It’s Friday, Friday, Gotta get down on Friday

We sure did get down and party on Friday! Today was literally nonstop and I am absolutely exhausted but spent the day having the best fun with all the kids of Balgo. It was seriously AWESOME! It began with a bush trip with my Primary B class, swimming with the Primary C class, nail painting with the girls from Primary B and C and then to top off the day a disco at the shop. As you can see, nonstop but a lot of fun.

The chances for the bush trip weren’t looking too good when I walked into Primary B to find only five kids. However three more came fairly soon after me so we were pretty pumped it was all going to happen, especially as it had been the main source of bribery during the past week and we couldn’t let the kids down. The kids entertained themselves with Warwick making sailor hats (which looked adorable) while Mindy and I went to fill up the two troupe carriers. This was met with a bit of a problem when we learnt that despite it being well past 9.00am, the shop had not yet opened and wouldn’t until they received a call. Unbeknown to us, every morning the school calls Dallas, the youth worker to tell him there are enough kids at school to open up everything else. Dallas then rings the shop and the Wirrimanu community office and gives them permission to open to the community. It’s a good system and an excellent way of making the adults get the kids to school however was a chronic pain in the butt this morning for us. So Mindy got onto Meg who got Dallas to call the shop and even though we fudged the system a bit, we got going.

Jay Jay and his sailor hat

Back at school we got all the kids that had returned their permission slips in the troupies, bar one. Jake. He wasn’t yet at school so Mindy decided to drive around pass his house to get him. Jake must have been waiting for us or something thinking we were going to pick him up regardless because as soon as the troupie came around the corner, in he jumped. WAY easier than the wild goose chase I thought we were going to embark on. And away we went! We headed down the Mulan road which was a breeze as it had recently been graded and no longer had car shuddering bumps that usually induced car sickness in people like me. Apparently we’re taking advantage of the great road to trek out to the Mulan shop tomorrow, an adventure I always enjoy because the shop is jam packed with a whole heap of things the Balgo shop doesn’t have. It’s just one of the ways we entertain ourselves here in the desert; the Mulan shop.

It only took fifteen minutes before we arrived at Takamarra, a small but swimmable dam in a beautiful desert setting. It was amazing how bare and desolate it was despite coming off as somewhat magnificent. We got the kids changed; girls in one troupie, boys in the other (not the best change rooms we found because of all the windows, in hindsight ‘duh!’) and they jumped in the water, coming out almost immediately because it was ‘too cold!’ The brave ones soon got over it and splashed around having a ball while others explored the rim of the water, often bringing me to an interesting object with a torrent of ‘look here, look here!’. Jake pointed out cow/horse prints while Justin screamed when he found some kind of colourful bug before deeming it to be dangerous and pummeling it with countless rocks. Trent found a water beetle that kept jumping off his hand while Justin also found an ‘itchy caterpillar’. He told me that I’d get itchy if I touched it so instead I prodded it with a stick and laughed when Justin said the stick would now be itchy. Warwick got the kids into skipping rocks and they put Mindy and I to shame with their amazing technique. Jay Jay was able to do about five skips somehow getting the rock to bounce miles out of the water with each jump. It was incredible! After about half an hour, we got the kids back in the troupies and headed off to our next destination, the Water Hole.

Tjakamarra

Lining up for Muesli Bars

Primary B

Swimming!

I can almost hear Jake saying 'Look here, look here!'

The massive Bush Turkey feather we found. Photo courtesy of Justin

  

Trent and his water beetle

The gross bug. Kind of pretty though

  

Opening some Bush Tucker

Jake

Jay Jay

On the way there we had a bit of an issue where the water container in the other troupie fell over and wet all the kids so Mindy literally stopped the car in the middle of the road to fix the issue. Jay Jay ran up to our troupe saying ‘it wasn’t me, promise!!’ He is quite the cutie, but very naughty so that made him sound a bit guilty.

Literally, the MIDDLE of the road!

On the road again, Leanne sighted a dingo that looked way cuter and friendlier than any of the dogs around Balgo. Nequita kept screaming ‘let’s catch it!’ and when I asked her why, she said they made good pets. I was pretty pumped; first dingo that I’ve seen around Balgo! The Waterhole looked a lot different from when we used to come and swim in it during the wet; the stagnant water was covered with a thick film of algae and it looked like something that could make you sick with one touch. Having being well for a while now, I made a conscious decision to stay well away. However the kids were more interested in the bush fruit that surrounded the area and brought me all sorts of things to taste. I tried Witjirki (probably not the most amazing spelling!) and a tiny little berry that Justin told me was ‘bush mango’. We even found a type of small chilli looking fruit however the kids weren’t too sure what it was so decided not to try it because the red colour made it look a bit threatening. We walked down the steep cliff down by the water for a look around and the kids took pleasure into throwing rocks into the water; the first time Mindy thought it was a kid jumping in and went mental before he realized. On the way back the cheeky kids led us up the naughty way where you basically have to rock climb for about two metres to get back up. Not happy!!

