The Shame of my Perma-Tan

This past Saturday was my first time at the SAIL (Sudanese Australian Inegrated Learning) Centre. I'm going to teaching ESL there on Saturdays as a volunteer. The centre is actually a dilapidated chruch out in Footscray (a very multicultual suburb east of Melbourne) that serves as a community centre for newly arrived Sudanese refugees. It was like being in a different country as soon as I stepped inside. Ebony faces with curious eyes were everywhere, kids, toddlers, adults, seniors. The Sudanese put my perma-tan to shame. The situation of these people is just so unfortunate. Many wives have lost their husbands and lots of the kids were born on refugee camps. So in order excape civil uprisings in the Sudan they've come to Australia to start a new life. Can you imagine having to leave behind everything you've ever know to be as life in a second and start all over again from nothing? Boy, do I feel lucky.

I didn't have to teach that Saturday, I was just to participate in a tour of the place and see other tutors in action. Its a very energetic environment, I'm excited that I found out about his volunteering opportunity. After the tour and after having met one of the tutors, I took the tram back to the train station and stopped in at Footscary Market. It reeked of fish and dead meat. There were heaps of different types of stalls selling anything from legumes to nuts to cheeses to tacky home decor. The area where the market is seems to have a high population of Vietnamese. A good nubmer of signs for salons, restaurants, trinket shops and travel agencies were in Vietnamese. Interesting. I finally found some queso fresco, bought 1/4 kilo for $2.80AU and dashed out of there. I couldnt stand the sight of dead animals cut into all sorts of shapes and chunks nor the smell of dead fish.