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 :)