Keeping it short and sweet

So to start up where I finished off, the pool is in good nick although now instead of complaints about eyes “paining”, now I just feel bad seeing them lining up outside the pool freezing in the cool wind we’ve been getting in the afternoons so for a lot of them, getting 5 minutes of time out is awesome because it means they can lie on the concrete for 5 minutes and half don’t even bother coming back to the pool.

The first ever Balgo Test cricket match was a great success!!! Before the game, Ale, Steph and I went to Mindy’s place for a pre match meal of his special Mexican burrito breakfast which was actually delicious and a good feed.
When we got to the police station, it was not what I expected. It was a big open space a concrete rectangle about 8x15m big which at one end was the short boundary behind the stumps and at the other end it fanned out to a big gravel yard and the concrete section had buildings either side of it, the members stand on one side and the batting pavilion/score keeping room on the other. Despite a late turn up from many members of the opposition, we eventually got to making the toss but as soon as the coin hit the ground, Officers Matt and Matt got called out because of a fight at the local store so we had to play our 1^st innings one of our better batsmen short but were able to knock up a solid 55 runs after some inspirational words and team tactics between overs from Adrian and Anton.

Now, the last time I played any form of cricket was in the backyard with Isaac (little cousin) and even then I was struggling to put bat to ball so I wasn’t exactly confident going up to the crease. I some how managed to get a solid 6, one of the top scores of the 1^st innings. Now I could talk forever about the game but basically, against an impossible onslaught of crazy fast bowlers and talented batsmen, we held them to 46 before getting up a team century the next innings, inspired by Mindy and my golden ducks as openers as motivation. It was then an easy stroll home, me finally remembering to bowl a ball and the black team taking the victory.

Then because it was all over by 3 30, we decided to play a few ‘Big Bash’ 10 over games where each batsman got 2 overs and lost 2 runs for each wicket. It was here my worries about batting were confirmed with me adding two solid scores of 0 and -1 to my team’s total. But it was ok, we all know test cricket is the real stuff, not this Hollywood shortened version.

Oh and you know those ‘I told you so’ moments you get? Well yeah, the night before the cricket, we had planned to make a quick get away from the Brother’s house to play a game of Australian Monopoly. After dinner talk took us to 8pm and as we were leaving I remember saying “Surely we’re not still going to play? The game will go for like 4 hours and we probably won’t even end up with a winner”… 4 hours later, midnight hits and after Rick and Anthony have given up and gone home and Steph and I have teamed up against Mindy and Ale, a draw is called. I actually hate Monopoly.

For those of you asking when I was going to start running again, I have started early morning runs every second day at the moment as to not peak too soon. Its literally head off down past the brother’s house, past the police station and onward down a dirt open road until it’s time to turn around back for home. I actually just got home from a walk with Steph and KP out to the pound (this big open area which looks like it used to be an inland sea) to suss out where we are going to take a photo of all the kids in a star formation for the 360^th Anniversary of St John Baptist De La Salle’s feast day. I really would like to start running out there because it’s not only better scenery but a bit hilly and not just one straight road. The only problem with that however is that the first five minutes of that way is past a few people’s houses. People with dogs. And KP was saying that I should be fine and that the dogs are only really dangerous when there aren’t a few people around… I told her I run at 6:15am and the only response I got was “oh…” so that was comforting.

And before I go, I have to say that Mima and Granddad, I actually love that National Geographic bag! I take it pretty much everywhere. It is perfect and fits into my afternoon routine nicely, which might I say, I have down pat. The bell goes for after mungari time and everyone goes to assembly while I slip off to the bathroom to get into my togs, open the pool up, do the lifeguarding thing for a while then after school, stay in the pool for my unique blend of being in a pool and exercising which I like to call ‘Poolercise’ and then here is where the bag comes in. In one side pocket, perfectly fitted sit my thongs and in the other, a cordial bottle of water looking as though it was made to come with the bag! And then the pièce de résistance, a handy little loop from where my keys and trusty whistle hang, a perfect length where is isn’t too long to annoy you as you walk and isn’t too short it’s hard to grab when faced with a locked door. So I put my bag on, pop my hat on, wrap a towel around myself and head on home. I don’t know if you picked up on this but I actually love this bag.

