It is the Lord, It is the Messiah of all blog posts!!! (with videos)

Just a heads up, this is a very long post. For those who want some quick entertainment, down the bottom you will find some videos from so far on the trip.

So pretty much here was my plan. Last night, bed at about 11:30 so I could get a decent sleep, be up at 8 and get up to date with my dairy which I am already a THOUSAND days behind. Ale and I watched our now regular Star Wars night movie (we’re now up to #5) and then after that, I watched the little yellow bar reach the end signaling the long awaited 9 hour download of video’s I have taken while out here. So just as I’m about to close up shop and then I hear movement. The camel? Kids outside? Nope, its Steph coming in claiming that she can’t sleep, I see this as just a temporary thing and think “Ok, She’ll only be in my room for maybe half an hour tops, then she’ll go back to her own bed.”

4 hours later, she’s still in there facebooking and doing god knows what else on her phone all because she has discovered that my bed is by far the superior bed which doesn’t squeak with every movement and just has an overall comfort rating off the charts. Its at about 3am that I discover that Steph is deadly afraid of fire, yet still after waving a lighter in front of her, singeing the edges of my blanket she was using and a few bits of her hair, she still didn’t move. I think it was about the moment where I turned her Rexona deodorant can into a flame thrower that she though it was time to leave. Just as I went back into my room, I heard the familiar “E.A. SPORTS! It’s in the game!” So Ale was up playing Fifa, I’m guessing either as a rebellion to Steph who had kept him awake for 4 hours or just as something to do because he couldn’t sleep. So now Steph was making cookies, Ale was on the playstation so I made myself some Nutella toast and went to bed.

After a good sleep and some weird dreams, (a lot involving Aboriginals fixing cars like Flintstone style but more sticks than rocks. I don’t know if that’s racist to post but I don’t think it is) I was woken up by Steph sneaking into my room. She played the ‘I was just coming to get your Nutella to make you breakfast’ card but I saw through her deception. There was a distinct time frame between the presentation of the breakfast and the return of the Nutella jar. It’s a big burden holding the only jar of Nutella in Balgo, I feel kind of like Frodo…

Anywho back to where I left off! Holidays are well and truly upon us and sorry to disappoint those who got excited by my new ‘morning person’ lifestyle, it was just a phase. Steph always goes into her room to do her own thing at night but Ale and I have been watching movies every night and when one finishes at midnight, we look at eachother and say “Yeah we have time for one more.” So I havn’t seen Balgo before 10pm many times this holidays.

So now to where I last left you, on the last day of school, we actually had a lot more kids than I expected but this was probably because they all knew they would be getting easter eggs so fair enough. I think there was about 36 kids at school that day so we just split them up to a few in the pool, a few in the computers and a few watching a movie which was nice and easy. I had bought easter eggs to give the kids myself but I didn’t realise that every other teacher in the school had the same idea so mine were nothing special. Instead of giving them to every kid like I initially planned, I just threw a few in the middle of a basketball game which caused a bit of chaos when they eventually saw them, handed a few sly eggs to a few of my personal favourites and then my personal favourite, the classic ‘dad’ magic trick, “What’s that behind your ear??” Works every time!

That night we had another disco with more booty shaking 8 year olds and all the boys breaking out their Michael Jackson moves.

With the funeral happening for the local women killed in a fight with another local while they were in Broome, we kept hearing that there would be revenge but one day, I walked outside and there were at least 20 cars around the basketball court and hundreds of people gathered around. I immediately thought that this was the revenge taking place and that was confirmed when Ale and I walked over and saw two men exchanging blows. Everyone was out to watch, mothers, kids babies, dogs, all gathered around. The weird thing however, was that there would be a few seconds of vicious fighting and then it would stop while they stopped and talked to each other, all while an older woman was screaming in kukatja from in the distance. Ale wanted to go but I was really interested in the formal and organised way it was being handled. The strangest bit was when the two families separated for a few minutes while two elders talked to each other, then the families crowded around the elders. Then an old lady got a massive stick, handed it to a member of the other family who beat her 5 times on the back with it. They then turned and talked for a while before she did the same again. It was at this point I was summoned by Brudda Rick so I couldn’t watch it anymore.  The day after, I thought it was interesting that Father John asked a local man if he went to the ‘town meeting’ yesterday so it really was a formal, organised event.

