Second episode for the day !
It was great waking up every morning to birds and trees and sometimes even sneaking out early for a quick explore of the surrounding forest before breakfast. I found lots of orchids and watched lots of birdlife and would then get back “On-Purpose” and go have breakfast and lock myself in the C/S office for most of the day then drive to Sydney some nights and back again.
In early April 2002 I had the last meeting of the B of I and after that it was just a stream of days working or looking for a house. Finally we were offered the ED’s “apartment” on the property – a converted one-car garage next to the “withdraw house” and close to the office building. It had a tiny shower/toilet, some basic cooking facilities and two very small rooms. We took it as we were running out of money and couldn’t find anywhere else close by.
So I borrowed a van and trailer and loaded it up one night, only to have to stop after a few miles because the trailer had come loose. I arrived at Narconon at 2am, unloaded everything with the help of the staff member dong the withdraw shift at the time then C/Sed the folders and drove back to Sydney.
I parked the van and tried to start our car but it wouldn’t, so I waited for the owner of the van to arrive to help me start it. Then I drove home and slept for a few hours.
I got up in the afternoon and cleaned up around our house then drove up to the in-laws house for dinner (they live about two hours out of Sydney) then drove across to Narconon and arrived there 9pm and did the folders. Then really crashed for the night.
The next day the removals truck came to Narconon with all our household gear and we moved in. We had to store a lot of it in the big shed on the property as there was just no room in the tiny “apartment’ we had. What was even more upsetting was that there were several single staff members who had bigger living areas than the four of us had. But they wouldn’t move for us because they were “upstat” and deserved their luxury.
There was no GI in for the last few weeks so there was no pay. We were close to broke and Caz went to see the ED in tears – she got little response. He was being moved to Narconon ANZO – so much for not leaving without a replacement. He never returned as ED and later left the country with the ED from Narconon Melbourne, which caused quite a stir.
The workload I’d inherited kept me working from 9am through to well after dinner most nights. Everything was backlogged, and stupidly I tried to catch it all up as fast as I could. I was sometimes running the sauna, sometimes running the courseroom, doing C/Sing and being a member of Exec Council every Thursday night. Plus attending the Board meetings whenever they held them on the property. Then when our ED left, I had to run the sauna by myself. It was nuts.
And then there was what I kept uncovering about what had happened previously there. A former “student” had been driving to the place every Thursday to sell drugs to those who were on the program – at times, half of the people doing the program were using on the property, and that also included some of the staff who’d “successfully” completed the program.
And some of those same staff were taking students out to local clubs for a “few” drinks.” To celebrate a good week. Or just because they could.
Then there was the two thugs fresh from jail who’d gotten onto the program and were terrorizing the rest of the students. One girl was apparently raped the first night she arrived out of withdraw. She left and never came back, but unfortunately didn’t go to the police about her ordeal.
Now, with the ED gone and someone taking his place who knew virtually nothing about Narconons, the money ceased. The place became even more of a nightmare and students were complaining about not enough food and being cold at night. Heaters had been banned because they cost too much to run and the students were allowed to have them only until “lights out” at 11 pm. Then whoever was making sure they were all in bed was supposed to remove them so that the students wouldn’t have them running all night.
A couple had joined staff fresh off the program and were living locally. She was pregnant and they couldn’t even afford their rent anymore, so they left staff. Even so, they were made to feel like they were doing the wrong thing, but not by me. I had no doubts that it was far better they went off and put a real life together far, far away, and I told them so.
Stupidly, I didn’t take my own advice. My ‘reasoning” was that I had signed a 2 ½ year contract and would have to see it out because Hubbard’s Code of Honour said “keep your word once given.” My wife and I began to argue about the place and why was I working so hard for a group that wouldn’t pay me AGAIN – it was as bad as being on staff but at least here we had a roof over our heads and ate in the communal dining room.
But then a local Scientologist was hired to supervise the courserooom on a fixed hourly rate – something nobody else got (we were all on the “Proportionate Pay Plan” of Hubbard’s – totally illegal, but I didn’t find that out until later.) She was often late which meant I was still starting the courseroom in the mornings anyway.
It really was the fact of being out of Sydney that kept me there. I could get up in the morning, do some warm-up exercises then jump on my mountain bike and ride around the property with the dogs, stopping by the courseroom to start the fire in it so it would be warm by the time course started.
Then I’d finish the ride and have breakfast with the family. Then there was staff muster, which I was learning to avoid by being busy elsewhere, and the occasional walks I could sneak in during the day when staring at folders or watching people in the sauna got too much.
Then yet another promise got broken. When I started, I was told I wouldn’t have to do “quartermaster” shifts – these went from 8pm to after 11 every night and you had to make sure that the students were all behaving and there was no illicit drug use, drinking or sex going on. I had a family that I wasn’t seeing enough of already even though they lived a few hundred metres from my office. It was explained to me as unfair that I got to have every night off while the other staff had to do QM shifts.
More soon.