Last Day of Volunteering - Night 30

After packing up our gear and giving the cabins a thorough clean we made our way down to Buckley’s Hole for one last go at the weeds. Again the morning sky was cloudy, but soon gave way to a beautiful spring day. Shane was off for the day, so the CVA crew worked in anonymity until about 11 am and then called it good. While geographically it didn’t seem like we made much ground, in fact we had removed many hundreds of pounds of weeds (and planted a fair amount of trees and shrubs) thus greatly improving the growing environment for the local flora. A quick lunch by the sea and we were back at the volunteer house by 2pm.

My volunteer session in Australia being over, I’d like to say that I had a great time doing it. Would I do it again? Absolutely. With this company? Never. First off, I think the jobs were poorly estimated, thus we spent too much time doing nothing. Secondly, there were too many Koreans. Don’t take me for a racist, I have nothing against the Korean people, it is just that most of us choose these opportunities to experience a variety of cultures and when 60 to 70 percent of the volunteers are all one nationality, that doesn’t quite fit the expectations. That and most of the Koreans volunteers are doing it for the certificate which they tell me goes a long way on the resume. I’d much rather work with people who are in it because they care, not because it will help them down the road.

I finished my laundry and finally had some

Beers at Birdee's

success uploading photos to my journal. Around 7 I left for the Valley to meet Daniel, Callum, and Anna at Birdee’s. Once again the bar was hoping, leading me to vote it best hostel bar in Brisbane (though I have only been to two of them). Chris and Sabine showed up as well, along with some Irish girls. We played a supersized version of Jenga, which I am proud to report I did not once spill. I even met some local Brissy girls – a first for me. After setting a mandatory going home time of 11 pm for myself, due to my early bus the next morning, I finally managed to pull myself from the bar at 12:15. Getting off the train in Albion I heard someone yell my name and who is it but Koala (actually Rex) the sleepy Korean guy. He reaches in his jacket and pulls out two beers for the walk home. A fitting end to my volunteering days at CVA.

Barroom Jenga

Not having an alarm and not trusting myself to wake up in time, I took my mattress and sleeping bag out to the covered porch, trusting the sun and the birds to wake me in time for my bus the next morning.

What I Learned Today: Giving myself a curfew is a colossal waste of time.

written by

exumenius on November 9, 2007 from Brisbane, Australia

from the travel blog: Kiwis and Kangaroos

Send a Compliment

comment on this...