Lettuce, Tomatoes, Carrots, Potatoes, Apples, Oranges, Bananas, Celery, Capsicum and everything else!!

You know you live in Balgo when you get excited about the fact that the store is selling LETTUCE!!! Like actual lettuce. The one and only green, leafy and the core of a decent Caesar salad vegetable that I have craved since I got up here has arrived. Never again will I take my vegetables for granted! So to get you up to speed, the roads into and out of Balgo have all been cut off through some pretty intense flooding. Just the other day, Warmun, a town north of Halls Creek got completely washed away and a state of emergency has been declared for the area. It appeared as if all deliveries would be limited to long life materials and tin food for the next few weeks but yesterday afternoon a whole heap of fresh fruit and vegetables were flown into Balgo, which was pretty handy because I used our last vegies on dinner the other night. The town was incredibly stoked and it seemed almost like a miracle, especially because even the store owners didn’t know about it. Corny, but true!

Henry went on an excursion with his class to the shop just before break yesterday and was so excited by the variety he headed back with some money. When I asked what he got, he told me he got just a few tomatoes and potatoes, and that was it. I immediately thought he was a typical boy refusing to buy the healthy stuff and pledged to go later to get more. But I had the biggest surprise when I got home and found the entire fridge laden with every type of vegie you could think of. Including lettuce! Stoked!!!

The whole downside of the flooding, other than the fact that Warmun is decimated, is the fact that yesterday was my first ever over-18 St. Patricks Day! Henry pointed that out for himself, and me and Ale both realised it is the same for us as well. The plan was to go to Halls Creek today with the footy guys who are playing at a lightning carnival this week and party a day later, but all the roads are closed and travel is ‘unadvisable and people should remain in the safety of their communities’ (just reading off the staff emergency warning). Huge bummer!  Anthony told me the plans on Wednesday morning and for a whole hour I was bouncing around singing ‘Halls Creek! Halls Creek!’ until I bumped into the secondary teacher Adrian, who told me the trip was cancelled. Huge let down. But we’re planning a camping trip out to the Dam this weekend if the weather is ok so I’m looking forward to that. The weekends in Balgo are great; there are so many walking tracks, rock paintings and water holes around to get lost in (which we generally do) that boredom never lasts long at all!

Yesterday morning I awoke to perfect blue skies with not a cloud in sight. It was as blue as an ocean (song reference, lame I know!) and the air was cool, but still warm. It was perfect. Unfortunately it got a lot warmer. I’m doing some babysitting for a local family and we walked across the oval towards the shop and were baked before we got half way! Weirdly though, it started to rain and was the most perfect sun shower. The only issue is the mozzies. They are intense during this weather and I am covered in bites from head to toe. It’s hard to go outside without getting bitten and many of them resist the aeroguard to take a nibble but I covered myself in the stuff, braved myself up and went outside this afternoon to catch the last half of the first footy game of the season; Balgo versus Balgo. It was meant to be Balgo versus Halls Creek but you know that story! It was nice just to sit and chill, enjoying the company of the kids and I headed over to the mini ground to watch their game when they started to play. I honestly don’t know how they do it. The oval is completely gravel and they all run around with no shoes on. I tried to fit in a bit on a recent woman’s trip and didn’t wear my shoes when we went to this lookout on the way home and it was incredibly painful. They all laughed at me, the white girl I am! Henry however is really tough. He actually got told off by one of the teachers for not wearing shoes in school, and rarely wears them when he’s out of school. Honestly do not know how it is possible.

I had every intention of posting this last night when I wrote it but the internet was down and the phones also have been down since the flooding. There is some big technical reason for that but I have no clue so hopefully the net doesn't conk out again.

The following pictures are some from the footy game last night, and the last two are from a sunset the other day that looked like the sky was on fire! Absolutely amazing. Now please excuse me, I’m going home to eat my multitude of fruit and vegetables and drink my cordial. My mother would be proud.

The footy ground

Sampson

Noah

Francis

Alejandro, Francis, Aquinas and Jay Jay

The kids footy game

Balgo

View from my house

Sunset the other night