The Witjirki Tree

The Rockhole. Ew

Robyn and her bush fruit. It was quite tasty

Witjirki

Justin and what he said were small bush mangoes

Kids down at the rock hole

Yeah Primary B!

When we got back to school the kids got changed and half of them pretty much tried to have a nap as soon as they went back into the classroom. It was cute. However I went straight over to Primary C where they were having their swimming lesson and mucked around with them for a while, attempting to get Sherry back into the water. She is slowly but surely getting there and we are very proud of how far she has come.

This week was the first time we had the new and improved Fun Friday with Primary C and Primary B. Mindy and Ale took the boys for sport while Sophie, Meg, Jenny and I did fingernail painting with the girls. We scrubbed their hands clean, got them to pick a colour (there were a lot of different shades of pink so that was a popular colour and a browny purple which Sophie and I decided after much deliberation was beige) and got to work. Me being the worst nail painter in the world was not too confident but did alright on Shoneille, Leanne and Sherelle. They looked really good until the girls requested a stripe of a different colour on their nails as well. It looked really dodgy but the girls loved it. They then turned the brushes to me and I have two hands with the funniest looking nail painting in the world; one with beige polish and the other with bright red. They attacked Sophie as well so at least I have someone around with manky looking finger nails. Sherelle and I have a bet going that we can both stop biting our nails and grow them longer than each other. For all those who know me well know that I’m a chronic nail biter and have being since I was two. However Meg said to me today that licking a toilet bowl is cleaner than biting your nails so that’s motivation enough to kind of stop the nail biting. That’s a very disgusting thought. We finished off the afternoon with pancakes, made specially by Jim, the amazing pancake cooker. The girls thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon of manicures.

Frena and Jilara with all the different types of nail polish

Shoneille, Sherelle and Leanne with their lovely Steph painted nails

Mine and Sophie's nails, super dodgy. My other hand has red nail polish ALL over it. But the girls had the best time and it was really cute.

Frena helping Robyn.

Pancakes!

I am really annoyed because for most of the day I had a massive bit of glue on the lens of my camera (no idea how it got there) and am hoping it didn’t mess up any pictures but if you see a splodge on any of them that’s just me being silly and not checking the lens is clean before snapping away! My apologies.

The disco was great! Everyone had a ball and the kids were really well behaved. The only problem I had was with the girls dancing. It’s kind of really grown up, wrong and belongs behind closed doors involving a lot of booty shaking and some epic hip contortion. Sophie and I attempted it and failed so despite the fact that we are kind of grossed out by their moves, it involves a fair bit of skill. I got clambered over by a whole heap of Kindy kids, especially Thomasina who spent a heap of time trying to get me to pick her up and dance, which I did a lot because she’s so irresistibly cute. The funniest dancer was Delwyn who was also quite put off by the girls dancing and waltzed in front of them and started imitating their moves for a laugh. It was HILARIOUS! It was like two separate dance floors; the boys and the girls. The guys were great fun to watch and had some interesting moves; Julian being the main groover on and off the dance floor. They were all really embarrassed when I tried to dance with them so I’ll keep away from them in the future to save them any humiliation; must be the cooties.

Kamus

Jungalee

Me and Oriel

BART, Robyn, Danielle, Shoneille and Irvan

  

Thomasina

NOAH!

Dad, this picture is just for you.

Dad LOVES Noah and always asks about him, even though he's never met him. I think he just likes hearing all his naughty stories. But he told me that Noah was his 'Brother'. Cute Dad, I think...

Shania, Danielle and Samara

Renelle

Renelle, Leanne and Breanne and Nequita who are sisters

Renelle, Leanne, Robyn and Brianna

Sina trying to get me to pick her up and dance

Sina, Celia, Delina and two kids I've never seen before!

Choneille, Joash, Chloe (love what she's wearing) and Bonita

Mainly the boys dancing to 'Black or White' by Michael Jackson which they LOVE! I got mainly the boys because it seemed kind of wrong to film the girls the way they were dancing but I think Danielle got a bit of camera time on this one so :/ anyway, enjoy. I hope it works!

OH!! Almost forgot to tell you all that I brought a webcam off eBay three weeks ago ($4.72 with free postage, wooo!) and hopefully when I can get to a computer with Internet and unblocked Skype we can have actual Skype conversations. Looking forward to seeing some friendly Perth faces! :)

Big weekend coming up. Saturday is choka block filled with art shopping (wooo 30% off!), lesson plans with Sophie (we’re planning the entire week of art lessons in Primary C), cooking room cleaning (it’s slowly getting there), the Mirli Mirli and cleaning my own place. Sophie and I have got to find time for some Grey’s Anatomy sometime tomorrow as we’ve been planning a marathon for ages and the season finale of Season 7 is playing in America RIGHT NOW so I really need to watch that as well. So psyched! And on Sunday we’re going to Wolfe Creek!!!! The plan was to watch the movie and then sleep over but it has turned into just a day trip which will still be a lot of fun and good to get out for a drive on Sunday. Stay tuned for some Wolfe Creek horror stories! EXCEPT someone told me today that the actual Wolfe Creek kidnappings happened miles away in the Northern Territory, but the movie was made at the meteorite crater because it was kind of a spooky place. However for those who have seen the movie disregard everything you saw because A, there are no sealed roads anywhere around there, B, there is no shed and C, be prepared for a REAL insight into Wolfe Creek in a few days! Adios amigos.