Yeah… this was meant to be a short entry and I will try to keep them frequent and short but it’s just too tempting to have all of your interest and me able to say what I please. I admit some details weren’t needed but hey, when was I ever the kind of guy to get to the point without a bit of entertainment first :)


So to keep some of you asking for photos happy, here are some of Steph's photos but mine will be up shortly hopefully. Fingers crossed the mail plane comes tomorrow with the rest of our stuff!!! Oh that reminds me, while at Steph's in Perth, we sent up some excess baggage we wouldn't fit onto the small plane (You try fitting 9 months into 15kg!!!) so Ale and I each sent up one full mail bag of stuff and one which had half of each of our stuff in it and last Friday, we got the joint bag. Unfortunately all I had in that bag was a massive wooly jumper, one of the big bags I took to perth, a singlet and some shorts. So if all goes to plan, phone chord and CD could be here tomorrow!!!

 Out at sport with some of the kids

 Our plane in, taken from about half way down the plane.

 The waterfall in full force (taken my Neus)

 A little lost after taking Rick's 'Adventure Route' with a storm on its way.

Steph and I on the bush trip with Alex and Jayden

'Nuggerai' (or 'Jellybean' to you white fella)

Aboriginal rock paintings

Comnig out of the cave the width of my body.

Just a stock standard afternoon view really.

Bart and Urla at the waterfall

'The Pound'

Lifeguarding Has It's Privilages

The pool is back in action!!! Yesterday afternoon, after school, I saw Jim walking with a massive box so when I found out it was a new pool pump I went along to help him install it. It wasn’t the greatest of successes considering he got me to cut the pipe, then cut it 2cm shorter, only to find out it was 2cm too short but its ok because apparently we're re-plumbing the whole system in a few weeks so its no big problem. Its apparently working very well now but we gave it a day without the stress of kids in the pool today and didn't have any swimming. I thought I would have had nothing to do but last night I got asked by Brother Rick to take my highly qualified self out to the waterfall to accompany Primary D on their bush trip, now extending my title as 'Head Pool/Waterhole Lifeguard'! But before I go into that, I keep forgetting to mention the water situation in Balgo. Where I thought we would be lucky to have enough water to wash and hydrate the 3 of us, it turns out that because we are in some basin, water is not an issue at all over here! It kind of explains now why the kids never turn taps or showers off and why Jim was able to leave the fire hose in the pool all night just to let it flood and re-fill with fresh water. It's not even billed so apparently in the dry season, which is coming up in a few months I believe, Father John has his sprinklers going basically 24/7.

Anyway, when we got to the waterfall, the water was actually falling! Not much but it was definitely falling. Steph decided that we would go back again on Saturday. This of course was because she had forgotten about the men only 'white fella' cricket match Ale and I have been invited to on Saturday at the police station so we might head out there on Sunday. Unfortunately, the bush trip got cut short because there were some kids who ran away (a common occurrence out here) and there were others walking along the edge of the cliff face which is about a 12m drop down to the rocks surrounding the waterhole (pictures will be up soon fingers crossed) so it basically got too dangerous and Steve, their teacher, decided to go back to school early. When we got back to school, there was still an hour or so left of school so Steph and I just chilled with Primary C. Since I have been at the pool every afternoon, I had no idea of how little the kids do in the afternoons!!! I've been jipped working in the chaotic group session in the mornings! But I can’t complain considering I often have a good few minutes between classes to myself at the pool.



Fatima under the waterfall




PRMD at the waterhole





Pretty cute I thought.



This is old new now but I just remembered that I haven’t told you, my loyal fans about the upcoming holidays which start in about 3 weeks. I'll hafta double check the exact dates but in the last week of term, a group of year 11 students from De La Salle, Perth (Steph's school) are coming up for a visit and will stay for about a week, then we've got a few days to kill, which I’m thinking we should fill with going to Wolf Creek with John, Vin and Judy, but then we head off to Broome! Br Rick has got to go to Broome to get one of the cars serviced and while that is happening, he's offered for us to go there for a week as a chance to get out of Balgo and get a bit of a reminder of what civilisation looks like. We then get back the day before we start up for term 2. And for those of you wondering, that drive to Broome is approximately 12 hours.