It was pretty sad to see Lane, Anton and the kids off last Saturday. I am a little upset I didn’t get to know them a little better while they were here but I didn’t really want to add to the competition Ale and Steph were having for their favouritism. We went over the day before they left and I had a good chat with Anton exchanging band stories and songs. He was in a band called ‘Second Sight’ as lead singer who are actually really good and I think I may have recruited a new Zebs fan as well.

So the day they left, they were pretty disappointed that instead of the big van plane they were told they were getting, they got a small 5 seater, like a normal car set up. We spent a while putting Tetris skills to use trying to fit as many of their boxes in as we could but we only ended up getting half the stuff on. Tipene the oldest who is in kindy and the only white kid in school kept asking “Are we leaving Balgo yet?” so he wasn’t too sad to go but everyone else was.

For Good Friday, we went to the parish house during the day with Meg, the youth worker, and some of the locals to make ‘bush crosses’ by tying sticks together and then letting the kids paint them, the kids however found it more entertaining to cover their hands in paint so they looked like they were wearing gloves and chase each other around being super heroes fighting each other.

The Good Friday service was very nice with locals holding up pictures as Father John went through the Stations of the Cross. We then got Oaka (the white powdery paint they use) on our foreheads and each person worshiped the big painted crucifix in their own way. Daniel, an aboriginal man who is probably the most religious person I’ve met took the cross and placed it in a tree. Father John explained to me before the mass that a lot time ago, the natives would put the dead in a tree and then return when only bones remained and bury them. Then ‘Sharing Time’ started. This involved an open mic sort of thing where people could go up and share religious experiences and feelings. One man made a really powerful speech about the fighting going on because of the funeral and how people should forgive which I think really got to a lot of people. I feel bad saying it but the rest sort of dragged on a bit. Like one lady took a good 15 minutes to tell a story that from what I could gather since she was switching between english and kukatja was that she woke up the other morning and the sun was on her face and she saw it as a religious experience.

In Balgo, we have our Sunday masses on Saturday night because Father John is the only priest for here, Mulan and Billiluna so he does mass there on Sundays. Both the Good Friday mass and the Easter mass were outside the parish house which was awesome for a big open ceremony. When we arrived there was a big bonfire happening which at the start of the ceremony, the church leaders circled and sung around. During the whole mass, I was always throwing a kid up in the air, carrying them or having them on my shoulders. At the end of the mass, as soon as Father John mentioned easter eggs, all the kids came running! He was almost knocked off his feet as they surrounded him. He had ended the mass and then one of the women jumped up and asked for more sharing time so I made a sly get away. So it happens, just as I was leaving, Nunggarai arrived. All the kids were trying to climb up trees or onto the side of the church so that they could jump on her back but she never went close enough to them for them to make the jump so Trent came up to me and said, “You throw me on!” At first I didn’t think it was a good idea but in the end I gave in. I got a good throw in with Trent and he got all the way up but hit the camel’s hump pretty hard and slipped off. Darien then came up to me and said, “Try me, I’m gentle!” So I picked him up and was about to throw him but then Nunggarai started walking towards me so I was backing away not noticing that it would have looked a lot like I was using Darien as a shield. Eventually I got to the camel’s side and threw him up but he too fell off which was enough to send poor old Jellybean on her way home.



The church leaders singing around the bonfire



Church Leaders

 


Me with some of the kids

Father John discussing whether the kids should get easter eggs that night or in the morning.

 

The Blessing song we sing at the end of every mass.

On Easter Sunday, we got picked up early by Br Lou who was taking us out on some mysterious drive. There was some deliberation as to whether or not we’d make it all the way because of boggy roads but we in the end decided to try our luck. We went in convoy me and Ale in the lead car with Lou and Greg, a local man who used to work out the way we were going, then behind us was Vin and Judy who were followed by Br Marty, Sister Alice, Gracie and Steph. We got about 3 hours out before we got to the first boggy patch which lour got though after a bit of fish tailing but Vin wasn’t as successful. He was stuck in a good foot of thick mud. I know about the consistency of the mud because after a few failed attempts to get himself out, it was then passed to me and Ale to get the shovels out and start to move the mud. Since I was the one in shorts and thongs, I jumped right into the ditch to start digging and one pair of de-plugged thongs and a thick layer of mud on my hands and feet later, Vin was clear of the mud and Lou managed to get Marty’s car through after that.



Greg and Lou trying to get Vin out of the mud.



