the more I was impressed by the things that he is doing for the community. He is only 19 and is the Manager of Child Safety. He was handed a child at the age of 13 because his brother could not take care of her. An intense way to become father. He plans to become a police man, and travel to Europe. I love meeting local people that actually have aspirations. An aim to be better people, and create better lives for their families. Unfortunatley there is not a very high success rate, as the more money that they make, the more their families will take from them.
Jabiru this weekend taught and important lessing in trusting people. I know that I too easily trust people. I am not very cautious and think the best of everyone. And once again it has gotten the better of me. I am beginning to notice that most white people that are here have only come because they were in a rut, just broken up from a boyfriend, had no point in life, etc; they are a generally troubled bunch of people. No matter how close I think I am to someone here, theres a good chance the next day they wont talk to you. Its fucking ridiculous. I dont know if it is because they are used to people coming and going so much that they dont bother to get to know people until they have hung around for a while, or if they are generally rude. I dont get it. Im a bit over it to be quite honest. I think for the next two weeks or so I will stick to myself.
Along with this the general mood of the entire community is likely to change in the near future due to the build up. The weather is about to get extremely intense and hot. And it is likely the wet will start early apparently. Being stuck inside does things to people. Lets just wait and see how that goes I spose.

On the way back from Jabiru I got to see a crocodile again. It was huge. I think it could have swallowed me whole and I wouldnt have touched the sides. He was just chilling on the bank. And people were just fishing nearby. Crazy fucks. We then stopped off halfway home to check out some rocks on the side of the road. The whole of Arnhem land is laiden with crazy rocks formations. It is hardly believeable that they have just developed that way over thousands of years. Anyway, we stopped off to check out these rocks and there were Aboriginal paintings on them. It was so amazing. A goanna, a turtle and what looked like warrior that had been covered up. We then continued on a little further to some rocks that a friend had pointed out earlier and we decided to check them out. We did a little bush trek to get thru to them, and it was 100% worth it. There were paintings of men with spears and heaps of other stuff. One thing in particular was the Wandjina spirit. It was so raw on the rocks, like it had been done yesterday. Its amazing to think that so long ago in that same place, there was people, possibly living at this rock and doing these paintings. The Wandjina spirit (pictured below) is the bringer of all and the most powerful spirit. Possibly, like their God I suppose. I didnt take my own pictures of this particular painting because it was possibly a sacred site, that I may not have been allowed on, mostly due to this painting. And adding to this it had a weird feel about it. I am not particularly religious but will am not at all afraid to admit that Black Magic scares the shit out of me. Some of the stories I have heard are enough to give people nightmares. So I opted not to take the photo of the spirit and leave it up to Google instead. But it was still awesome! I have some photos of the goanna and turtle paintings that I will post later.





However I most finish up this post. I need to recover as much as possible from my weekend before work tomorrow.
Oh and just before I go, I visited the site where the "Rainbow Serpent" story was created, this is the most well known story amongst most Australians, not just Indigenous. Its an amazing wetland just outside of Jabiru. As much as this place is starting to get me down, there are so many incredible things up here that kind of make it all worth it.