Over the Hump; it's gone so quick!!

YES! I am back in Balgo!! Hello warmer weather, flies and of course, the lovely red dust that blends in so well with my ranga scalp and the sunburn I know I will become accustomed to in the coming weeks as the sun develops a rather nasty bite. It’s good to be back, although I did have a fabulous time down south in the windy and rainy city of Perth. For someone who absolutely adores EVERYTHING about winter (hot chocolates, toasty warm fires, the rain, the cold and of course, winter fashion) it was great to be able to experience at least two weeks of frigid conditions and all things cold and wet. I took the opportunity to see Perth from the eyes of a tourist, walking around the streets with a camera in my hand and discovering so much I hadn’t seen before. I explored the richness of King Street with Mum (who turned 21 the day I arrived, Happy Birthday Mum!), took in all the variety at the many shopping centers around and had a ball at the Perth Zoo which brought back so many memories for myself and my family. When we were younger, we used to go all the time, sometimes every weekend courtesy of some Zoo Passes which meant we got in for free all year around. With Dad turning 50 on Saturday (Happy Birthday Old Fart) we used Thursday, the day before I left, to recreate his less grey days and made newer, slightly more mature memories at the Zoo. As you can see, we got to ride an elephant and were lucky to get a bit close and personal with the lions!!

Ok, so I didn't specify if it was a REAL elephant...

I recently discovered that as of a few days ago, my time in Balgo has reached the halfway mark. I can scarcely believe it myself, however the information in front of me stands for itself. I have been in Balgo for 144 days, and in 135 I will return home. Before now, I’ve been counting the number of months that I’ve been here with every 3^rd of each month officially adding another. However now, it’ll be how many months I have left. It’s sad in a way that we have reached the top of our STM hill and are now somewhat sadly departing downwards towards new adventures in 2012. Of course, that is many, MANY months away but has proven to be food for thought over the past few days as I attempt to so much into only 135 days.

On the plane back to Broome, I got asked if I was going for a holiday, or going home. It proved to be a difficult question to answer! I was leaving my ‘real’ home and going back to my Balgo home for the year, but which was which? It would have been even harder to answer if I was asked on the plane going to Perth; essentially I was holidaying at home! So instead of making the poor girl confused, I stuck with the standard ‘I’m volunteering in the middle of nowhere’ answer that tends to have more questions follow but makes a lot of sense when explained fully. My STM situation has proven more than once very hard to explain. A lot of strangers that I have met along the way who have asked what I’m doing this year have come to the conclusion that I’m a volunteering teacher (which means I look over 21, shucks) because they can’t understand what someone of my age with my lack of qualifications could offer to a school. Well, I hope that I AM offering a lot because I’m having a ball offering as much as I can!

As always, the trying part of getting back to Balgo was the twelve hour drive from Broome. With the new student teachers, Cassie and Lisa, Mindy, Henry and about a thousand things crammed into the troupie we made the uncomfortable but thankfully quick journey back home. With a 4am start and a 3pm finish (with a quick side trip to Wolfe Creek) we made excellent time however Cassie, Lisa and I in the back gained our fair share of bruises bumping around with the luggage. The bruises were probably not made any better by my driving stint on the Tanami, my first but not my last! It was also a great achievement for me to last that long in the back of a troupie on such a rough road without the motion sickness getting the better of me; the whole riding sideways thing is the worst! However I give full credit to the Kwells, motion sickness bracelets and lack of consumed liquid for getting me home with my stomach contents still intact!