 As you can probably tell by the commentary, I did not trust the knot Lou had tied as I could see it loosening the more we pulled and since we were sitting out the back of the open troopie, we weren't exactly well protected.



Ale and I digging vin out






Walking away victorious.

 

A few hundred meters up the road, we hit some real water. When we got out to check it out, Lou and I walked through the water and it was only maybe knee deep and not a very soft so we thought it was drivable. With that, Lou turned around, got in the car and tried. When he was going well, I ran through the water and jumped onto the back of the troopie and then onto the roof. Ale, who was wearing sneakers and jeans was trying to keep up along the side of the water but eventually, there wasn’t any more dry land in front of him so he took a deep breath an started chasing the car, knee deep in water. There was one bit towards the end of the water which was a little mushy so when we got to the other side, Lou said we wouldn’t send the others across and we’d drive around and back to them. I don’t know exactly what they were planning and we couldn’t really ask since we were sitting on the roof but we went off road for a good half hour and some how came out about 200m away from where we wanted to be and still having to drive through the same bit of water. Just if any of you ever get the opportunity, traveling on the top of a troopie while driving off road, sitting on a metal grate is not a comfortable experience. But an experience nun the less.

So since we couldn’t get to where we were planning, we turned around and had some tea and cake at an old windmill. Steph who forgot her water bottle was pretty excited when the tea was brought out saying how keen she was to re-hydrate… I thought she was joking but apparently not.

The whole trip home ale and I attempted to sleep, him being a little more successful than me but I had a good sleep watching a movie when I got home trying to get rid of a headache which had developed.




Lou judging whether its drivable while Greg ponders.

 


Ale soldiering on through the water.

 


Panarama shot



View from on top of the troopie



Ale on the troopie



Me on the troopie



The windmill



Vin preparing the eating space with a chair he found.



Greg pondering again.



While cleaning and testing the pool out, I found 8 little lizards in the kindy’s pool so I put them all out into the sun to dry out and hopefully survive. After cleaning and a quick swim, they had all run away except one, I went to pick him up and he really didn’t mind so I decided to bring him home. He was to be called Rodregez, and he would be mine. And he would be my Rodregez. After spending the afternoon with him on my shoulder or on my shirt, we eventually got him a tub and made him a little home. I made sure his water was regularly filled and I injured many flies and moths in order to feed the little rascal but as the days went on, he was appearing more and more agitated so eventually I decided to let him go. We decided to play dumb when Steph came home not knowing what happened to him so she still accuses me of ‘losing him’ but you can be assured he got a proper send off.



Rodregez



J

Last night it was really nice because we got invited out to the pound for a sunset mass service with Vin, Judy, Sisters Alice and Nola, all the Brothers and Chris and his wife Judy both from Palyalatju. It was a really nice day for it and a really good sunset. The only bad bit was the fact that I wouldn’t have had a 5 second block where there wasn’t a fly buzzing beside my ear so that kind of ruined the serenity of it. Then at the end of it all, we had a BBQ which was very nice. On the way home I saw my 1^st snake of the trip, one of the locals had caught a blackhead python that was about 1.5m long and was holding it by the tail. Twas good to check that off the to-do list for while I’m over here



Father John at the pound mass



The congregation at the pound.



Last night also gave me another addition to the list of genius lines that come out of our ranga’s mouth. I was sent up a little light/torch/hazard light/whistle all purpose handy device and unfortunately it’s stopped working. Steph tried to use it last night and tried turning it on and nothing happened and said “Henry, its not working anymore…” she then blows the whistle, “Oh the whistle still works!” Again, funny if said as a joke, hilarious when she was being serious.

So basically, around the house, a actually spend about 90% of my time wandering aimlessly with a footy in hand but if its any consolation, I’m getting better with my left foot kicking to myself J

There are a lot of good photos and good information on she school's main website which is: http://www.luurnpa.wa.edu.au/MainSchool.htm

Here's a little map showing a rough idea of where some things are:

Ok so I know it’s been a while but I’ve finally had the patience to upload some videos from our time here.

Here it is, Antonio's famous Michael Jackson dancing! There is also Simba pulling out the MJ thrust, Cody is the one doing the back arch, Danielle is the girl in pink doing the really happy dancing and Sheralie attempting the robot.

 Julian steals the spot light here but I do love Antonio in the background going "Mindy Mindy, look! Michael Jackson go like this!". I do also love Sheralie's attempt at the moon walk here.

Now here are a few videos from Primary D's bush trip earlier in the term.