A Day at Luurnpa

Today the kids were a little bit crazy, furthering the theory thrown out in a casual conversation KP and I had yesterday about the full moon having a little bit of an effect on the kids. Not that they're werewolves or anything and it's more than likely just a coincidence that they go a little loopy when the moon happens to be at an all month high. But no joke, there is a sure difference and it's an interesting, slightly amusing hypothesis that I may just test.

I walked into Primary B this morning and was greeted by Mindy who looked as if he wanted me to do a massive favour and judging by the pained expression he was wearing, it wasn't looking like a fun job. He then proceeded to ask me if I'd be willing to de-nit the kids hair and I'm pretty sure that my over enthusiastic expression made it sound like I was being sarcastic. But despite the gross job, I was so keen! The little clinic that I have proposed to Brother Rick is still in the planning stages and the de-nitting was a job I was keen to do, as it is very much necessary at Luurnpa. So I rounded up all the kids and after I had finished, gave them all awesome hairstyles which they loved. Azarious got a nice comb over, Jean-Claude loved his Elvis do and Irvan made me do his three times until he was happy with his spiky punker look. Choneille got a slightly mangled braid (really need to practice them) while Kailas decided to do his himself. Which was good because I didn't know how to tell him his hair was too short for me to make look any different. It was a good morning in Primary B.

At Mangarri time I got out my camera and started snapping the kids playing however it didn't take long for them to want photos with me, and then that proceeded to taking the camera from me and taking random pictures OF ME which fuelled arguments between whose turn it was to use the camera. Good times. I finally got a picture of the Primary A girls who have become obsessed with playing Police, where they run around and 'arrest' all the adults and then place us in jail. It's kind of cute having five five-year olds attempting to drag me to a make believe jail and Henry is really bad at getting away; he was there for most of playtime today. Occasionally though he made a break for it which made for great entertainment watching him being chased as he tried 'really' hard to run away.

JayJay with his cute Elmo beanie

Amalisha, Renelle, Trish, Celia and Nequita

Nequita, Celia and Renelle

Me and Leanne

Joash demonstrating his mad as basketball tricks

Joan, Chloe, Bonnie, Danielle and Rishana

Rishana, Justine and Chloe

Chloe stole the camera. I look HOT :/ everyone else bailed on the silly face

Joan and I, pondering why we are just SO awesome!

Delina, Trish and Nequita

The Primary A girls captured Mindy and Henry

Thomasina trying to capture me

Julian and I

School assembly

Primary C

Leonie and Sina

We have a new girl in Primary C; Sherry is from Billilurna and Freena helped her greatly today settle in. She was lucky to have such a good friend. However there was a bit of a scene today at the pool when she told Jenny she could swim, dived in before she should have and realised she didn't actually know how. To make matters worse, Henry, the qualified lifeguard had left the pool for one minute to get some kickboards so Jenny dived in, fully dressed with her iPhone in her pocket, USB and keys around her neck, watch strapped around her wrist and glasses still on her face to save Sherry. It was a truly remarkable and heroic feat and I managed to drag Sherry out before Jenny sunk in the deep end. Luckily she didn't swallow any water and despite the shock was fine. Full credit to the hero of the day, JENNY!! Her iPhone is now soaking in rice, rushed in by Sophie who guarantees through her own experiences it works. It better! As you can imagine, Henry came out wondering what all the fuss was about before he realised we stole his job as Head Lifeguard. So that was an experience we'd rather never EVER happened again. 

Renelle at swimming time

Quornetta

Antonio, working hard to finish his work before he went in the pool

The hero of the day Jenny with Sherry, Shoneille and Julian

I hope you enjoyed the photos. Most of them are a bit blurry because it took me a while to realise my flash was off. But I'll attempt to get more out for you all tomorrow :)

A Chronological Account

It's that time of the week when I have a bit of free time, and because the sun is already setting it feels later than it is and therefore I've already accomplished all that I need to do. So I think to myself; 'better update the blog!' And then I think; 'but I have NOTHING to write about!!' And then I start listing all the things I should write about and I realise that I actually have WAY too much to write about but lucky for you, it's all intensely interesting. Because Balgo sure is intensely interesting and that's you're all so keen to read. I hope...well anyway please read on!

