Nine Days to Go - Art and Graduation!

Suppose you were an outsider observer, who just decided to pop into Balgo while you made your rather rough and at some times wet journey along the Tanami. While you were here, you passed by the school, drove around the store, Church, clinic and oval and stopped in quickly at the Art Centre. Usually, you would have seen a rather quiet and meticulously run place. However had you popped in today, you certainly would have marveled by how alive and robust the community was, fired up by two separate but very exciting events that were special enough to have visitors come from as far as Perth to witness. For what is usually a casual beginning to the week, this Monday was unusually busy but certainly a lot of fun and definitely very exciting for all involved!

We began the morning as normal. Class was rather busy with nine students and one new addition, Farren. From Lajimanu, he fit in well with the rest of the students, knowing most of them from pervious explorations. Everyone seems to know everyone around here, it’s like one big massive community spread over many hundreds of kilometers. We had literacy and numeracy rotations and then the normal became the abnormal and our usual routine was disrupted by something very exciting and a great honor to witness.

A huge number of special visitors had converged upon the school to bear witness to the graduation of five of our Aboriginal Teaching Assistants who had been completing their Certificate 1 in Work Preparation. As a part of an institute called Bachelor, Sanjay, Marika, Joseph, Angela and Madeleine were congratulated in front of the entire school for receiving their certificates and all involved in the ceremony were very proud of the ATAs. The graduation was fit with caps and gowns for the overseers of the ceremony and lovely golden gowns for the graduates, and boy did they look swish!! The school hall was filled not just with students, teachers and guests but a plethora of community individuals who were all immensely happy with the achievements of five of their own and as Carol from the CEO in Perth said, it was an inspiring moment for the children of Luurnpa to see what they can accomplish in the future. The whole Bachelor program is an incredibly exceptional idea and a program that helps to introduce indigenous teachers into schools within their communities, something that very much points towards a bright future in these education institutes. Congratulations Joseph, Sanjay, Marika, Madeleine and Angela!

After a quick Mangarri and assembly, the students trekked over to the Art Centre, the stifling hot air very much making the usually short walk rather difficult! Today was the day that the Children’s Art Exhibition occurred and all students from Mulan and Balgo visited the centre to see their works up on the walls that their parents and grandparents usually feature upon. For such a small community, promoting the younger generation to embrace the artistic talent of their elders and display their own in a place of so much worth and value was an exceptional idea and very much a success! The students ran into the gallery to find their works and admire the aptitude of their peers, posing for photos next to their art and reading the descriptions of everyone else’s pieces. Tracy, the curator of the exhibition had done a very professional job at making it look like a display fit for the modern day Leonardo da Vinci’s and Picasso’s and the community absolutely loved it!

Each class had spent time during lessons creating something that represented Balgo. Primary C painted landscape and dreaming images to do with the land, Primary B used leaves and grass on canvas to paint true looking displays, Primary A made sponge animals with cute little googly eyes on paper, Primary D painted dot dreaming images and Secondary did photography! It all was exceptional, and totally 100% better than anything I could have ever done, slightly putting me to shame but certainly making me very proud of all the students. They celebrated with their families over a barbecue and sausage sizzle and then enjoyed an early end to the day, much to the joy of all the teachers after such a busy and hot day!

Eva opens the Exhibition.

Danielle and her piece.

Shonielle points to her work, right up the top.

Work from Primary B.

Work from Mulan.

By the way, you know summer is in full swing in Balgo when the cold water tap in the shower is actually warmer than the hot water tap. Gotta love Balgo!

Ten Days to Go - Painting Complete!

Remember when I said in a previous post that when it came to having only ten days left in this great place, I'd write a blog post everyday, motivated by all the fun and exciting things that would be happening? Well the countdown began today but unfortunately, the interesting things I had expected were very medial. But of course, a promise is a promise so here we go!

I suppose something that I found exciting was actually FINALLY finishing the painting job Jim had charged me with. After many weeks, a lot of paint, a lot of soap used scrubbing off the paint, two pairs of shoes, one perfectly good pair of shorts and a shirt and about a dozen paintbrushes a rollers, the house is 100% painted and clean! It's truly a sight to behold and I only wish I had of taken before shots to make my after photos look just that little bit more impressive. Well, hopefully you're impressed regardless!! All walls are a neutral white with the bedroom doors a lovely blue. The lino floors have been scrubbed until they shine and not one thing is out of place; just the way I like it! Looking at it now, I would totally live in it. Before it got a paint job and a clean, I was concerned about simply stepping inside for a minute without a facemask!!

