Every Town and Village 2009 Report: Rocklea

Every Town and Village is our ongoing attempt to fulfil the instruction of Caitanya Mahaprabhu to chant the Holy Name in every town and village. Our definition of a "town or village" is a suburb with a distinct postcode. Since 2007 we have chanted in more than 50 of Brisbane's 150 postcodes. You can read more reports here

This week we went to Rocklea. I had no voice, but I was able to concentrate a little more on playing the accordion, especially with some of the novel tunes that Mangal Vaisnava busted out. I moved my mouth during the kirtan to make it look like I was chanting to onlookers, but no sound.

Rocklea is mainly an industrial area, but there are some residential streets being slowly constricted by the encroaching industrial / heavy commercial zone. The houses there are unmaintained, and the people a funny mix of those who were overjoyed to see us, and came out to dance, including a lady who looked like an ex-hippie; and some real dark hill billy characters who looked like they would run us out of Dodge, or worse, if they had their druthers.

Pretty much after this I collapsed from exhaustion. You can see me fading out at the end. What little voice I had left disappeared after that. I had to call someone for work in the evening and it was a torturous experience for both of us.