I'll try and keep it in chronological order for you all. Saturday was the laziest day that I've had in a while where I just kind of chilled at home and watched Grey's Anatomy, still getting over the gastro that kept me bed ridden for the majority of Thursday night and Friday. I'm pleased to say that every member of staff at Luurnpa that was taken ill by the bug has now gotten completely over it, which is great news not only for the school but the clinic because I'm pretty sure they were sick of all us sick people (get it, sick?! Hahaha the desert makes me so funny!) However I was better by the evening where I was just sitting and minding my own business at mass when Gracie, Tossie and Sister Alice start yelling at me from the front (I was sitting up the back because we all forgot that mass is now starting earlier than 6pm because of the cold) to do something. I could NOT figure out what they were talking about which was really awkward because the whole church had pretty much cottoned on to the fact that they wanted me to take up the offertory. Ah, rightio! I've taken up the collection before but that's easy; you just stand behind the two offertory people and go at their pace, but I was nervous to be the leading person for the first time. Pretty sure I stuffed it up something chronic, most likely because I didn't walk slow enough or raise the communion up to the congregation at the crucial parts; my excuse being I was carrying the water and the wine and am enough of a clutz as it is! But despite that, it was a real honour for Gracie and Tossie, two community elders to have picked me and I hope that despite my clutzy walk, it doesn't deter them from picking me again in the future!

School on Monday was met with a few surprises. The first being that in Primary C, we have two new students! Ziggy (short for Izekial) and Joash join the already chocka-block class, thankfully giving the few boys there a few more guy friends. The interesting thing about Primary C is that unlike the other classes, it is just one year level (Grade 4) while the others are split levels. Despite this, we only ever have about three or four boys in class so I'm sure Francis, Antonio, Kassius, Darian, Cody and Julian relish Ziggy and Joash coming in. While Primary C only has 25% boys, Primary B only has 25% girls and Mindy and Jenny have therefore decided to come together on a Friday afternoon and do activities like nail painting and hair styling for the girls and sport and art for the boys. It's going to be a lot of fun and will be a good reward for all the good kids at the end of the week.

Primary B are working incredibly hard and we had a record attendance today; fourteen kids came to school before Mangarri time which was GREAT! In the mornings before 10.00am I work with the different literacy groups while we rotate the kids between reading with Mindy, doing word searches with Warwick, doing interactive games on the computer and playing educational games with me and Joseph. It's great fun, especially when the groups work together as a team to facilitate each others learning. And they get so hyped up when they finish the activity. Like today with each group we did an alphabet activity where I distributed the letters from A-Z between each child in the group and they worked together to put the alphabet in the right order. It worked really well and Joseph (one of the ATA's who is the FUNNIEST guy) and I had a blast watching them work so well. On Friday we're going on a bush trip which is something I'm looking super excited for (photos!) so at the moment it's good bribery to keep the kids all doing the right thing. Hence the huge attendance.

Yesterday Kamus, who is in Primary A and Ainsley, a Primary B student were playing on the Kindy play equipment after school and I hung around there for a bit because they were so keen on showing me their monkey and acrobat tricks. I get so scared when they do something like hang from a bar with their legs or do back flips in midair because I can not remember myself as a child ever being that coordinated and know I'll be the one giving first aid of something goes wrong. But eveventually I had to go home as it was getting dark so headed off after saying goodbye to the little rascals. I had walked about half way home when I realised they were following me and I sensed that Kamus wanted to ask me something. He got one word out and I knew what he wanted; 'Cordial!' Nahhh, sorry mate! I knew that if I did happen to give them some, they would be at my door every day and most likely with every other kid in Balgo. Vin had the same problem at the Parish house a month back, so now to annoy him Henry and I just go up to the door and yell 'Cordial!' over and over again. However Kamus and Ainsley did not take no for an answer and hung outside the house until it got dark. They were so cute though it took a lot of willpower to say no!

We had the maintenance men around at our place yesterday fixing every thing they could find wrong which was great because they managed to get my bedroom door working better than I did (I tried fixing it with a nail filer, scissors and knife but obviously not well enough) however they didn't managed to fix the ceramic soap holder that I broke a month in by trying to stretch inside our awfully small shower. They did say though to cheer me up 'Don't worry love, we'll bring a replacement next year!' Ah the joys of waiting for maintenance. So every time I precariously balance my soap and facewash on the top of the soap dish, it's a subtle reminder of the clutzy idiot that I very often am. Good memories.

Today I was handing out icy-poles when Joan came up wearing her uniform and therefore entitled to receive one. I asked her what colour she wanted and she said 'Whatever colour you want Steph!' Awwww! It was soooooo cute!

Most awkward moment just then. I'm in the staffroom and the kids have been coming and knocking on the door just to annoy us and everytime I go out there isn't anyone there. So when someone started knocking just then I decided to ignore it. But KP just came in with Joseph and it turned out it was him trying to get in the last knock. Dammit! Trust it to actually be someone other than a kid the only time I decide to ignore it. Oh well!

Alejandro and Henry have been involved in the BBL - Balgo Basketball League. The teams so far have been Alejandro and Jarred versus Henry and Anthony. The first game last week was nice and clean and the victors were Ale and Jarred; it helps to have a pro Basketballer and a pro netballer on the same team. The second game was a bit of a scratch match with Adrian and Dallas and somehow Adrian came out with a black eye, courtesy of Henry. However it was the third game yesterday that really showed every one's true colours and it just happened to be when Brother Rick decided to step in to score seeing as he'd heard how clean the previous matches were. Not to be this time! There was all sorts of dirty talk, shoving, loose elbows and intentional tripping but at least there was a victor; Henry and Anthony, the self professed underdogs. Game four is happening right now so it will be interesting to see how the BBL results will pan out in the morning.

