Who Can You Trust? Who Will Listen?

Hey everyone,

It's been awhile, but now I'm back and better than ever! So, it's march... and, where to begin. Well, let me just start off by telling you that I have a new volunteer placement at Saint Vincent de Paul Society. I go out on a night van to various places and I get to talk to all sorts of people who come to get food and something to drink. I will now proceed to tell you about one particular encounter that you will find amusing. I like to call this man "the white 'black' man."

So the van was stationed in Civic (which is the city part of Canberra) and I'm attending to this 20 year old man who asked me if we had a superman costume (that is another story for another time). Well, out of no where this man shouts out to me "ARE YOU ABORIGINAL!?!" Startled, I look around and see this caucasian man in his late 40's with wild looking eyes. I can tell that he'd been smoking somthing so i was careful in saying "no, i'm African American." At this point my heart was pounding cause he was pointing to his shirt which had a symbol on it. I had no idea what the symbol meant but I was thinking "O, lord, please don't let him be a racist man who is high right now, this could go horribly wrong!" Well, this man just looks at me and shouts out "ME TOO!" I would have laughed if I wouldn't have been so relieved. Then he procedes to tell me that his "people" have been on this land for 250,000 years! He hates all the "English" people and proceeded to tell me that all Americans were dumb because we still use "feet and inches." "I mean how dumb can you Americans be!?!" I think were his direct words. I would have been offended if I thought he was coherent, but seeing as he had just told me that he once drove from Wyoming to Brooklyn in 45 minutes... and the fact that he was calling himself African American, when he just said that his family was from Australia and can date back 250,000 years ago PLUS it was quite evident that he was caucasian... I didn't take anything he said personally (did I forget to mention that he asked me if I was smoking weed, and then admitted to having a few joints on him and wanted to share the love with his black sista?). His parting words were "Now, you be careful, my sista, cause these white people out here cannot be trusted. We have to have each other's back, cause I'm your brotha... I'll be seeing you around now, and you remember what I just told you... trust no one!" He said his name was Jason, but honestly, I don't know if I can even trust that as a true fact.

This man is only one of many that i have met and talked to for the past 3 months since I last updated. I also have on record a man who believes he's an angel, a woman who believes every man on the south side of the lake wants to rape her, and not to mention the woman who believes the machines in the dentist, police cars, ambulences, and taxis make your teeth fall out and is being forced to write an obituary for a friend who committed suicide about a year or two ago. The people I meet, and the stories I hear are not for the faint of heart, but I feel as though I am growing from this experience. Listening is key to a relationship, however messed up it may be. Sometimes it's not what you say/respond that is important, but it's just your presence that makes the impact... and that's my goal.