Also, I should correct myself from an earlier post, the language used out here isn't Wirrimanu, that's the name of the people. The language is Kukatja which we have been trying to pick up bits of. Mindy tried to teach me 'be quiet' and 'come here' but I have already forgotten them.
So far, all I know is (written how it sounds because I have no idea about spelling):
- 'Kumenjay'; what you have to call people when someone with the same name has recently passed away, for example, Robert is called Kumenjay by all the kids and because there was once someone named 'Blue', in class, we say "the sky is Kumenjay"
- 'Mumma Gungara'; what they say at the start of prayers instead of 'Dear God/Lord'
- 'Yaninga Mumma, Gadja, Gurdum Bubbeya, Yati'; "In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen"
- 'Bukenunna'; possibly the most used word in the playground and often the classroom, meaning something like "I will fight you"

So tonight we're heading to Ant's to watch the 1st game of the AFL (woo...) but might play a bit of Fifa too, plus it’s a free meal! The pool should be running fine tomorrow and I'll be back there so I will make sure I let you all know how that goes!

Lifeguard For Hire

OK, bad news this time... the pool pump is broken and there is a chance that the pool may be shut down at the end of this week until it can be fixed! So basically, I may be out of the job for a while and I really don't know what I would do with myself in the afternoons! And I was just starting to really like that job!
Today for some unknown reason, the kids decided to go mental again but luckily for me, one class was so bad that they didn’t get pool time. This of course meant that there was a 40min period where I had nothing to do and wasn’t legally allowed to leave the pool area with the top up so I was forced, by law, to go for a swim.

So where did I leave off last time?
So the party in Primary C was a grand success! Well… to start with…
It began with everyone sitting cross legged in a circle being given one quarter of fairy bread at a time and waiting until everyone had theirs before raising it to the air and saying “bonna pettee” and then repeating it until they had each had one whole piece of bread. Then they all started to get restless so we thought it was time to start up the music for the class disco!
These kids REALLY love Michael Jackson! And boy can some of them dance!!! I’ve got plenty of footage of especially young Antonio (the ‘no backflips in the store’ kid) who has a whole routine and was dancing like MJ non stop the whole time! He’s too young for our class but apparently he was bullied in the younger class for being ‘too white’ which I found rather humorous when Roy said “Michael Jackson was teased for the same thing” when I told them.

On Saturday I spent the whole day pretty much transferring my daily diary from my phone to paper which was the most writing I’ve done since the HSC but now if I actually do it each night, I won’t have to do that again anytime soon.
We then went to mass and afterwards went to the parish house and had another good chat lead by Vin as usual (I could swear that they are long lost Joneses! If they’re ever in Sydney, I’ll try and get them over). After dinner we stayed with Father John, turned the lights out and put on ‘The Collector’ a horror movie which John seemed to really love but wasn’t as scary as we built ourselves up for.

For any soccer fans out there, you might know about some disgraceful handball which won a game for France over Ireland? I didn’t, but Anthony, Ale and I spent a good 4 hours trying to restore pride for Ireland on Fifa ’11. It took a long time and a lot of frustration but in the end, we did it! Yeah, I’d like to see anybody try to top that for a big weekend!
On Sunday night, we did the usual; invade Steph’s room while she’s going to bed which ended up some how with Ale sleeping in Steph’s bed, Steph in my bed and me on the single fold-out sofa bed. It was all worth while in the end however when I walked into the kitchen in the morning to see the scarecrow I had forgotten about that I made with Steph’s night robe when she asked me to hang it up.

Yesterday, after school, Ale and I went over to Father John’s place to move some dirt for him in what we found out is his project to turn an old greenhouse into an indoor pool, surely us helping gives us an open invite to that when it’s done!
When we got home, I went into my room, and I was shocked… Steph had cleaned my room… like I mean spotless… it was disgusting. Apparently she had been telling me to clean it for a week so Ale and I decided to give Steph’s room a quick touch up. Just the usual PJ’s on the ceiling fan, shoes on the floor, cupboards emptied, and my personal favourite, alternating the way the coat hangers were facing. A great annoyance to an OCD cleaner such as Mum (Steph).