That's the lot for now. Look forward to an interesting account of the Primary B bush trip on Friday :)

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!

The Balgo Plagues, but the BEST of their type

There are two types of plagues happening in Balgo at the moment, well three if you count the torturous prickle plague which is absolutely bugging me to high hell. But these are the good kind of plagues. Firstly, Luurnpa Catholic School is experiencing an influx (and unqualified I suppose you could say) of young staff members. With Anthony, myself, Alejandro and Henry already as volunteers/support staff yet to pass through university, we also have Jarred and Sophie from Notre Dame University in Fremantle joining us for the term. Their course requires them to do a term of work in a remote school so they couldn’t get much more remote to Balgo. The crazy thing with this ‘remote’ thing is that people in their classes have been sent to places like Busselton and Denmark which I hardly would refer to as ‘remote’ considering they have more than one shop, more than 400 people and I’m pretty certain observe a tourist season as well. But we’re super happy they are here and have already had one too many games and movie nights, sharing the cooking duties and hosting rights. I think it’s great for them to get a little bit of support in what is set to be a very different term for them.

The second plague is also a positive one. That is a plague of individuals from La Salle, Middle Swan. As well as me, there is also Mr. Warwick Connor, my Year 9 English teacher joining us for five weeks while Maggie is on long service leave and today visiting for the rest of the week is Mr. Adrian Martino, my Year 11 and 12 Religion teacher and Mr. Darren Perrett. They are both sticking around to chase up some boarding students and it’s so exciting for me to see so many familiar faces around!

The second term of the year began last Thursday and we contributed the odd beginning of the term to the small numbers of students for that day and Friday. It was a good ease into the term having only four or five kids in most of my classes and Jenny, Sophie and I got stuck into a few of the chores that were building up in the classroom while the kids entertained themselves with the books, whiteboard and computers. Primary C is looking incredibly bright at the moment with clean floors and two huge new rugs taking up most of the floor space and Jenny, Sophie and I (the Primary C staff sisterhood of sorts I suppose you could refer to us as) are looking very forward to decorating the classroom one weekend as a surprise to all the good students as we are learning about SPACE this term! I am SO excited, as it brings me back to my Grade Three days when we made a paper Mache Solar system, and we felt really smart because we made Mercury smaller than Pluto and everyone teased us because we got it wrong but it was RIGHT! Because we researched it as thoroughly as eight year olds do and discovered that the sun is eroding Mercury really fast so it’s actually smaller than Pluto. But despite recent scientific conclusions, Pluto WILL be counted as a planet in our Solar System. I refuse to reject it!

This term, with Jarred working in Primary D I’m helping out with Mindy, Warwick and the Primary B class in the mornings before Mangarri time. It’s really exciting because it’s a whole new group of kids that I know and can name but haven’t discovered those special things about them that I enjoy about the Primary C and D kids that I’ve been working with. Joan was very upset when I told her that today after she gave me yet another drawing (it tends to be a weekly thing and my walls are slowly filling up!) but I promised her I’d be back. Steve is hoping to get me to do a remedial reading session with those students that need it for the hour and a half I’m there in the mornings so that would be awesome if I could get that up and running in Term 3. One on one seriously does wonders out here.

Mothers Day was difficult as I was sad I wasn’t there at home with Mum (I missed her birthday last year as I was in New Zealand and I’ll miss it again this year!) but made sure I posted her some decent gifts when I was in Broome so I hope she gets something out of her rainmaker and age appropriate cooking book (LOL Mum, don’t kill me!). And as Sophie also missed her own Mum and Jenny had adopted us we baked her cake and took it over on Sunday so at least we felt like kind of awesome daughters. Jim and Jenny both said it tasted good and seeing as our combined cooking skills only see us baking a packet cake (which we borrowed from Brother Rick) I’m glad we were able to whip up something half decent! But I made an amazing red curry last night so gone are the days where I leave the stove on three hours after cooking and make the most awful banana muffins (zip it Cass!) So to all my readers, let me know when you’re free post December 15^th and I’ll book you in for a dinner party to prove you all wrong and me incredibly right.

The kids are still riding the camel. For some reason they brought it into our yard on Sunday, I think so they could climb the fence and jump on its back. They have a habit of running ahead of the camel, climbing a tree and jumping down when Jellybean walks under so they are obviously far braver than any of us. We have had a few incidents; one kid fell off today and we were worried he broke his ankle but it turned out to just be a sprain so Brother Rick had a big talk to them at assembly. In a way, I like the kids riding the camel because they show a lot of respect for her and don’t throw rocks and sticks like they used to. It’s also a great sight to see two kids on the camel looking like they’re kings of the world and then what seems like a thousand kids running after her laughing.

