Stars, Eyelashes, Gastro, Peter Garrett, Coffee, Sunsets, Children EVERYWHERE and much more!

The week has absolutely flown by! I was just looking back on my blog and the last post was on Tuesday, which seems like just yesterday. It’s all going way to quickly for my liking and I know that the end of Share the Mission will come way to soon than I’d like. For now though, I’ll just have to suck it up and enjoy the fast paced journey as much as possible, until I find a way of actually slowing down the days.

It’s great to see a lot more students here at Luurnpa Catholic School. We still have lower numbers than expected as some are out of town and literally all over the place; Kununurra, Alice Springs, Broome, Halls Creek, Fitzroy Crossing; you name it, there is bound to be one student from Luurnpa there. The good thing about Balgo being such a small community is that you just ask the kids if they know where their friends are and you’ll almost always get a collectively right answer. However despite the fact that so many kids are out of town, almost all of the kids in Balgo at the moment are coming to school, which is absolutely fantastic!

I am getting to know the Primary B students so much better and even after just one week there I have learnt all their names and the running’s of the classroom. I always knew Primary B as the cheeky class; the one that was kind of naughty, but cute enough to make those feelings disappear. However being in their class, I am learning that they are cheeky, just like any other seven or eight year old but are also very smart, caring and great workers. I have also come to be very jealous of them, in particular the boys and namely Jean-Claude. The reason; they have the longest eye lashes I have EVER seen! Jean-Claude’s are no joke almost 1.5cm long, bringing me to the constantly asked question; why do the boys always get the long lashes?! It is so unfair! But I suppose if they batter them at me enough when they’re in trouble, I’ll soon forget what I was mad at them for. But seriously, WHY!

The weather is getting rather chilly and the past few days have seen me wear jeans and a jumper to school, which is quite a feat for someone like me who relishes winter. I’m still trying to get used to the seasons here. At the moment we’re heading into the dry season but it’s almost like spring at the moment. The wildflowers are coming out and the prickles are at a record high, but instead of it getting warmer like spring back home does, it’s getting colder and colder. Last night I wore winter pyjamas, slept with my doona pulled right up to my chin and even had a hot water bottle warming up my toes because they were frozen solid. I’m starting to appreciate actually packing what I thought was the unnecessary; trackies, multiple pairs of jeans and many jumpers. Very much needed here.

Despite the cold weather, the children are still more than keen to jump in the pool and go for a swim which they do for about 40 minutes every afternoon. Honestly, sometimes it’s so cold I expect to see chunks of ice floating on top of the water! However, the kids get warmed up really quickly as Henry does exercises that are intended to keep them in the pool to save them the torture of getting out, especially when the wind is at its meanest. I cannot wait until Monday because we received a donation of 20 pairs of goggles from none other than my very own Mum, who spoils the Luurnpa kids as much as she spoilt me when I was in Primary school. They are going to go crazy when they see them and all the staff are looking forward to having students with eyes a lot less red after swimming time. The goggles will also be great for diving and retrieving exercises so it better be warm enough to swim on Monday.

Being so close to the Northern Territory border we’re having incredibly early sunsets and it makes sense for Balgo to be on NT time (an hour and a half in front) as I’m pretty sure that’s what the sun works on. Lately, the sun has been setting around 5.15 and it’s dark by 5.30. We have no form of twilight like Perth does and it makes the days seem so much shorter. Luckily with the school finishing at 2.00pm, we have enough sunlight to do all our afternoon activities and I’m finding my body clock works much better with the sun setting earlier as I tend to go to bed at a far more reasonable time. But with winter solstice still a good month and a half away, it’s going to get a LOT darker a LOT quicker!