The main room and kitchen.

The lovely blue door!

Anthony made my job a lot easier this morning by breaking the pool. Well, not exactly the pool, but the pulley system that brings the massive steel cover over the top of the bigger pool. Brother Rick, deeming it unsafe has closed it for the rest of the year which means most of the kids will either have to play sports in the hall with Henry or paddle in the small pool meant for the Primary A kids. It's quite disappointing especially as the weather is heating up but we're fortunate it occurred now and not at the beginning of the term. It was a job I quite enjoyed as well, but no hard feelings to Anthony; it could have happened to anyone! However, we have both decided we'll blame Brother Rick, because Santa is coming next week and while the kids will be angry at him first, seeing their principal as Santa's Little Helper will melt all those hard feelings away. What a plan!

I began taking down the multitude of pictures, photos and drawings that line my walls last night. It really was quite a job and I can't believe how empty it all looks without the smiling faces of my family and friends lining my bedroom. Sure, it's a little earlier than I would have liked but I'd rather spend as much time as possible with everyone here closer to the time I'm leaving than packing. Plus, I'm not a last minute person so it's out with the suitcases, in with the belongings. It's all gone too fast for my liking and while I'm looking forward to the joys of Uni and work I'll miss Balgo immensely. You can take the person out of Balgo but you can't take the Balgo out of the person! The only thing on the walls in my room is of course, my Christmas Tree. Can't get more festive than this :)

Never Agree to a Staff vs Students Water Fight

You all didn’t pray hard enough!! Our planned trip to Halls Creek got cancelled on account of a closed Tanami Road, thanks to some pretty intense rainfall. The original plan was to have the teachers who were attending the PD go during the week, and then the rest of us would go up in another car so we could enjoy a staff dinner together. Unfortunately, the plan didn’t happen. Rick, Robert, Mary, Jenny, Mindy and Steve were lucky enough to be chauffeured Kimberley style by plane to Halls Creek, the five hour bone rattling journey taking a mere fifty minutes with a spectacular view. The absence of such a large chunk of staff really did throw out the week and I can’t believe almost a week has passed since I blogged. I suppose I better attempt to get you all up to speed!

Because of sports in Billiluna, we didn’t have that many students on Tuesday, as well as Monday. With the Kimberley being so gun ho for any kind of sporting events, most of Balgo had trekked the 80kms down the road to witness the local teams vying for basketball and football titles. While Billiluna tripled in size, Balgo probably lost about 70% of its population and driving through it on Sunday night was eerie; no-one was around! The only Primary C students to grace us with their presence were Shonielle, Antonio, Cherie and Frena, all quite chuffed to be the ‘only kids’. We attempted to stick to a routine designed for at least eight students but decided that making lessons up on the spot was probably the best idea and the kids enjoyed one on one lessons with each teacher. Jenny and I used the time to get the classroom prepared for the end of the year and after a bit of window washing and cleaning. Of course, I had already gotten the Christmas Tree up and decorated the day before, pretty early but it really did brighten up the classroom. I was stoked when Jenny presented the kids with a Christmas Activity book that they could complete over the next few weeks. If there’s one thing I love, it’s Christmas. Not Christmas Day exactly, but the lead up to the 25th. I can’t really describe this obsession of sorts, but I think it comes from my mum turning our house into the North Pole come December the 1st. Every surface is transformed, red felt and white tulle below every snowman, every Santa, elf, sleigh, and all things Christmassy. Only the inside is decorated and since we were younger Mum would video us decorating the Tree, the most important piece to our little Christmas wonderland. While I’ll miss the decorating this, the camera will not be! Antonio, Frena, Cherie and Shonielle kept getting me to help them with their coloring and other activities, and of course I complied. It really was quite therapeutic and relaxing just coloring away and over the week I made my own creation, a Christmas tree on paper that I could hang up in my room and make it look just a little bit more festive. Quite good too, for an individual who lacks serious artistic talent!

I don’t remember much of Tuesday afternoon, for quite an embarrassing reason. I was playing basketball with Joan, Bonnie and Keisha and the netballer I am made me rather uncoordinated and goofy when making the attempt to switch to a faster paced sport. I was trying really hard, but got distracted and missed Keisha throwing a ball at me. I turned around just as it smashed into my nose, ripping my neck back and giving me a very bad headache. While the kids laughed, I wandered off rather dazed in search of an icepack for my nose, hoping that it wouldn’t bleed or bruise. When class resumed, Jenny sent me home, somewhat aware that I was rather confused and a bit spacey and I think it probably was the right idea. I fell asleep, not good considering I could have been slightly concussed and woke up just in time for dinner with the Brothers who kept giving me funny looks all through dinner. I must have been a real sight! That’s the last time I attempt to play basketball.