Beware drivers around Balgo, because I have been awarded Brother Rick’s approval to be able to drive the cars! I tested it out the other day and drove Sophie around Balgo and out to the Pound on a tour but made the mistake of stopping because the camel was in the middle of the road (in hindsight, probably the right thing to do) but it meant all the kids jumped off the camel and started to climb the car instead and we spent ages trying to get them off. After ten minutes I pulled out my phone and pretended to call Brother Rick and have a conversation about how naughty the kids in question were; that got them off quick smart. Fortunately, that technique has helped me in many situations. I was excellent at driving, the only problem coming when we stopped the car and attempted to get the key out. Nobody told us that in a troupie you have to press a button to unlock the key so me and Sophie looked like right old fools tugging with all our might to release the key. I know for next time!

I just came back from a run at the gym (by the time I post this, yesterday!) because me and Sophie are pretty set on keeping each other motivated fitness wise. For me, it was all the chocolate and lollies we consumed watching Easy A that made motivated me to go at 8.00pm at night. I was super sore after our intense workout yesterday so settled on a run. However I usually get really bored on the treadmill and end up doing only 10 minutes because it’s so boring, but discovered I can put videos and stuff on my phone, blue tack it to the treadmill and watch them while I run. Handy as! I ran for half an hour, three quarters into an episode of an add free episode Bones before the fact that it was 8.30pm and I was already pretty tired caught up with me and I retired early after a hectic day. But seriously, best tip for all those treadmill runners like me that get super bored staring at the same wall and running no closer to anything! Mr. Martino brought up my set of Grey’s Anatomy so I am super excited to watching McDreamy and McSteamy while I run and have some good old marathon Grey’s weekends! Ahhhh, Grey’s Anatomy! I’ve been keeping up with the latest season in America and it’s only got about three episodes until it finishes so I’ll entertain myself with the reruns until the next season begins. It’s addictive, watch it if you’re not already!

Term 2 is set to be a term filled with many laughs and good times. The other day, about three hours into the term we had a great laugh at swimming with Primary C when Freena accidentally called Henry ‘Ricky’. No idea why, but it was fairly funny. However Danielle couldn’t get over it and couldn’t stop laughing for about ten minutes, which then of course set us all off and we stood by the pool for ages just losing the plot. For the rest of the day, as soon as I mentioned ‘Ricky’ Danielle lost it again. Absolutely hilarious, and if you’re reading it and thinking ‘Meh, not THAT funny’ it was a too be there moment because it was indeed the funniest thing EVER! So I’m looking forward to bringing you many moments like that to you this term. We’re taking our La Sallian star photo on Friday and I will be sure to post that afterwards. It was meant to be about a month ago but the day we planned it ended up being like the only day it rained in Balgo in three weeks so we postponed it to this week. I am really excited!

1730 words later and I remember that this was meant to be a short one. Wow!! It’s just like being in school again when Ms. Keenan and Ms. Slater used to warn me about my excessive word use in essays (1000 words over isn’t THAT excessive, I think…) Until next time, ciao!

SO MUCH TO SAY!

Hello again everyone. Sorry it's being such a long time between posts (a week is really pushing it, I know) but I do have a really good excuse! Since last Thursday at 6am in the morning I have been out of Balgo, only returning late on Wednesday night from Broome, the 'capital of the Kimberely'. We were lucky enough to be offered the opportunity to travel a bit this year by Brother Rick which was very kind of him and our first adventure took us to the Pearling coast. We're planning to also go to the Bungle Bungles and Alice Springs/Uluru during the year so it's super exciting that we're seeing a bit of the desert. But I better not get ahead of myself; instead I'll get you up to speed with the happenings in Broome and then the first day back at school!

Hopefully you'll all reach the bottom of this post and see the time I posted this latest update. Yes, once again the middle of the night! I couldn't sleep and was wide awake at midnight, knowing well and truly that if I went to sleep I would not be a happy chappy for the 6.30am alarm. I've discovered strangely enough I'm more cheerful with no sleep than six hours which for me is great because I get SO much done between those early hours of the morning. This time I managed to get all 111 of the photo's of our first term in Balgo that I printed out in Broome bluetacked ready to be put up on the wall in our dining room. Then I caught up with my journal writing which took a good two hours (BIG mistake leaving my journal in Balgo while I was away!) and then decided that I couldn't do much else without a computer. Problem being that my laptop is locked away safely in the Parish house and I haven't been over to pick it up yet. So that meant a 3.30am trek from the house to the school, a journey that was very cold and very VERY quiet! And here I am, in the staffroom blogging all my adventures dressed in my gym clothes ready for a 5.30am session. Totally psyched; going to be super dead by 5.30pm!