And this blog actually took way longer than it should have to write because the whole time I’ve had the gorgeous Anne-Marie, Robert’s 1 year old (possibly younger) daughter playing peek-a-boo with me. Aww, she’s now got the hiccups and struggling to walk straight… I miss the boys back home.

Makin mumma so proud

I didn’t expect to be back here this soon but Balgo had some exciting news which I just had to share! The store got fruit and veg!!! And I’m not talking about your standard few oranges, soft tomatoes and weeny little potatoes, I’m talking iceberg lettuce here! And sweet potatoes, good oranges, apples and proper big potatoes. I know its not something you usually get excited about but you’d be surprised how much you need it when you’re living and cooking for yourself. So mum, dad, I have a $80 docket at the house proving how responsible I’m being.

I first found out about this on a school ‘excursion’ to the store with my primary C kids. The best bit was before we left, we had to run through some ground rules before we left and we were expecting the stock standard “No running”, “Don’t touch anything”, “Listen to the teachers” but when we asked what the rules were, suggestions came out of the crowd like, “No punching or kicking teachers”, “No getting money from your grandma” and little Antonio really thought his rule of “No backflips in the store” was a good one, so much that he found it appropriate to put his hand up 5 times for it and then repeat it again to Brother Rick as we were leaving the school. There was also Sheralie who when asked what drink the class had decided on during their party planning for maths work said that we decided on “Whiskey”.

We then moved across the ovals in 3 spectacular lines before we entered the store and when we came to the refrigerated section at the back, Mindy and I, a 1^st year teacher working in the school, looked at each other like a pair of parched men coming out of the desert and seeing a pool of water. It was actually hilarious how excited we got. I never really expected to find myself in a situation where I’d be standing with a guy, both our jaws dropped saying, “Iceberg lettuce!” closely followed by his reply, “Rosemary!”. We then made our way back to school with all the kids following me in a giant snake pattern, just in time for me to sneak off to the shop before the other teachers on their lunch break.

Just thought that was an important input. Thanks for all the support as well!!! Good to hear this thing is actually being read and enjoyed!

The story so far...

Hello everyone!

I have now been in the small community of Balgo Hills in Western Australia for 14 days but I was just giving you all a chance to miss me before I started this blog.
Firstly, a bit about the place. I am working with the kids at Luurnpa Catholic School where there are about 80 kids from ages 4-15 broken up into 5 classes, Primary A-D and Secondary. The school was once a state school but was taken over by the De La Salle Brothers a few years ago and is now run by the brothers with who we work very closely with.
I am living with the other two volunteers, Steph from Perth and Alejandro from New Plymouth in New Zealand in a small house about 2 minutes walk from the school, 1 minute walk to the church and a 5 minute walk across the footy oval to the local store.

We started our work here moving through each different class, getting a taste of working with the different age groups and classes to see where we best fit in but as of this week, we had to make a semi-perminant decision about where we would like to work each morning and afternoon. I chose to work in the Primary C class (about grade 3-4) in the mornings becuase unlike other classes where there are many volunteers in their rooms and my assistance isn't really needed, Jenny, the teacher really values having me in her class and I even got my name up on the board as a group leader!
The school pool (only about 3x7m) was out of action as of last summer becasue of something to do with a break somewhere and dangerous pH levels and so on. However, as of last week, it had been re-opened as thanks to me being the only one in the community with a Bronze Medalion (thanks Nicky), I have been given the job of Head Lifeguard for the afternoons while each class has their 40minutes in the pool.

So how did I get here? Well after leaving Sydney on the morning of the 28th of Feb, we flew to Perth where we stayed with Steph's family for a night. And I made sure that we got to the beach for the sunset. Call it gay but you dont get that in Sydney! While at Steph's, we all had too much luggage for the mail plane (you try packing 9 months into 15kg!) so we got some Aust. Post bags and send some of our stuff up, which 1stly, we still havn't recieved becasue the plane only comes twice a week and the weather's been too rough for it to leave at all recently. But that 2ndly is the reason I havnt uploaded any pictures since I put my phone chord in the post.. my badd!