School began yesterday and we were pleased to get a decent amount of students come considering the Yagga Yagga sports is occurring and watching the basketball on the courts and football on the oval appeals to the kids a little bit more than school does. I don’t really understand the competition but apparently this is just one of many sport carnivals with the Balgo sports occurring in September. Teams come from many places around the local Kimberley area to compete and Balgo had two football teams entered; the Balgo Tigers and Eagles. Our very own Anthony Cormick is a member of the Balgo Tigers and played valiantly yesterday for the one minute that the game occurred. I wasn’t there, but a fight between two players in the first thirty seconds eventually became an all in brawl, spectators included. He was seen running in the opposite direction soon after; and rightly so. However with the rematch during school time today, he got his second chance and defied the gravel and questionable tackles to obtain a decent amount of touches. Unfortunately, Balgo Tigers didn’t make the final but with two teams in the competition we were lucky that the Balgo Eagles did! The final was this afternoon against Laajimanu and the short bit that I saw looked very good. I had no idea who was winning though because the teams both had white and blue guernsey’s on so I never knew who was kicking the goal (and I don’t think anyone else did!) but I have just been told that Yagga Yagga won the basketball despite a Balgo dispute about the score and Balgo won the football – WOO! The thing I liked the most about the sports is the amount of people around and the manner in which they do anything for a bit of fun. Like the other night when someone obtained some fireworks and let them off to keep the celebrations going. Only in Balgo!!

The official committee. Fit with large silver trophy and microphone. Too bad they don't commentate in English...

Ok, so the Crows and Eagles flags? Well, as many Kimberley football teams do, the Balgo Eagles and I'm assuming Laajamanu Crows have not only taken an AFL footy teams name but their merchandise. I LOVE that!! So resourceful!

Team huddle; Balgo on the left.

They looked really small compared to the other team, but they won so what they lacked in size they made up in skill!

I could never play on the gravel!

They were coming full bolt at us. It was scary

The spectators, plus about a hundred or more around the oval.

It’s great been back in the classroom and with the Human Body the topic of the term for Primary C, I’m in my element! Yesterday the kids cut out skeletons and pasted them onto black card, some in very funny positions. Another activity planned for this week is one I always loved doing at school, often out of class. Each student gets an outline of a person and can decorate it however they like. They then cut it out in four pieces and swap with others in the class so eventually they only have one of their own pieces and three random bits that may or may not fit with their original decoration. I’m thinking that is going to be a rather funny activity!

Even though only two weeks have passed, I’ve noticed changes in all my students. They have all grown up that little bit more! For example, Renelle is becoming more and more of a tricker, telling me something that isn’t true but in a manner that is so convincing I believe her and get ready to do something about before she says in her cute little voice ‘I just trick you!’ Fortunately she does this for unimportant things and hasn’t yet used her amazing knack for tricking to get another student in trouble. Danielle is learning to deal with issues without getting upset and I am so proud of her for that! Today another student actually hit her during Maths time and instead of getting really upset she dealt with the situation. It was amazing!! This is the same with a lot of the students in Primary C and despite the occasional spat (what we call a ‘sookie-la-la’) things are eventually becoming just that little bit more mature. Full credit to the amazing-ness of Jenny; she’s like a teacher magician!

The Primary D Melbourne trip went really well and on all accounts all the students had a great time. Joan said it was too cold but for someone accustomed to the desert I hardly doubt that, although she said it was a lot of fun but she likes Balgo more. Samara showed me the photos she took today and was very proud, pointing out all the people she met. Brother Rick said all the people that met the kids were very impressed with their attitude and it appears that they were exemplary ambassadors of the school. I wish I was there for the AFL game that they went to; the Richmond Tigers vs. the Essendon Bombers. With Cathy Lee being an Essendon fan and Anthony a strong Tigers supporter the running joke before they left was who would come home red faced from such a contest. Cathy Lee retorted that she wanted to sit next to Anthony to see his face during the game, not just when the Tigers lost but she thought it would be entertaining. Good old Cathy!! Thankfully Essendon won, which makes me happy for two reasons; a, I wanted Cathy’s team to win so I could tease Anthony for the next month and b, I tipped the Bombers. WIN!

Well I’m off to have dinner by my new favourite show (Body of Proof, I love it when the main character is a female redhead doctor, hence why I miss Addison from Grey’s Anatomy) and do a spot of knitting. That brings me to the worst story EVER!! On the plane to Broome, I managed to get my knitting needles through security but somehow all my stitches fell off the needle and then untangled and it was a DISASTER! So I’m starting again. However, with the doctor diagnosing my wrist injury as a Repetitive Strain Injury, I’m wondering if the knitting is what I did to hurt it in the first place. That would just be the most embarrassing thing EVER! We’ll soon find out.