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Current Mood

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tired yet determined

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Some dot points about the last four months of my existence: 

• Left Timor the day after the President was shot. Witnessed the Australian defence Force tanks rolling down the street past our clinic. Was breifed by an Australian Army guy that if evacuation came to it; we could not take the Timorese boys we were living with.
• Got to the airport to be turned away by immigration who told me my plane was not due for another 2 hours. I came back two hours later to find my plane had gone without me. My friend Louise argued vehemently with the officials for an hour in Tetum for them to let me on the plane. They finally allowed me through and I arrived back in Darwin several hours later.
• Going to pay the airport tax i finally discovered there was money missing from my purse, and realised one of the boys I was living with had been stealing small amounts from my purse regularly, explaining permanently being short 10-20-40 US dollars.
• within a day in Darwin the motorbike burn on my leg became severely infected, my leg swelling up and the sore going black with blood and pus permanently oozing out of it. With barely a penny left to my person I had to beg a kindly French back packer to drive me to the emergency ward of Royal Darwin Hospital, the same hospital Ramos Horta was in being treated for bullet wounds. I spent 3 hours on an antibiotic drip, then while barely able to walk lugged my stuff to the airport back to Sydney, arrived, was met by Mum, and taken to the Emergency ward of Nepean Hospital where I spent the rest of the day on a drip.
• I stayed my parents place for 2 weeks, on an antibiotic drip every day, until the streptocochus infection had stopped spreading and started shrinking.
• I spent my time helping a med student called Xavier try to track down an organisation to fund a 6 year old Timorese boy's treatment for acute lymphocytic leukemia. We could find noone who would pay the doctors to perform the treatment. The boy, Eusebio, died back in Timor, of a kind of cancer that has an 80% cure rate with treatment. We failed him.
• I got a job with the Office of Aboriginal Health.
• I started uni; and received a giant kick in the ego from Biostatistics and epidemiology, in which lectures fly over my head, and hours pouring over the text books yield little understanding.
• I went to the Melbourne Comedy festival, after years of wanting to go.
• I've paid a fair chunk of my Timor accrued debt back,last week finishing the portion i owed my Dad, which felt good. Got a fair way to go with the credit card though.
• I've been exploring and photographing warehouses, with a cunning plan that will yet be launched! This has a way to go yet.
• I swallowed my fear and went busking on Sunday. In half an hour i earned $3.40. Can you believe that some people ACTUALLY come up to you and put 5 cents in your hat?
• Pablo and I have wicked and wonderful adventures planned for 2009, but are all currently contingent on me passing biostats, getting out of debt and not stuffing other things up.

Onwards and upwards!