 I didn't notice this at first but here I've captured one of my favourite things about the kids when they take photos and that is the many different poses they go through before they decide on a final pose.

 The PRMD boys singing 'Every Breathe You Take'

 And then 'Knocking on Heaven's Door'

And now for those faithful who stuck with me through this monster blog entry, a little treat. I walked outside a few days ago and there was the camel, standing right at our gate with Julian, Kingston and one other boy were sitting on the fence ready to jump on her. I feel as though the way the clip ends is a good sign off so now, I'm off to Broome for the week but I will get back to you on my return.

Goodbye :)



We're running out of kids!!!

There's one thing I keep meaning to add but forgetting so I'm just gonna say it straight up, THERE IS A DRAGONFLY PLAGUE IN BALGO!!! I don't think they're actually causing anyone any harm or anything but they are everywhere!!! It's actually pretty cool and the only disturbance to my day is the fact that if they get their wings even the slightest bit wet, they become useless but still they insist on flying over the pool. And one thing someone might be able to help me out with, do they sting? Because I did see a mean spike on the end of one of their tails today and they don't exactly understand that I'm saving them at that present time of the rescue.

So today was the second last day of the school term and in the morning, we had a grand total of 11 kids which was probably a mixture of some attending a funeral in Mulan and the fact that no one wants to go to school on the last few days, and in a community where the kids do a lot of that deciding, that means they don't come to school. A good example of this was on Friday when I went on the bus run to pick the kids up for school. We got to one house and three boys were sitting out the front of their house with an old lady. This was Jake, who is usually a good boy from Primary B and two kindy kids. The lady comes over to the bus and we asked her if they were coming. She turns around and yells "Boys! You gon' school today?" and Jake replies "Nah" and gets up to walk around the side of the house holding a hammer. He is then closely followed by the other two boys who I now see have been hitting the concrete with a tomahawk and a small pick.
So since Primary C only had 3 kids today, I ran a few games for them on the white board before the whole school went into one room to watch a DVD while Steph and I pumped up some balls to give as prizes for the certificates we're giving to the good kids tomorrow but I sort of doubt that half of them will be here but oh well.

Remember how there were hardly any kids at school on Friday? Well apparently they were all still in Balgo, just following the camel around in single file taking turns trying to ride her. I heard a few stories about how people saw the camel and then saw a group of 20 kids following her. The funniest recount I hear though was from Delton in Primary D who I was asking why he wasn't at school and he replied "Nah! We was ridin' the camel! And Noah! He been ridin' the camel, den, the camel get scared one aye! So she run into the house. And she been see the door frame, so she been ducked! Noah didn't duck." And yes, this is the same Noah who only about a week ago fell off the roof of the school who was now driven head first into a door frame.

This weekend was a very quiet one for me which was nice actually. We didn't do anything on Saturday besides cleaning which wasn't really necessary but I guess the house looks alright now... But on Saturday night, we got invited over to Lane and Anton's place for dinner and we were then told that we had to stay for karaoke! It was really good fun although I don't think I quite did Elton John justice with my version of 'The Circle of Life' which Mindy picked out for me to sing but we did alter one of my personal favorites to "... and a hungry little boy with a runny nose, plays in the street as the cold wind blows in Balgo"


On Sunday, Lou offered to take us to 'Old Mission', the place where the Balgo settlement once was but was moved for some reason which escapes me at this present time. Unfortunately I couldn't get to sleep until 5am Saturday night so I decided to pass on the trip which although I would like to see the place, turned out to be a good decision. I got a bit more sleep, cooked some MEAN pancakes from scratch which were delicious, thanks for asking and then did some washing up. It struck me to realise how long it had been since I had a lot of time to myself which I'd actually missed.

Well only 10 days until we leave for Broome now which we are all very much looking forward to. And props must go to Br Rick who although the purpose of the trip is to get the bus fixed, is still going to take us in the troopie if the water is too high still at Sturt Creek.

Oh and one more thing, thismorning I was lying in bed for a while and Ale left early for school so I was sitting on the edge of my bed and saw a strange shadow coming to my door but didn't hear anything so I thought Steph was trying to scare me or something. Then Angel comes to my door, her tail swinging so hard that her back lefts are struggling to stay on the ground. Turns out Ale let her in in hope she would wake me up.

S#%T my room mate says.