Where to begin. I'll start with our drive. We piled everything into the school bus (it's really a van but we like to think it's better than that) at 6.00am in the morning on Wednesday and headed out. I was super tired so was hoping to just go from my bed to the van with my pillow in tow and sleep the whole way. However I forgot about the Tanami, my new found enemy. The Tanami is the unsealed road between Balgo and Halls Creek, 350kms of shuddering, bumping, thumping, whacking-my-head-against-the-windowing and in general a road that denies one sleep. So that was fun. I entertained myself by spotting brumbies and marvelling at the hefty amounts of horse manure piled in precarious positions along the road. Seriously, it’s kind of incredible how many horse apples are in the ten kilometres or so before the Sturt Creek. It provided some interesting and unusual conversation though, which was kind of weird...ANYWAY I was thrilled when we reached the Sturt Creek because we were all wondering how much it had gone down since our visit with Brother Lou a month prior and if we would be able to cross! We got more and more nervous as we approached, waiting to see if we would be granted or denied our holiday…

(Suspense!)

It was OK! Actually, it was incredible how much water was still there and how fast it was flowing, but amazing to see how much it had dried up since we had passed. I remember thinking when we visited that it would be impossible for all the water to go down; there was just so much! However, while there was still water, it was passable. To make things even better, it was also very pretty. The water was so still and the early morning sun was peeking through the trees, providing for some excellent photography opportunities.

Before. The water was so high it came up to where the unsealed part of the Tanami meets the sealed part, a rare occurrence.

Completely dry!

Sturt Creek, 7.30am

Crossing. Note Henry as the marker.

On the other side!

We made a stop at Fitzroy Crossing, a lovely place however I was really annoyed because I was kind of asleep when we crossed the river, something I was super looking forward to because it was in flood, apparently a rarity. But I promised myself to be wide awake for the reverse journey. We also stopped to change drivers at this MASSIVE boab tree which had a couple of Grey Nomads camping beside it (Mum and Dad, you in a few years!)

My favourite stop however was at Wilare, a roadhouse 250kms outside of Broome. There was literally NOTHING else around it, but the compound the roadhouse was set in had a camping ground, pool, beer garden, diner and the funniest and quirky things we had seen along the journey including Corona salt and pepper shakers. However the strangest thing was a blue cable that looked almost like an extension cord that stretched from Wilare to about 15kms outside of it. It was quite amusing for a while spotting where it went and finding it snaking through trees, across bridges and even through a creek at one stage. We were most disappointed when it stopped, hoping it was going to Broome and discovering that we had finally cracked how Wilare got its Internet connection.

Wilare, very much in the middle of no where!

Cheapest Salt and Pepper shakers around!

We arrived in Broome at 5.30pm, quite happy with the fact that the drive only took 11 and a half hours. After settling into The Roey, our accommodation for the next few days we tried to go shopping. In hindsight, that was a really random thing to be the first thing we did in Broome but I think we were just eager to set our eyes on more than one shop! Unfortunately, only Woolworth's was open. BIG disappointment. So we checked off number two on the list; find the fattiest, most disgusting meal in Broome and consume it. For the boys, that was Eagle Boys Pizza, for me and Brother Rick it was McDonald's. Take away has never tasted so great! Back at the Roey, we were quick to check off the third item on our 'Things to do in Broome that we can't do in Balgo' list; consume an alcoholic beverage! That was a big disappointment; my beer tasted disgusting and I thought I may have gone off alcohol all together after consuming only cordial for two months. Fortunately my taste buds came back in time to try the Mango Beer at the end of the trip. But THAT story is coming. We crashed in bed, eager for sleep after a long journey.

We were awoken at 9am the following morning by a knock at the door, followed by a lady saying 'Housekeeping' before coming into our room and cleaning as we stared at her in a half asleep gaze trying to figure out a, where we were and b, what sort of a place does housekeeping THAT early! It was something we soon got used to, because that was to be our wakeup call for the next few mornings. It didn't deter me sleeping in later most days and I attribute that to my speedy recovery from whatever I was suffering from when I left Balgo; I came back much more healthier. Well, the sleep ins and the intense humidity! At times, Broome was unbearable. It was so sticky and I marvelled how people could stand it when I was told we were there for the un-sticky part. It was like Perth, but times a thousand. At least when Balgo is hot, it's dry so it's bearable. I'm not one to be able to stand humidity. However, the humidity makes the Frangipani flowers absolutley amazing and so frequent. They dot the trees everywhere and are a beautiful sight!

Our days in Broome were filled with shopping, relaxing, swimming at Cable Beach (it was like bath water!) and sightseeing. On the Sunday we aimed to get out to Gantheaume Point where the old lighthouse and a set of dinosaur prints are. Unfortunately we heard a funny sound driving the Troupie out only to discover we had a flat tyre. The boys were eager to fix it however technology promted epic failure as we had no idea how to use the Jack. Even the instructions clearly printed on the side made no help and they were forced to make an SOS call to Brother Rick. I used this as my chance to walk 300m down the road to the shops to 'get cold drinks' but did a bit of shopping in the nice aircon while I was there. I did bring back copious amounts of icy cold slushies just as Brother Rick left, apparently pressing one button and getting the whole Jack to work in an instant. We headed out to the Point and were met with some beautiful sights, including orange dust and rocks meeting the clear blue ocean; quite a site. Around the area are one of many sets of dinosaur footprints in the Broome area, however they are underwater unless it's very VERY low tide. I am actually amazed they have survived millions of years of possible erosion by sea water!

