Birthday Weekend 19-20 Nov By Rob

Birthday Blog. 19 November 2011

Birthdays are a funny thing.  A celebration of the day you were born.  Our culture (white, angilo-saxon Caucasian middle Australia) reveres the anniversary of the birth.  Birthdays are often look forward to as a day of rest, and in many cases, there are gifts and presents, being spoiled and just generally being made to feel special for nothing other than to have turned another year older.  At 43 today, I think about the lunacy of such shenanigans and muse at the culture we have.  Yesterday (19^th Nov) was actually the “birthday”  but another quirk on our family is that a birthday is often an event that spans a weekend or even longer.  Parties are sometimes used to celebrate the occasion, but as we merge into adulthood, parties seem to be bestowed on those that are having a special birthday. 18ths, 21sts, 30, 40, 50, and so on.  You are probably wondering why I am speaking about a celebration with which you are all familiar, in a blog that journals our experiences in the Torres?   Well I am coming to that, so don’t be so impatient.

First, the last month.  Here on Darnley we have had an interesting month of fun and games.  On 11.11.11 I was First to find Australia’s most northern Geocache…and for those that know the www.geocaching.com treasure hunting game, that is a achievement.  There was the usual sporadic sick patient came in and needed to be flown out.  The Island has had contractors for a telecommunication giant that we all love to hate, have been here fixing, or maintaining equipment.  Our internet speed is appalling, and with the salt air and the high winds on the top of the hill where the tower is, metal fatigue and weather takes its toll.  There have also been Concrete contractors here rebuilding the roads.

These boys with limited hygiene, poor nutrition, high alcohol and drug intake are up here chasing huge dollars; and poisoning their livers in the process.  Anyone with a basic nutrition understanding would know that good nutrition, healthy lifestyle = healthy immune system, and this area is often sadly lacking in these itinerant workers.  The climate up here above 9degrees south is one that breed are funkiest of tropical bacteria and parisites.  The smallest scratch from slipping with a screwdriver, or skin burn from constant contact with cement powder turns rancid in a matter of hours in young men with next to no resilience. 

That last month has been a potpourri of skin infections, dental issues, and general health breakdown.  One boy who was sick and tired of toothache decided to go “old school” to get relief, and armed with some hefty mates with a set of pliers, and a skin full of local grog, sought to effect his own dental extraction.  Now this would not normally be an issue in middle Australia, where pain killers and dentists are plentiful, but in an environment where salt water is not the same as home, skin wounds and dental sockets tend to get infected fast.  The pliers in this boy slipped and he snapped his tooth off, leaving an infected cavity that resembled a volcanic crater with it’s own sulfurous cesspool of organisms intermingled with food residue.

250km from the nearest dentist, and he gets me!!  Ive got dental solution, toys to squirt saline in the crater, and antibiotics.  Ife got a good light, some sharp thingies, and this magic stuff called Cavit.  It is like window seal putty.  You mold it into tiny balls, and push it into the  hole in the tooth.  Kind of like blue-tak in its consistency but when you ask the patient to rinse and spit with cold water, it sets the filling like cement.  Now I know what you are thinking.  Why would Robert seal an infected cavity?  Well I wouldn’t.  Through the magic of artistic writing, the time line in this story has been skewed.  I treated him with painkillers and cleaning and antibiotics one week, and got him back for a filling a week later…but this job is soo cool, and throws curve balls all the time.

Another white worker with toothache sought refuge in Vodka and Panadol.  Those in the industry know that more than 16 panadol is lethal poisoning.  He had consumed 72 panadol (3 every 2 hours) over the previous 2 days, and when he presented peeing blood, abdominal pain and with abnormal liver function studies, it was time to call God’s mixmaster  (the helicopter) and get him to TI.  Paracetamol OD be it accidental or intentional is a recipe for a coffin, and with a huge consumption of alcohol to numb his toothache, on top of the poisoning, he was lucky to still be alive.  I heard that he was discharged from TI a couple of days later, and was back on the job in Boigu Island north west of here.  My mate Gary on Boigu was looking after him and he was doing OK.

The month has not been without it’s ugly moments.  Amy has been bullied at school a bit while we have been here, and last week a boy hit her (normal thing for a kid who sees it daily).  We were livid, and when we tried to have a yarn with the Kid, his mother got a little toey with Jo.  I thought that Jo was going to thump her, but after calming down, and a mediation with the school, the mummies came to an understanding that they were just doing what mummies do…protect their cubs.  All is good now, but ugly business.

Now, some awesome news.  The Coles order came.  Boxes and boxes of real groceries!!  The pantry looks normal again.  Opening the boxes was like Christmas…expensive but really lifted our spirits.  We have TimTams and Tacos and other little tastes of home.  It is so nice.  My Mum and Dad come tomorrow, so it is so good that the groceries came in time for them.

Mum is a nervous flyer.  She hates little planes.  She is going to be, either very brave, or very drunk!  Today they fly to Horn Island and spend the night in the Gateway resort, about which I have blogged previously.  Then first thing tomorrow morning, they are off in the Westwing to Darnley via Murray Island.  I didn’t have the heart to tell mum that it was two take offs and two landings.  I also didn’t tell mum that Darnley has one of the shortest and most difficult air strips in the Torres, but I have always been taught by here, that if you are in for a penny , you are in for a pound.!!

Dad is like a kid waiting for Christmas.  I am so excited to show them the beautiful raw paradise that Erub is.  The beaches, and the fishing, and the catch your own sardines for dinner, and the Jetty, and the shells.  I want them to experience the reef from above and below the water line.  This anticipation is a welcome emotion.  And as I sit here looking at the coral reef view from my kitchen/lounge, I think to myself…wow, how lucky we are.

My birthday this year was out of this world…literally.  It was experienced in a plave that so few will ever see.  An elder told me the other day, that more people have been to Antarctica than Darnley Island.  Isnt that a special location for a birthday.  In a culture that reveres birthday celebrations, I find myself in one where Dates of birth are seldom remembered, and many people don’t accurately know how old they are.  Birthdays are not big occasiona here.  18^th and 21^st and 80^th birthdays are common, but it is amazing how many people put 1.1.19xx or 1.7.19xx as their date of birth, because they just don’t really know.

Last thing I wanted to talk about this blog is funerals.  A respected elder , a man in his early 50s (ill let that sink in) …. Died last week.  I am not sure it is culturally appropriate to mention names, but for the purpose of this blog, it is not necessary.  The man will be expatriated back her from where he died in Cairns, and the whole community will lay him to rest.  The event will be next Saturday, and the whole island will shut down.  I am sad for his family and community, and respectfully will attend the funeral with my family.  It will be a spectacle of colour, culture and sound.  It will be an opportunity for Mum and Dad to see the community spirit and connectedness of the people here, and a testament to perhaps one of the strongest lessons that Jo , the kids and I have learned here.  That is the lesson of togetherness. One we perhaps don’t really get in mainstream Australia.  With that thought I will leave you.  Enjoy your Sunday, enjoy your week, and most of all, seek to connect with someone that you havn’t spoken to in a while, because it is good medicine.

From 9 Degrees South

 Yawo