After a day or two of no word, feeling disheartened, we decided it would be best to throw a few more lines into the water. We applied to several other stores and hotels throughout town and even sucked up our pride (along with our bachelors degrees) and picked up a few applications at McDonalds. We never went through with submitting them though, and were quite relieved that we didn’t have to in the end. We finally walked into a tavern on the edge of town, one which I had read online had gotten in trouble for hiring underage workers and subjecting them to long hours past their bedtime – bingo. As soon as we walked in and introduced ourselves, the general manager asked if we would come in to work that evening and explained that any hours we put in over the weekend would be cash-in-hand at $25 per hour. He even said if we wanted, we could get 45-50 hours of work in one set of weekend shifts. Sweet.
Aside from these little bits of “character,” and the management evicting us from the staff house one night and welcoming us back the next, we had a fairly positive experience at the tavern. We worked several 14-16 hour days (a reason why we have no pictures of Karratha) but it was worth it - mainly because of the kindly staff, but also because of the relief it gave to our wallets.