Australia Day

So apparently January 26th is the Australian version of Independence Day, so since today is that day (in Michigan at least, it's already the 27th in Sydney) I figured it would be an appropriate day to start this blog...mostly since this trip represents a lot of independence for me and also because I hope that with something specific to write about, the beginning of this blog won't be as awkward as I fear it could be.

So from the children's books about Australia that I've been reading, here's a history lesson for you. In 1788 this Captain landed his ship with almost 800 British prisoners and 200 soldiers (with their wives and children) on board.  Some of the prisoners were murderers, but some were just pickpockets that Britain decided they didn't want to deal with for a very, very long time. Apparently it took almost a year to sail there, which makes me feel a little better about my upcoming 19 hour flight. So on January 26th, they settled at Sydney Cove and the first penal colony of New South Wales began.  The rest of the story is almost identical to that of the United States where we stole land from, disregarded the rights of, and killed many of the indigenous people in the area as we moved westward.  The British Australians went on to kidnap thousands of native children and force them into boarding schools, teaching them Christianity and english.  To this day, only a very small population of the country speaks the language of the natives or knows how to find their "Dreamtime totem" through the customs of the natives. These native Australians, the Aboriginals, are now very much like our native Americans, living on reservations, most in drastic poverty, and all trying desperately to maintain the core values of their culture and pass them along.

This similarity between Australia and my own country is one of the things that fascinates me most...both are represented as wealthy countries, while the whole time there are so many people struggling with poverty. I found a church in Sydney called the Maroubra Junction Uniting Church who will be doing some mission work with local Aboriginal reservations, so hopefully that will result in me getting to do some ASP-esque work in the outback!

I have a lot of expectations for this blog, but mostly it's to keep everyone I love dearly updated on what I am doing and learning as well as to serve as a tool for self-reflection. But I also hope it will be interesting, clever and/or funny, so hopefully something interesting happens to me after I land in Sydney...