Perth Sunset




Huge Tree in Kununurra (With scale for mum)




Halls Creek Airport

 The next morning, we headed off to the airport where we flew from Perth to Broome where we only stayed for about 20minutes (enough time to grab a pie) before we got on another plane headed for Kununurra. We then stayed there the night and got up the next morning at 6:45 to wait for the mail plane. We were stuck in the foyer of Sling Air Airport for a good while as we kept getting updates assuring us that they were sure that the weather would clear up soon and all we had to do was sit tight. Luckily for us, we were in good company! When we entered the room, we saw a lovely couple who immediately introduced themselves and when we found out they too were headed for Balgo, the time passed in no time! They were going up to help out Father John in and around the parish. They were telling us all these stories about their volunteer work throughout the years as they directed us around the massive map of WA pointing out all the best parts and the small communities they had worked in. Eventually, someone came out to tell us that we had been upgraded to a bigger plane because thee mail plane would not have made it in the weather. Unfortunately, the bigger plane meant we flew about the cloud level so we couldn't see much below us but mind you, by 'bigger' I still only mean 12 seats, pilots included. But we still had to make a fuel stop at Halls Creek which is apparently to closest pub. A 3 hour drive which a few of the teachers take some friday afternoons. We eventually landed at Balgo Hills Airport where we were greeted by Robert, a Papua New Guinean man who works mostly in the computer lab, and Anthony, a Share the Mission volunteer from last year who defered a 2nd year from uni in Melbourne to stay another year. We were also greeted by the Balgo Hills boys in blue who were there to make sure we didnt have any alcohol with us, take some photographic evidence of them checking and telling us that if we did get our hands on some, just to make sure we kept it hidden.
That's one thing i love about it out here. Sure all the rules are there but all very loosely applied. Like at the orientation before we left, we had a lot of talks about how you basically shouldn't lay a hand on a student but James, the program orginiser quietly said to us afterwards, "yeah.. most of that stuff doesn't really apply to Balgo" which is nice considering the amout of students I've had to pull off others while fighting, carrying kids off the unfinished playground and swinging the kids around on the oval like I would the little cousins back at home.

My first day, I was sort of thrown right into the deep end considering after a quick 5 minute tour, i was sent into the Secondary classroom with all the older kids with what Adrian, their teacher, said was one of the worst days of the year so far. Within my 1st 30mins in the classroom I was watching as two children were being restrained while throwing out every possible swear word under the sun (in both english and their own language) and reaching for any possible object to throw at the other, whether it be a chair, bin, dust pan, pencils, while I had the rest of the class huddled behind me for protection, whether that was to keep them from the fighting boys or to have a safe spot to watch the action from is another story. My favourite line from that day, however, was when a fight was happening outside the classroom and i made the kid i was helping stay in his chair and for doing so, I copped what I can only assume was an onslaught of Wirrimanu swear words and threats but he did get back to his work. About 5 seconds later, he turns to me and says in the nicest way possible, "Excuse me sir, may i please go to the bathroom?".
Honestly, the kids here are the biggest smart arses I have ever met but i love them! Like I will often get approached while playing footy but kids almost crying saying that i never pass them the ball and then as soon as I get the ball to them, they laugh at me and kick it in the opposite direction!

One of our jobs here is preparing mungari for the kids for before school and then for lunch time. It is the Wirrimanu word for either food or bread because during mass, Father blesses the 'Holy Mungari'. Before school, mungari consists of the choice of wheet-bix or the hot food for that day, either toast, baked beans or spaghetti (or 'baghetti' as the kids say). For lunch, they each get a cut up piece of fruit and a sandwich which Anthony and Brother Rick (Principal) make every night and freeze.

There are 4 brothers oin the community, Br Rick, the school princpal, Br Lou, who works at Boystown where they teach older boys through learning trades, Br Marty who we only see in the library during school time but I assume he does more, and Brother MJ who does secretorial sorta stuff.

