The Displaced African

Before reading this, make sure you read:Part one of my story as an African immigrant.

PART TWO

Second Half of 2002

• Land in Australia during 2002 World Cup Finals ( missed the game ). The place is cold though I arrived in shorts and a t-shirt. Excited to be here.
• Parents have already selected a high school for me. The school has two Africans, both Kenyans amazingly, in it: one is an absolutely gorgeous girl and the other, a boy, ended up being one of my best friends later on. When we try to take the train from the city to the school, they deem a 2 hours, 40 kilometer train ride as “too far out” ( less than 15 minutes from where the family lives now). Instead chose to leave me in a boarding school more than 100 kilometres outside of the city.
• Over the moon that it is a mixed boarding school and proceed to act as though the women in the school are my birthright and making friends is automatic: NOT!
• In six months go from the coolest new accessory in the school to social pariah. Christmas season I am alone in a room listening to Neville brothers (that guy’s voice is high!!) sing “These Foolish Things”. Vow to never feel this useless and expendable and unwanted ever again. I will mean something to this world: Defining moment!
• As part of work experience at school I get to work at a radio station. First morning I am on air with the host for a short while. Second day I am hosting my own three hour show with two ladies and by the third day I am offered my own youth show every Saturday. Too lonely and distraught to stay: I move back to Melbourne to be with the family.
• While home, I begin to try and become a valuable human being by bulking up and losing fat (not knowing it’s quite difficult to do both at the same time). I try working out four hours every day and going on starvation diets. After a couple of days of doing this, I am on the floor crawling because I binge ate so much damn-sweet-it-practically-melted-in-my-mouth-cake.
• Become a bodybuilding and health website fanatic and read them everyday. Information very contradictory. Keep pushing weights using diagrams that come with the bench press equipment we bought. Overtrain until I develop stretch marks on both my still-puny arms. Lonely and alone, thank God I have my family!

First Half 2003

• Transfer over to a Christian college run by the local church. Everybody knows everybody and almost everyone in the school attends the local church. In retrospect absolutely fantastic people. However, didn’t think so at the time. Follow the events through with me……
• Still shaken from the events of 2002, I try to run away from the country in my first week in the school: I intend on stealing my mother’s credit card and flying back to Africa. I tell my mother my plans and she quickly squashes them.
• All the kids in my class bully a kid called T who knows he is a loser and acts the part (sadly he ended up going to prison for trying to rob a sex store many years later). I like the guy and become friends with him. Develop disdain for people who bully losers or people who are already down. Don’t think highly of my clasmates at this point.
• Begin to learn why some Western men fear women: After answering, “Yes” to the question, “Am I mean?” to a girl who I shall cull, Lulu, assembles all the women in the class to start abusing me. At first, I can handle abuse but fear grips me and I feel I must do something about it. Go into a rage blackout when I see the girl and call her every obscenity this side of the milky way.
• One of the things I say to Lulu, “ You don’t know who I am and you don’t know where I came from,” between calling her a female canine many times ( very apologetic in hindsight. If you are reading this,”Lulu”-you know yourslef- I am sorry and I forgive you-she asked me to forgive her 5 years ago).
• Get called into the principal’s office: She took the “You don’t know who I am and where I am going.” statement to mean that, like 50 cent, I will bring gangs upon her to beat her. Ideas that will form the Jungle Fever article begin to take root.
• After my rage blackout no one wants to be my friend and I lose my only good friend, a girl called N. Alone, lonely, expendable, useless and worthless yet again. I go to work.
• I begin to study meditation. Try it and fail one of many times- I was trying to force relaxation (oxymoron if I ever I saw one).
• Though I am going to a Christian school, and was raised in the church, I obsessively read a site which explains all the problems with Christianity (apparently the Catholic Church has a book full of bibilical inaccuracies…..scary). Begin studying Eastern religions and philosophies and spend a lot of time feeling like a self-important, self-indulgent philisopher.
• After long periods of philisophizing, I come to a conclusion: I don’t know beyond a 100% shadow of a doubt why I was put here. None of us do. I am here. I am blessed. One day my life will matter, because I will make sure it will. May as well make the best of this life. Defining moment!

If you haven’t, make sure you read:Part one.

Continued on: Part three/ Part four/Part five