So today because of a funeral in Mulan involving a family from school and because it was Friday, we had a total of about 30 kids today which is a little down from the usual 80. But naturally, while most classes had about 4 or 5 kids and Donna's kindy class which usually has about 20 kids was down to 3, Primary C had a solid 11 students attending from the morning bell. We were tired, we were down a helper with KP away sick so jenny and I extended the morning out as long as we could which included making Easter cards for the kids' families and i suggested finger painting which turned into a good idea as each kid did their own painting on a massive piece of paper which we will use to cover the windows so the children don't get distracted by runaways outside during class time.

Most kids just painted pictures, some painted dreamtime stories but the one that stuck out to me was Sharelle Bumblebee's painting. She started with a really nice picture with hand prints and dots carefully placed, then smudged it all with her brush. She then did another very interesting piece on top of that and then again smudged it. She did this about 4 times before her page was a bid dirt brown blob. She then on top of that, did a really interesting pattern on top of that which looked to me very good. Now it was no masterpiece but she has a really interesting way of thinking about those kind of things and as Jenny said to me, one day she'll be a very successful artist.

Now to the purpose... My room mate, Steph to be precise comes out with some glorious things which really do keep us entertained thoroughly.
Unfortunately, I have forgotten a lot of them but here are a few:
1) Neus leaves the room coughing a lot while we're having dinner and when she returns, Steph goes", "Geez are you ok? I was about to run in and give her the Heineken maneuver"... yes, Heineken, like the beer.
2) We'll not go into depth with her use of the word "Dardy" even though when proving it was a real word using urban dictionary, she realised she was using it in the complete opposite way to which it was intended explaining It means like beyond dero"
3) The fact she left the hot plate on in the kitchen one night is sorta a given here.
4)  It wasn't really something she said this time but it was just hilarious when Lyn, one of my personal favourites in Primary C who has had quite the cheeky week was in the pool and Steph goes "Pass it to me, I'm your favourite!" so she goes "ok" and then passes it to me while looking at Steph. This sort of thing really shouldn't be funnny to an 18 year old but honestly, it didn't get old no matter how many times she did it.

And many many more of which I cant think of right now.

While living together, I have taken on the role of the peace keeper or 'Karma Police' if you will. Some are under the impression that I am giving house mates a hard time but they are simply misinformed.
I never complete any major acts of annoyance or inconvenience to a house mate unless they have done something to bring it upon themselves and I am simply maintaining a nice balance :)
That being said, thus far, Ale hasn't given me any reason to cause any major annoyance or inconvenience to his person so Steph may feel slightly picked upon but I'm sure she will understand in time.

p.s. those asking for photos, I may take some this weekend if we get up to anything but I don't tend to take pictures during the school week so that would be the reason for the lack of visual aids in my blogs recently. However, I might look around to see what I can add in which will enhance the enjoyment already being experienced by the readers of one of the best blogs in Balgo at this present time :)

*In a Strong Memphis accent* Thankyou very much

Movies, Balls and Pools

Just to clear the Angel situation up, she's about 6 years old or maybe younger, just for some reason remember that number. But she is sort of Br Lou's dog but even he doesn't claim full ownership because when he arrived at Boystown a few years ago, it was sort of their dog and he decided to do the looking after but she really does wander and visit a lot of the houses.

While putting photos on my USB the other day, I remembered about the Nintendo 64 emulator Spud sent to me one study lesson so a few nights ago I was playing Pokemon Stadium and as soon as Ale saw it, he asked if i could send it to him and since then, Steph's laptop is pretty much always out on the table to keep Ale entertained. He was even playing it last night when I was trying to educate him on Australian culture through the blockbuster hit, 'Crackerjack'. I really want to get him to watch 'The Castle', some how don't think he'll get it.

After the new collection of balls we have acquired, my new favourite past time (well it was before but now its a lot better) is tactically kicking balls around the house. The fact that Steph's room is often the target is completely coincidental :) so far, task have included but are not limited to:
- Grubbering the footy from the kitchen through the door into Steph's room
- Throwing a frisbee from the kitchen into Steph's room
- Drop punting a footy under the fan but over the couch to go through the kitchen door
and my new personal favourite:
-Kicking a small blow up ball from behind the kitchen door and curving it around the door and into Steph's room.