As Maggie was sick on Wednesday, KP brought the Primary B kids into Primary C and we enjoyed a day with a lot more kids than usual, all of varying ages. I enjoyed being able to work with many students that I only really ever get to play around with and got to see a different side of them, as did they with me. We ended up having 19 students in total in the one class, fortunately with five teachers so the workload was spread around quite a bit. It was also good for the Primary B kids in Grade 3 to have a day in an older classroom, the place they will be spending most of their time next year. They were very much mentored by the current Primary C class and it was great to see everyone working together to make the experience as good as possible. After only having a few kids in the class for the past few days, such a big mob was so much fun!

Jenny left for Halls Creek on Wednesday afternoon leaving KP, Sanjay and I with Primary C and thankfully a whole heap of lesson plans. We managed seven students, but they were fired up after the sports and it might as well have been seventeen!! I did enjoy some funny moments with a few of them, including Antonio. Jenny had made a new stick for the word wall, a long pipe covered in bright gold contact and Antonio had gotten a hold of it earlier in the morning. He pretended to have a sword fight with me (he won, I was unarmed) and when I got my teacher voice on him and put it away, I thought it was for good. Not to be. I sat down to read with him and forgot a pen, so ran to get one quickly, tripping over the stick that he had inconspicuously placed beside my chair. Of course, he laughed and quite enjoyed the slapstick comedy of sorts and I had to as well, proud of how sneakily he had done it!

'Justine, why are you wet?'
'I stuck my head under a tap!'

Can't argue with that!!

  

I got fought over at recess by Bonnie, Joan, Chloe and Justine. I was playing a ball game with Joan and Bonnie, older girls in Primary D and then decided to ‘share myself around’ and headed over to play with the Primary A girls, Chloe and Justine included. This did not go down well and for a good five minutes, the four girls in question tugged at every part of me attempting to sway me this way or that. It was quite cute and rather lovely to be fought over but Joan and Bonnie eventually relinquished me to the young ones. I was about to give Justine a piggyback when I turned around and found her soaking wet! Turns out she had gotten hot and put her head under a running tap, quite smart really but there were no piggy backs for a girl absolutely dripping!

That afternoon, after I finished a bit of painting I headed out to the basketball court for what Anthony referred to as his ‘Master Plan’. The attendance at after school sports had been a bit low and he was trying to find something really exciting to vamp it up and get more kids involved. He eventually settled with a water fight, good in theory but then he went as far as to say teacher’s verses students. That was the less cool part, seeing as Anthony, Henry, Ale and Xavier the Youth Worker were the only ones brave enough to partake. With the center line dividing the court and two balloons only a round, the game was set to be a lot of fun, but I didn’t count on certain students aiming at me constantly. For example, Delwyn, the kid in Primary D that Anthony works one on one with was dead set on hitting only me with the water bombs. He would line me up and wait until I had my back turned or least expected it, then he would POUNCE with deadly accuracy and I would walk away dripping. It didn’t help that my aim was shocking and other kids took advantage of my need to come closer to the line in order to throw to get me. We had a few rounds and I managed to practice a bit so by the second last, my aim was quite good. Robyn, a Primary B student had her back turned so I took it as my chance to get her, and did I ever! A water balloon exploded right in the nape of her neck and the look of shock and horror on her face was priceless!! Until she started to cry…then it just got awkward!

Turns out that Henry had just got get in the shoulder and unbeknown to me she was walking away after she had been struck once. I literally got the poor girl while she was down! Oops!! But I gave her a hug and she soon got over it, getting us back in the last round, involving all the teachers standing in a small circle with the students throwing water bombs at us from all sides. Again, Anthony’s idea, but I doubt he expected it to hurt as much as it did. An unexploded water bomb actually can cause bruises; I AM PROOF! We all finished an awesome game wet, but smiling and laughing all the way home.

The students verse...

..the teachers!

Evander lines on up...

...and gets me!

I manage to get Darian.

Frena had one more left. I told her she could get me and stood there with the surrender pose. She then proceeded to get Henry. Ha.

