Kukembak gudwan daka.

Today was a good day. I had a wonderful day off from working in the store. I spent it shoveling a mixture of algae and cow manure out of water troughs. It was quite relaxing. Actually I do much prefer the physical work to sitting around working the store, I mean that is the whole reason I came out here anyway. I have the rest of my life to sit at a desk.

I don’t really understand how the manure actually gets in to the water in the quantities that it exists in there. I mean for the most part, the cattle face the water mouth side first. They don’t really have much incentive to make the effort to turn a 180 and do their business. Not to mention they have a MILLION other acres in which they can and do do that business.

As Rasmus and I were cleaning one of the troughs, there were probably about a hundred cattle around trying to get to the water and drink. They would come in the gates and get really close and look mad at us for being in the way. Also we had Buster there with us and I think they thought he was a dingo or something because they made really angry sounding noises that I have never heard them make before. I was getting a bit nervous that they might charge us so I chased them out of the yards and I put a stick across the opening in the gate. Just one small stick. The cattle were so funny, they wanted to get in and go to the water so badly and they could very easily just walk right through the stick and not even feel it. But they would just walk up to it, look at it and think about the problem in front of them for a while. Then they would look back at the other cattle as if saying “Help me out here guys, I can’t figure this out” Then they would try to go under the stick and realized that they were too big. Eventually after much impatient mooing and blankly staring at the stick they would give up saying “I just don’t think it’s possible.” 

The troughs vary WIDELY in their hygienic condition. The first on we cleaned was filthy beyond all imagining, but it didn’t smell that bad. The next one was less dirty, but smelled revolting, Algae and manure soup. But then the very last one we did I would say was clean enough to drink out of. . . .  maybe. There was a bit of sand at the bottom and a little algae on the sides but the water looked clean enough. Fortunately I had plenty of water in my pack so I did not have to find out its cleanliness.

Later on it we went out to Red Rock (a big rock formation in the middle of a wide open plain) to watch the sunset and what a sunset it was. Keep in mind that the sunset is fantastic here every single day. But usually there aren’t any clouds to make it really interesting. But today there were big puffy well defined clouds all over and the colors were spectacular. The coolest thing was that the sun was actually behind the clouds, but as it sank to the horizon it lit up the clouds making it look like the clouds were actually behind the sun. I’ve never seen anything like it before. And so an hour was spent cracking open beers, messing around with buster, chucking rocks off a cliff, hollering profanity at the top of our lungs with no one around to hear and deciding that we had it way better here than backpackers who just go to Sydney, see the opera house and blow all their money on booze.

Two days later......

We made a really awesome lasagna the other night. I thought it was going to be way too rich because we put like 500g of cheese and a kilo of meat and made the sauce with butter and flour but it turned out really well.

And Saturday (was that yesterday?) was probably the busiest day at the store that we have had since I got here. Family after family showed up and cleaned us out of soda and candy and canned corned beef. I think one of the other station stores in the area closed so they all decided to come to Delmore before their kangaroo hunt. I don’t think they got anything that day by the way but Tom saw some of their drawings in the sand when he went to check a bore. They use the sand drawings as sort of signs or maps for other groups to say “we didn’t find crap over here, go check that way…etc”

I am starting to pick up on simple parts of their language though. For instance they say “ka-la” when they are finished with something. As if to say “ok we’re done here” or I’m finished with this. And they seem to add the suffix “----ielo” to mean give that to me. So if they wanted bread they would say “bread-ielo”. And certain words of theirs I think came from English. For instance I think they call cars “motokai” from motor car. And banana is “bananan” HAHA and there was a girl Megan who worked here when I first got here and for what ever reason they call her Megaleen. I’m not entirely sure why that is easier to say but it is what it is. I would think that this was just one person mispronouncing the words but they all seem to say them the same way. 

They also make use of a lot of sign and body language in general conversation. For instance if they are saying that something is going to happen later on they point at the sky and move their hand across it, meaning when the sun has moved to a different point. And there are a bunch of signs that Kathleen uses that may or may not actually have any meaning or relation for that matter, to what she is trying to tell you. I haven’t really figured that out yet.

It’s funny how certain this do get lost in translation for language to language. The grammar of one language may cause some one to say certain things in different ways when they are learning a new language. For example if they are trying to ask about amounts of things we have in the store they just say “Something? Or nothing?” but it is the same with everything else. Like when the phone rings and I answer it Kathleen always asks “Someone? Or no one?” or in the store it’s “Meat. Something? Or nothing?”

I might be completely wrong about all of the language stuff but I think it’s all pretty interesting. It’s not like being in France or Italy or something, this language and culture is COMPLETELY foreign to me but you do pick up on things. I don’t know if I’ve already written about this but it turns out that they certain colors they wear mean different things, like they wear white to funerals (white is the color associated with death for them) and they wear red if they want to fight or find a date. Also different families won’t shop in the store at the same time. They seem to value privacy and staying out of the business of others. If Kathleen’s family is in the shop and Freddie’s family shows up, Freddie’s family will wait outside until Kathleen’s is done shopping. I think it’s a politeness thing, they are obviously friendly to each other I think they just respect each others privacy.

Another interesting thing is the way they shop. Don calls it a “waterhole mentality” which makes a bit of sense. If there is a lot of something on the shelf they will buy A LOT of it. But if there are only a few left, even of something they want they won’t buy more than one or two. I think they look at our store as a sort of store room and if they see that supplies are running low they will try to save for the supply drought. Haha except for soda. They will always buy soda.

I am so glad that I got this chance to come out and work in this place. This certainly is as true of an outback experience as you can get. I think that most people just come to Alice, look at the aboriginal art in the galleries, go for a hike in the mountains, see uluru and never actually speak once to an aboriginal person. But here I am getting offered bush plums by Freddie Jones, listening to Kathleen tell me about the Kangaroo hunt while I mix her paint and pushing around cattle and hurtling across the bush at 90 mph in a ute. I am very lucky to be able to do this. Haha and get paid for it.

I should be going to bed actually as there will be mustering in the morning. I may get to see the helicopter action this time! Last time I just did the yard work but I may be in a ute while the helicopter herds the cattle. It should be pretty awesome.

OH ALSO BIG NEWS. I have decided on a date for my departure from Delmore. The 11^th of July. That will make it four months exactly since I got here on March 11^th. I was thinking of leaving a bit earlier, but the combination of getting to muster more and needing money (or lack of spending more like it) was worth staying another few weeks. But the plan is still to hang out in Alice for a few days, maybe do a hike on the Larapinta trail, then try to find some backpackers heading to Darwin, then around to Cairns and beyond. I want to be in Cairns or nearby Port Douglass for my birthday though.

It’s weird how long the month ahead of me seems even despite the rapid pace at which the last three have flown past me. But the expansion of the universe continues to speed up I suppose.

OH AND I THINK I SAW THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION TONIGHT. We were out doing a night run checking bores and I looked up and thought I saw a plane, (which was weird enough) but it didn’t blink or have red lights on it and it was too bright. Especially considering that it flew in a slow arc across the sky rather than in some what of a straight line like planes. I can’t think of any satellite that would be that bright either, and I have seen plenty of satellites out here. Yes the sky is so clear you can watch man made object pass by in orbit. It’s funny I have started to be able to tell my direction by the stars here. I guess its one of those things like learning to read street signs in the city. Although it’s much more useful because you can always tell what direction you are heading no matter what the ground or the road is doing.

Ok I think that three pages in word is enough for one blog post and I have to get up early anyways. MUSTERING. I’m excited.