This morning I was up nice and early to get down to City West Farm. I was very fortunate last night, as I went past a bakers delight shop just before they closed up and scored a free loaf of whole meal bread. I made some honey sandwiches before I left to catch the train. The farm is located only 5 minutes past the city, only two train stops past the city centre.
The day was great. I met a good bunch of people and learnt a little bit about the centrelink system. A fair few of the people working here have to sign a book to verify that they have come in, in order to receive payments. I reckon this is a great set up as it is encouraging people to actually work for their money. It is a way of instilling a work ethic into what many would label as dol bludgers. I met a diverse range of people - Turkish Cypriot man, an Aboriginal man and a few non-aboriginal Australians. The Turkish-Cypriot told me a few stories of his homeland and about the Greek invasion a few years back.
I found the Aboriginal bloke to be a great guy. He was a shy fella and displayed immature mannerisms, but the mannerisms were no different to any of the other middle age people here on the dol. I felt like I wanted to help this fella and spur him on to get into the workforce. I felt this guy had an excuse to be on the dol. He has moved around quite a bit and worked on a few cattle stations up north on Aboriginal land. He told me one of the first things the "blackies" taught him were to collect bush tucker. You can imagine this man, full of wisdom but none that seems to be able to carry into mainstream work force. He said "I always wanted to be a doctor, but I'm no good with math! That's not really [math] part of the culture up north west". He also explained to me he comes from a family of hard workers and that it's been passed on to him..
The day provided many great insights, environmentally, governmentally, socially and culturally. To my surprise City West Farm also provided a free lunch from their fresh produce.
Tonight Matt and I headed down to the Essendon Fremantle game. This was great. It started out one sided against Essendon and then turned around in the second half. I tell you what I was getting quite annoyed in the first half with all the Freo supporters around me! I was wrapped in the end as Essendon ended up winning by four points!
Tomorow morning I'm off nice and early. After tonight's footy game I made sure all my gear was packed and that I had everything I needed. I am expecting this next part of the journey to be the most difficult so far. I really need to make sure I'm organised and have everything I need.
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