Everything has gotten monotonous. I dont have a problem specifically. Nothing to really complain about. But I am not happy. I'm sad generally. Its not random bouts of home sickness. Its general home sickness. And its fucking my shit up. I dont like to be so down. And I dont know how to fix it.
I think it has something to do with my lack of friends. Mainly because they are all shipping out. Peole are leaving but not necessarily arriving. So thats that. I have booked my flights home and thought it would make me excited/have something to aim for, but instead its just made me feel more down because its so far away.
On another note, I witnessed my first fight up here on Monday. The day began differently for starters - we were closed for smoking. A dead body was coming back into the community and our store had to be smoked so their spirit leaves this world. The thing with this is, that we can be closed for hours just waiting around for them to show up. So it began with us being closed. I was minding my business, stacking the shelves, when all of the Indigenous people that I work with all started heading for the door. I heard something about a fight. I went out to check it out and everyone had gathered on the school oval to watch the fight. One of the ladies I work with walked up there because it was a family member of hers in the fight.
It got a bit rowdy and started to move towards the shop so I decided that I was too white to stay outstide. I went back to stacking my shelves. My boss came in and said the fight had moved to the ceremony ground just behind work. I decided there was no way I could miss this. I went out and there was literally about 300 people all gathered around, yelling an screaming. Not all just young people either. The elders get amongst it too. The funniest part was the Ambulance was already parked up on the sideline waiting for the resulting injuries. People were even there with their babies in prams. Crazy.
So basically it was just a bunch of yelling and screaming for ages until the copper decided that he would pepper spray someone to try and break up the crowd. This one act is probably the stupidest thing I have witnessed while being up here. It is the one thing that actually started the fight rolling. It was intense. People were screaming, dogs and prams flying everywhere. I couldnt believe it. I was maybe 50m away and there was a point when I actually didnt feel safe. It also happened to be the point when the whole mob was coming towards me. However, after about 20minutes the mob broke up and it was over.
I spoke to a friend of mine later in the day who works for a company who are strictly Fly in - Fly out. So they dont get to mix with the community much, and he was saying that they werent allowed to leave their camp because of the fighting. It was interesting how they saw it. And how serious they thought it was, meanwhile I walked home for lunch and didnt have a second thought about it. As I have said previoulsy, they live entirely for the moment here. Once it is over with it is over with. They just move on.
Since the fight, seeing as it has taken me 6 days to finish this blog (it is now saturday) there has still been quite a bit of violence within the community. I would not be supprised if something big happens within the next week, also considering that it is grog handout day, so those who have alcohol will probably consumed theirs by now. But who knows what tomorrow will bring!
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