At the pool, the old routine was that after mungari time, I would have Steve's class (PRMD) who are a fairly wild class but Steve was always happy to run a few little activities before plenty of free time while I was able to sit back and talk to him about either running or guitars usually just keeping an eye out for any flipping/drowning/crying/punching kids. Then Jenny's class (PRMC) came out pretty soon after where she would run a good program for them which I would often help out giving pointers to kids or stand in the pool as a marker so they went all the way to the end of the pool each lap. Then there was a big long break which have some time to relax in the pool before Maggie's class comes out late and that was very much handed on to me from day one. On my first day at the pool, I was told that each teacher would run their own program but when Maggie first came in, I got them in line and then waited for her to take over... after about 10 seconds, she says, "Well, off you go." So I've pretty much taken it from there, and I'm pretty proud to say that they have become the best behaved class in the pool! At first they were terrors but then KP brought to my attention the fact that half of the children in the school are partly to very deaf and with water in their ears, its even worse so since then with a lot of loud, slow, very simple talking accompanied by a lot of body gestures, I have managed to get them into line quite nicely. Then, the secondary kids come out. At first I was happy to let them just enjoy their time in the pool since they had the shortest time and all fairly good swimmers, then I was given a bit of a talking to about the purpose of the pool and so on, so I went all 'Coach Carter' on them which actually worked really well getting them to do proper stuff. However, it only took about 3 days for them to work me out so eventually I was getting about 3 people swimming laps and all the others in their clothes saying they weren't swimming today, then as soon as I called free time, they all jumped in so we're back to letting them have their fun which is still good because all their games actually involve a lot of swimming.
Anyway, the purpose of my writing this section which ended up being a lot longer that intended, was that it was always a fairly laid back beginning of the afternoon and then the second half was the stressful bit but a few days ago, Steve had to quickly go meet Jaquie (Father John's mum who is in town for a bit) and Judy and asked if I could keep them busy while he was doing that. When he got back, he said "I didn't know you could do that! I might let you keep going with that!" So now I'm running a program for Steve's class as well which I guess is good considering I'm out here to help out but it does leave me with a nice sore voice every afternoon.

Wow, its already Thursday! The weeks pass insanely fast out here! Well, talk to you all soon!

Photo's added

So you know, photos have now been added to previous posts :)

enjoy!

R.I.P. Palyalatju

So where did I leave you?

The day after my last post, the weather was hot and the pool was open so I was able to get back to the lifeguard post and enjoy a less stressful afternoon. It has been beautiful weather since then which has been great.



On Lifeguard Duty



I went for my 1^st AFL training session with the adults and was the 42^nd man to sign up this year. I can still kick straight enough, just get a few laughs my way because of the ‘rugby’ way I kick a ball. The funniest bit however was going for the warm down lap where everyone just kept looking at each other and then back at the camel who had made her way onto the field. Eventually we started a slow weary jog which soon turned into a good sprint after the camel started to run too.

That night, Ale and I went to Mail Man’s house (Matt from the cricket) for a poker game some of the older guys had organised. Ale and I only put in $10 each and sat out of the later $20 game which Matt cleaned up on, as he did in the 1^st game but a good time was had by all.

On Friday, finally our mail arrived which we had sent up about 5-6 weeks before!!! So 1^st thing I did was get out my camera chord and upload all of my photos. I then went out to the oval to kick the footy around just to get used to it again but I only lasted about 20mins before I twisted my ankle pretty badly and limped home to ice it before limping back to the brother’s house for another good feed curtesy of Br Lou and then icing my ankle again late into the night playing Fifa at Ant’s with Ale.

Also on Friday, the school had their stations of the cross which ran surprisingly well considering it involved moving the whole school around the yard for the different classes’ bits. The organising however wasn’t so easy. In Primary C, we had to change our Jesus twice and Simon twice, one very last minute because of kids either getting shy, losing interest or just going home. The little kids were easily the cutest, especially the soldiers in their little cardboard armour complete with a backwards baseball cap covered with gold paper and red feathers out the top. My favourite bit is a toss up between when during one of the stations, one of the girls in the crowd got bored and started doing hop-scotch right near it, or Adrian, narrating the Secondary class’ stations with a very monotone “…then Jesus died.” so Jordan who is on the cross, gets down and starts to walk away so Adrian says “no, stay there”.



Sharelle, Cody, Darian and Antonio from PRMC





Some of the PRMA/Kindy girls.



PRMA/Kindy's Station (Note the awesome hats!)