Note: If my grammer and punctuation suddenly improves, it's because Steph has just walked in :)

On weekends, we have no responsibilities or duties so we have a lot of free time. So far, the 1st weekend we were taken out by Brother Rick to turn off about 15 minutes out of Balgo from where we walked about 500m through some pretty spectacular rocks (we didn't walk through the rocks but it sounds better than 'we walked past some rocks') before we got to an opening with a small waterhole where there were some Aboriginal rock paintings but the best bit was a tiny hole through (and yes, this time I mean through) a rock which was about 5 meters long and just big enough for me to get through lying flat on my belly and pointing and flexing my feet as a means of moving forward. I only did it becasue Anthony went first so to all you worrying back at home, i'm not doing anything too stupid yet :)  On our way back, Brother Rick asked us if we wanted to take the 'adventure route' back to the car... little did we know that that meant that we would go off the trail and guess our way back. Unfortunately, I didn't have my trusty compass with me at the time so I was no real help besides a sure sence of direction which I, as well as everyone but Ale, still to this day can not believe that we were wrong. I'm sure Ale will still be letting us know that he was right when we found the road and we all said turn right and walked for ages when he said to turn left and we would have been to the car in 5 minutes.




Heading down the rocks.

 



Put that on a postcard!!!

 


Rock Paintings




Going in...




Coming out :)




Quite possibly my favourite picture so far! There's got to be some symbolism in there!



About a week ago, we had some insanely heavy rain and while I was visiting one of the teachers who gave me a phone handset to borrow after mine skitzed out and died, another teacher came around and said "do you guys want to go check out if the waterfall is running?" One thing I've learnt out here is that you don't say 'no' to any offers to go places because anything is better than sitting at home filling in time and so far, we havn't said yes to something and regretted it so until then, the answer's always a yes! When we got out there, it was flowing alright!!! Mary, one of the teachers who has been out here forever said it equaled the biggest she's ever seen it! Unfortunately, I didn"t have my phone so no pictures but i'm sure you'll believe me!




Waterfall at full force.



When i got home and told the others, we decided that we would head over that weekend to see if it was still flowing so we did. We went with Anthony who hadn't been there before either so i was leading the way! After a 40min treck, we made it out there and although the water wasn't falling, we still had an awesome swim in the waterhole which was insane. The water was perfect temperature and surrounded by high rock walls so we claimed it as our own place (even though pretty much all the kids are regulars...) You couldn't see 2cm under the water so i had some fun swimming underwater and scaring Steph by grabbing her leg but we eventually decided to head home.

Some how we came to the decision that we'd take a different road to the road we came on which neither I nor Ale claim to have decided, even though everyone was following us. But long story short, we ended up at the Airport, had to walk about 2km of the 3km runway becasue apparently it's a federal offence to run across a runway according to Steph, and came back into Balgo at the complete opposite end of town 1hr 20mins later just before sunset after doing a bit of guessing when coming to crossroads. Again, no compass... i really should start taking that thing out with us!



Jellybean seeing us off on our trip



My company at the waterhole.



Recently there has been some serious rain around here but apparently, its hit surrounding towns A LOT harder! Warman, a nearby town has almost been completely washed away with a lot of the buildings completely gone and the rest of the place in not much better state. Pretty much the roads to Kunanurra and to Broome are both closed which pretty much leaves us completely stranded and those are the same roads which the food trucks travel on so we've been told that the store may well not re-stock for another 2 weeks. Lucky for us, pretty much everyone we have met has said, "feel free to come around for dinner anytime" so they can't really go back on that so our food reserves should be sweet until then hopefully.

I think thats about it without going into real detail but from now on, updates will be more regular and probably in more detail :)

Oh before i finish up, and congrats if you made it this far, give yourself a pat on the back, but two things:
1) We initially had planned to do it alone but now Father John, Vin and Judy are in on our plan to watch Wolf Creek and then acctually go out there camping for a night and we are all looking foreward to it! Well I know I am. Just as soon as the roads re open.
2) Yesterday, the kids for no apparent reason just went absolutely insane with almost every class having big physical fights and just every bad kid deciding to step it up a notch! Then after school, one of the older 'engligh teacher' types brought up something a little freaky... for those of you who know Shakespeare, you'd know the line from Julius Caesar, "Beware the Ides of March"... yesterday was the 'ides of March'... freaky i know!

Goodbye for now!