On Thursday I received the fright of my life! I was supervising the Primary B NAPLAN testing when Sophie came to the door telling me that there was someone to see me. Turned out it was one of the nurses from the clinic that was sent to collect me ASAP so I could see the doctor. Well didn’t that just send my stomach into knots! I’d had some tests done the week before I went to Broome and it sounded like they had finally come through. Of course, me being the worry wart I am was expecting to be sent back to Perth for a few months before I could come back to Balgo, something I was NOT keen on. But luckily, the doctor wanted to tell me that they had finally figured out what was wrong with me. Turned out I had a nasty and rare bug that is usually only found in people with immune deficient diseases, but because I had been so sick with other infections prior, they weren’t too worried. I was stoked because at least the clinic knows how to treat me now, instead of treating for all the obvious Balgo bugs. Horary!

Ironically after being given a clean bill of health by the doctor, that night I became one of many Luurnpa staff to come down with a nasty case of gastro and spent the whole of yesterday lying on the couch watching Grey’s Anatomy, the only thing I could stomach. The absolute worst part of it I missed being apart of our La Sallian star which we had been planning pretty much since the day I got there. To say I was bummed would be an understatement; I was shattered! But the star came out amazingly and as you can see, very much encompasses the desert dwellings of our Luurnpa students. Below is the little spiel I wrote to go with the star:

“Last term, the Balgo STM crew decided to jump aboard the La Sallian Star initiative but were determined to make our star unique and meaningful to Luurnpa Catholic School. We therefore chose to take our star photo in The Pound, a truly beautiful region just outside of Balgo that is spiritually and culturally important to the Balgo people. Unfortunately, the day it was planned ended up being the only rainy day in Balgo for a month so it was postponed to yesterday where we are pleased to report it went off without a glitch. 10 cars and troupies bussed over 60 students and 17 staff out to the desert where our photographers took the image from the top of a steep cliff. We are very pleased with the image and are happy knowing that to our school it’s more than just a star; in fact it is a symbol of the  strong connection between the spiritual and cultural beliefs of Balgo and the connections with the de La Salle Brothers, two very important binaries in the community. Full credit goes to Henry Jones, Alejandro Barrientos and our photographer Anthony Cormick for co-ordinating the final preparations yesterday as I was unfortunately away sick. We hope you like it and we are pleased to add it to the ever growing La Sallian star map!”

As you can see, the star looks absolutely amazing and we are so happy with the outcome. It’s better than anything we could have predicted! We had so much help as well with ten separate drivers getting all the students and staff members in and out of The Pound within an hour and so many well behaved children. Apparently the mail plane flew over just as we were taking the image so we’re wondering if they got an even better view from the sky. We’re so happy everything all worked out and are stoked that little old Luurnpa Catholic School is now on the map with so many other international La Sallian schools. Check out the other star formations at http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&source=embed&oe=UTF8&msa=0&msid=203371394127310492158.00049d6d545050715555d/.

Ooooh! Something I completely almost forgot, but which is absolutely the most awesome news you will EVER hear!! Because we have a new Kindy building, a soon to be renovated old Kindy building and a brand new trade training centre, all funded by the government a Minister is required to open the buildings. In a few months time, we’re getting none other than the Minister for Schools, PETER GARRETT out to Balgo to open our buildings. HOW EXCITING! If there are any Midnight Oil fans around I’ll be auctioning off autographs to the highest bidders and I’m certainly hoping to get a photo with another political figure, although it will be hard to top the one of me and Julia Gillard! So watch this space for Peter Garrett countdown. And yes, I also think it’s sad that I’m super excited about this visit, but IT’S PETER GARRETT!

Well after that glorious blog post I’m going to go and attempt to get my weekend project out of the way; that is, figuring out how to work the staff room coffee machine. Jenny and Jim, Mindy and Donna and Steve got all their extra bits and bobs that they sent up with the Grace Brothers Removalists at the beginning of the year on Wednesday (yep, took fifteen weeks plus to get here, talk about snail mail!) and Jenny enticed us all with her coffee machine so much so that I don’t know if I can go back to instant after having her café style coffee. Wish me luck!