Me with Lyn



It was very sad news to hear that Palyalatju Maparnpa Health centre, where Anton (my cricket captain), Lane (Anton’s wife who’s kids Steph baby sits), Mail Man and a few others work, have been given government orders to shut down operation and be out of town within 2 weeks, something which is especially rough considering a lot of the roads are closed. It’s very sad that they have to leave. I'm not 100% sure what they do but I know the men do a lot of work putting down and catching stray and rabid cats and dogs. Matt left today and I’m sure Lane and Anton will be leaving soon, something they did not expect since they were told it would be a gradual shut down starting around June. Father John was extremely worked up about it and let off a bit of steam during his gospel homily which he later felt terrible for using some bad language in front of the kids.

Neus also left today as well as Brother Rick to his principals thing in Broome until Sunday. Yesterday we had a big lunch for Neus which was really nice and also filled us up nicely right through to dinner time.

On Sunday, Steph decided that we would clean and sort out the entire shipping container of sports gear and clothes. Probably didn’t help that we started at well past 1pm and that I opened up the ‘Balgo Driving Range’ with a bucket of tennis balls and a baseball bat I found but we had to pack it all away unfinished because it had gotten dark so Steph said we are doing in next weekend… woo…

One good thing to come out of it however, was the amazing collection of balls we have in our house now. Pretty much if any sport ever used a ball, we’ve got it. It does make aimless wandering around the house a lot more enjoyable and has also inspired a few late night kitchen cricket matches.

Today I wasn’t feeling great so turned up to class a bit late and when I told her I had been getting headaches, she replies with “Yeah, you look terrible, go home!” and wouldn’t take no for an answer so I enjoyed watching Grand Torino followed by a quick nap before coming back to school to man the pool. Because Jim (Jenny’s husband who is just an all round handyman) is going away for the holidays, I have been named his apprentice and have been learning how to test and correct the pool water so that we can swim during the holidays!

Now only one week from today left before holidays start and by the sounds of it, majority of the teachers are leaving on the 1^st plane out of Balgo next Tuesday and if not, will have a car running and waiting for them to leave.

Also, Angel, the best dog in Balgo has been coming around to our place for the past few nights and has made herself very comfortable. She often escorts me to the gym, school or even for the first few hundred meters of my run. I am very tempted to bring her home.



Angel <3



And for all those caring people who are still concerned about me, I am feeling a fair bit better that this morning and my ankle has come almost completely good thanks to my good friend RICE :)

WE GOT A RUGBY BALL!!!

Just to re-emphasise the point, WE GOT A RUGBY BALL!!!

This afternoon, Br Rick asked if we could go into the container of donated clothes from other schools so that we could give away or sell jumpers tomorrow considering that today was pretty much freezing for the kids with the already cold day made worse with high winds, constant drizzle. But going through the things, there were boxes of old school jumpers and uniforms but one box which looked like it was almost never disturbed. I opened it up to see a box full of brand new Summit rugby balls! Still in the wrapper, obviously sent up but an east coast school a while ago considering they were the balls with the printed signatures with names like Gregan, Totai Kefu, Dan Vickerman and Ben Tune just to name a few. It’s actually weird how many of them I recognised from my obsessed days! So that was actually my biggest inspiration for writing this blog. These people out here just don’t appreciate the beauty of a rugby ball. I did also grab myself a nice big long sleeve shirt from St Mary’s College, Broome but I will put a donation in for that.

Not much else has happened since we last spoke, the weather’s only gotten worse which has lead to pool not opening which has lead to an unhappy Henry. I’ve had to go back into classrooms in afternoons which as anyone who has had anything to do with school children on a rainy day, isn’t fun! But they do still provide you with some laughs, which often get me ‘you’re a teacher, you shouldn’t be laughing at that’ looks from teachers but oh well.

Oh and one of the kids favourite pastimes after and even during school is climbing onto the school rooves and running along and climbing across the drain pipes joining the buildings. Well today one kid had run away from my class and then 10minutes later I find out that he’s fallen off while climbing on the drain pipe onto the concrete so the clinic sent out a car and took him away on a stretcher. Luckily, it turns out that he’s got a fractured wrist at worst.

If anyone’s tried to contact me recently, reception has been very on/off lately both internet and phone apparently because of a cyclone up near Darwin.

Feeling a little stranded...

Oh hey, I didn’t expect to see you here.

