Saturday the 18th of November (the day agter formal argh...........4 hrs sleep............. headache!) I went with a small group of girls from our school and a few teachers to Kings Cross. For those of you who don't know Kings Cross is an area that is notorious for it's brothels, young boys prostituting themselves on "the wall" drugs, seedy nightclub- lined streets and scores of homeless people. It is an area that is interesting in that the incredibly rich live next to the dirt poor and despite millions of dollars spent by the government to "clean the area up" the core problem still has not been mended.

We spent the day under the care of the St. Cancie parish. Attached to the beautiful old church is a house that is the home for four jesuits, a soup kitchen, a house for refugees as well as an ecumencial dialogue centre.

Apprehensive at first, the area comes with a very negative reputation, we were spoken to by Fr. Steve and an Aboriginal woman named Sue. Sue was a user of the drug ice (methamphetamine) and was also homeless. Contrary to expectations (and I know we shouldn't have had any to begin with, but it is difficult to shake off your upbringing) she was incredibly articulate and open and one of the first things she said was that she would never let anything happen to us when we were in the Cross and we all found that incredibly tounching. A member of the stolen generation she was lucky in that she was adopted to a white family who loved her very much and educated her and treated her like she was their own. She met her original family when quite young. Her natural mother was and remains an alcoholic, while her natural father is a good man. While still at school her older sister died in a car accident on the way to pick her up from a park and her people refused to accept her as one of their own becuase she was raised like a white person- so that she felt like she was missing a part of her.

Eventually she turned to ice to ease her guilt and suffering and although she managed to hold down several jobs the drug eventually took over and she has since been on the street. Her story was incredible and we were all inspired by her incredible strength. I just hope we'll be able to do more work in the area again next year.

It just reminds you to never judge a book by it's cover!