Cable Beach in the distance.

The deset meets the sea.

The most amazing house with the best view in the whole of Broome. We're assuming it used to be the Lighthouse keepers house.

A cast of the dinosaur footprints.

The house, the Lighthouse and a jet stream in the air.

Anastasia's Pool. In the 1920s the lighthouse keeper had a wife named Anastasia who suffered from chronic arthritis. He had the pool carved out of the rock at the base of his house and every day she would sit in the pool, refreshed at high tide by the waves, and stretch her arthritic limbs. It worked her wonders and is still there today.

Broome was also great to catch up with a few family friends. I had a great couple of nights with the Barton family who not only fed me but let me watch the Royal Wedding as well (OMG!!) which was incredibly nice of them. If anyone is in Broome on Sunday nights I fully recommend you have the Roast Dinner at the Roey, between 6 and 8pm. Absolutely to die for!

The coolest part of Broome, for me was seeing one of the places that featured in one of my favourite movies, Australia. The cinemas that showed The Wizard of Oz in the film is in Broome and I took quite a lot of photos of the place until being told that only the outside featured. Oh well, still really cool. While I didn't go and see a movie there, the humid nights make for great outdoor viewing.

On Tuesday, our last day in Broome, our little group of five was extended by a further four. This was due to the arrival of two Notre Dame student teachers who are in Balgo for the term, Sophie and Jarred and my Year 9 English teacher Mr. Connor who is teaching at Luurnpa for four weeks. Mindy, our Primary B teacher also flew in after jet setting around WA for the past two weeks We had a lovely dinner that night before heading out to Matso's Brewrey to try what you HAVE to try if you're in Balgo; Mango Beer. It is AMAZING; kind of like a mango smoothie, but without the thickness, with more bubbles, alcoholic and beer. Really, nothing like a smoothie but that's the closest thing I can describe it to. Very yummy!

Remember the sign, remember the name. Go there!

Our drive home was met with quite a few hiccups along the Tanami where we stopped to help someone who had run out of fuel and then another person who had a flat tyre. This, along with the fact that the bus was full of people and the troupie was full of groceries so a lot slower than the way in attributed to a 14 hour drive to Balgo. By the end of it, I was ready to cry every time we went over a hill and I couldn't see the lights of Balgo. But it was the BEST feeling when we finally did at 8pm that night! The most interesting part of the journey was stopping at the Wolfe Creek turnoff to wait for Brother Rick in the troupie who had made a detour. Sophie, Anthony, Jarred, Henry, Ale and I are totally planning on watching the movie and then camping out there. However it got spooky as it got darker...

Because there ain't no rest for the awesome, we all rose somewhat bleary eyed yesterday morning to greet the first day of school. Luckily though because of the crazy start of term (a Thursday, really?!) we only had 15 kids so spent most of the day preparing for the next few weeks. In Primary C, this meant chatting about our break with Jenny and Sophie who is also in there with us this term (yay, another girl!) and the little projects we're hoping to do to coincide with our topic for the term; SPACE! So keen on making a paper mache Solar System with them! The staff were kept bright eyed and bushy tailed thanks to a large amount of chocolate I put out at morning tea time, courtesy of Mum who decided to post me up a whole box of chocolate blocks. Mum, the staff loved it (and me, woo Brownie points :P)! Thankyou!

Brother Rick kept saying to me that pretty soon, I'd think he was the best principal ever. I learnt this fact today, along with the fact that he 'extends the truth' quite often. The other day when we were loading the troupie we put in a massive and new TV which Rick said was for the Trade Training Centre, being built in Balgo. Sounded logical. I also thought storing it in our house while the centre was being finished was the go as well when the boys came in and placed it in the corner of our room. I was too tired to ask and just went to bed however woke up to discover the boys had actually set it up in our lounge room. Thinking Rick always tells the truth, I told him how funny it was that the boys set it up as soon as they could and that it would be hard for them to go back to the smaller TV we had when the Trade Training Centre wanted it back. He smiled at me and said, 'Naahh, it's yours!!' He's such a tricker! And yeah, I suppose he's a pretty awesome Principal for that reason. Super happy to have a large TV that I can watch excessive amounts of Greys Anatomy with Sophie! We're pumped.

Balgo, going through the 'Spring' season is experiencing the worst of it; the prickles. They are EVERYWHERE and cling to EVERYTHING! Somewhere they get in between my shoes and even on the bottom of my thongs so when I walk through my house they fall off and stepping on them in bare feet during the middle of the night is a rude wake up call! Chronic ouch! Hopefully they die down soon because they are huge and very painful.

Well, I suppose I better stop writing now. That took me a lot longer than expected. It's now 5.19am and the sun is just poking up. The gym beckons and after a strong cup of coffee so does the new day. Thank gosh it's Friday! What an easy week!