Earlier in the blog I mentioned a girl in Primary C called Sheralie. Well she told the class on Tuesday that she was leaving on Wednesday to go live with her mum up north somewhere which I was pretty sad about because she’s always good fun (I hear all these horror stories from Steph about how bad she is in the afternoons which I find a little funny) but when Wednesday came around, she was back at school. Apparently she didn’t want to leave yet so her departure was postponed until Friday. So then Friday came along and she was pretty upset as were we and we had a big morning of songs and games and a last minute planned class photo which we all laminated and signed before giving our final goodbyes.

Then about 2 hours later as Primary C came out to the pool, Sheralie was one of the 1^st to the gate. Apparently the plane couldn’t leave so she’s now here until Wednesday.

This past Friday night, dinner at the brother’s house was put back to 7pm so that before hand we could head to the area outside the store to the Blue Light Disco run by the police for the kids. It was pretty much like your standard school dances with the boys and girls very much keeping to their own groups. However, a definite difference was the fact that on the dance floor, it was the boys not holding back at all with their dance moves while the girls stood off shyly. But then once they built up some confidence, they made their way to the dance floor and busted out what was a little disturbing considering it was girls probably aged 4-10 doing their own imitations of Christina Aguilera since the only dancing they see out here is in film clips. 




Me with Simba (left) and Sheralie (right)

 



Some of the boys busting out on the dance floor

 



The girls at the disco

 



Ale and I with Alex and Hazen

 

I know this will be almost impossible for anyone who knew me in the slightest back home to believe, but I actually think I’m becoming a morning person!!! On Saturday morning, everyone was asleep at 7am so went to the parish house to do the Mirli Mirli (parish newsletter) and again, everyone was asleep! So I decided to go for a walk out to the pound. Within the 1^st 5 minutes, a few dogs in a yard started watching me, then started walking over and as soon as one barked, about 5 more doges came out baring their teeth and barking. Luckily, there wasn’t anyone around to see me threaten throwing a big rock and screaming “YAH!!!” but sure enough, they all just turned away and went back to sleep. I now have a rock at each end of that yard I pick up each time I walk past it just in case. It was blowing a gale which was actually really nice because it wasn’t a cold wind but it kept the flies away for most of the hour I was walking.

When I got back, Ale had risen and we had a big breakfast in preparation for the 2^nd addition of the Balgo Test. It was another great day of cricket from 10:30 to 3:30 this time involving a test match and two 15 over ‘one dayers’. Much the same result as last week, we won the test and they won the two shortened games but with a few differences. This time actually got a few wickets (including Ant and Ale which was important for bragging rights), got a few decent totals of 8 and 9 runs so it was a good day for me. The test this time came down to 3 runs in the end which I was shaky about considering I went in to bowl with one good batsmen left and them only 4 runs to get so it was a lot more intense than last weeks. The one dayers however, the 1^st one was a good close game… the second one however wasn’t as pretty considering after batting 1^st in the 1^st game, we were sent out to field for another 15 overs which tired us out to the point of letting them get a total of 74 runs which we went to chase with about 5 minutes break in between only to come up a little short getting all out for 12 after 3 overs.

The wind got a bit of a chill to it later at night so mass was a very quiet one this week with very few people there.

Today, Br Lou and Br Marty asked if we wanted to go for a drive so we quickly gathered our things and set of on the 2 hour drive to Sturt Creek the bumpy ride was cut about 2km short when the dirt beside the road became water, and then the dirt on the road quickly did the same. It was a long straight road we were on and we could see the road was flooded as far as we could see so Brother Lou said it wasn’t worth risking driving through it. We still got out and looked about the place for a while, wading through the water. It looked like a giant Mangrove Eucalypt forest with hundreds on Eucalyptus trees about a meter if not more under water.

On the trips there and back, a big highlight was the wildlife we saw, including 2 packs of kangaroos, one lone bush turkey standing in the middle of the road (not like NSW bush turkeys, they are like a grey, really lanky goose which locals often hunt), one massive Jabiru bird and about 6 packs of wild horses, one which was very happy to let us drive within 5 meters of them without them moving.



The Flood




Continuing the journey on foot.




There's always time for a good bit of tree climbing!





Wild horses on the drive home.

 



My photography skills out the window.

 

One thing about the road being covered is that that road is the only direct road to Broome. So if it is too damaged or still flooded for a few more weeks, firstly, the kids from the Perth school will not be able to get here (or by the sounds of their head teacher, will get car wrecked trying) and also, we won’t be able to drive to Broome to get the car checked up, which I assume will mean no Broome holiday which is a bit of a kick in the pants.

p.s. Next time, I’ll try to keep it a little more brief :)