DAY 71: Learning about the local Sudanese community

I’VE been really enjoying hurling myself into the local community lately. Okay, I suppose it’s less a hurl than a dipped toe, what with the ukulele classes and lawn-mowing and whatnot, but I have great plans afoot (geddit) for chat warbling, bird watching, wood chopping and steam railways – you’ll see. Hell, I’m even getting a white ute.

There’s also a healthy Sudanese contingent in Castlemaine that hasn’t been anywhere near my toe, and I’ve been curious as to how a community came to be established in this little town in particular. The screening of No One Eats Alone, directed by a local resident, tells the stories of Sudanese women who have settled in Victoria, and it’s stacked with personable characters. The unanimous hit with the audience at the Theatre Royal seems to be when the thigh-slappingly jovial Anghere unapologetically describes herself as the “white dot” of the family — the Sudanese equivalent of a black sheep.

Keeper? Yep, I’m enjoying pretty much everything I’ve seen posted on a local noticeboard so far. Onwards to the Rotary Club!