It was a case of Thank Gosh It’s Friday when the last day of the working week came around. Due to a lack of staff, we were finishing at 1pm, an hour earlier and it couldn’t have come sooner! The day was quite tiring and I was glad when I was able to walk out to The Lookout and take a moment out of my day to sit and relax. I was just sitting on what I refer to as The Edge of The World, checking my emails and Facebook (basically just for the satisfaction of knowing I check such medial things in such fabulous places) with headphones in when suddenly out of nowhere a plan flew right over me, so unbelievably low I reckon the pilot would have been able to see what was on my phone screen. I was absolutely flabbergasted, especially because it really did come out of the blue. I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, where civilization could never reach me. Then I remembered that a, I had reception, b, the airstrip was about 300m away and c, Balgo was a mere 2kms away so really, my virtual world I had created had completely been disproved just by this plane. But truly, what an amazing sight; the modernism of the aircraft juxtaposing with the rugged and aged landscape, a brilliant photo if I had the opportunity.

It was the first of many goodbyes also on Friday as Brother Marty and KP left Balgo for varying adventures. KP told me this had to make the blog, especially as she discovered it online the other day and spent hours reading it from the beginning. I hope you’re reading this KP!! I really do hate goodbyes, but know that in all likelihood, I’ll see many of those I’ve met here again. It’s good to know that I have a place to stay if I ever travel around Australia; I think I know someone in every place simply from this year!

Loving the Lightning, Hating the Rain!

I’m coming to appreciate that when one reads someone’s blog, they are basically being told a story without ever having to see the person face to face. Here I sit informing you about the past few days in Balgo with a facemask on, hair in a towel, glasses askew on my face and slick with moisturizer, the rattiest of t-shirts on and basically looking like the dog dragged me in. But unless I told you that, which I just stupidly did, you would never know! You could picture me writing this on the edge of The Lookout dressed in a ball gown, or the middle of the oval, even on top of a troupie watching the sunset. Sorry to let your imaginations go wild but I’m simply typing away sitting in my mess of a room listening to The Beatles. That’s something I’m suddenly super thankful; the ability for you all to indulge in my life and past events without me ever having to put effort into my appearance, the cleanliness of my house or even the time of day. It’s like 24/7 news, whenever you want, wherever you want, whenever I want to write it, however I want to look like, wherever I want to type. Blogging technology for the win!

Primary C are learning about the water cycle and river systems with Adrian in the afternoons and are getting pretty into it. I always hated the water cycle, basically because of all the long words and painfully difficult diagrams we always had to label. However, the kids are loving the creative lessons Adrian plans. He’s made a river up on the wall and the students all made trees and animals to surround the area. Adrian is trying to make it as real as possible and suggested that one day the kids will all come in to see the trees all cut down, another day houses all developed and another an entire city occupying where a beautiful forest once stood. Even I have been coming in every day and checking to see if the trees are still standing, the animals still alive and the water still a pristine blue. At the moment, all is well. For now…

It was Brother Marty’s birthday on Thursday and I was already running late for his celebratory dinner when Francis, Julian and Jay Jay came running towards me yelling something about the camel. I eventually deciphered that the camel was in my yard, and around Sister Alice’s side of the unit drinking water from a dripping tap. The boys were rather scared of the camel but I told them rather proudly that the camel and I were the best of friends, reinforced when I gave Jellybean a scratch under the chin. However no amount of enticement would get the came out and we eventually resorted to bribing her with carrots. This worked a little too well; Jellybean kind of bolted towards me when she saw the carrot and with the kids screaming with laughter I sprinted away from the camel, scared that we actually weren’t friends and she had decided to chase me like the rest of Balgo. I don’t know how we got her out in the end, I think she just kind of meandered towards the gate and we locked her out with good use of the side gate, once again. The boys were pretty happy that they got both a carrot out of the adventure and a story of me running away from camel. Friday morning, Julian couldn’t stop laughing when he saw me and I managed only three words from him; ‘you, camel, running!’ plus nonstop giggling. Good times.

After that experience, I was made even later when I stopped to take photos of this magnificent cloud. The photos don’t do it justice; it was huge and bright pink. Absolutely stunning!

Friday brought sadness to Balgo; another funeral for the community that had only just buried one of their own on Saturday. Out of respect, the school closes when the funeral begins and we were hopeful we’d get a few for a couple of hours at least. Not to be. I got to school to find Julian, Sharelle and Callum eager for breakfast and was hopeful that more would come but those lone three remained the only kids in school. They certainly did pick the right day to come. Henry had promised to make celebratory birthday pancakes for Brother Marty and the rest of the staff and seeing as there were only those three kids around, they got not only baked beans on Baked Bean Friday for breakfast but Pancakes as well! They sat around the staffroom like sophisticated future students, eating their mangarri and reading the books and magazines around. Such a sight! The pancakes were excellent, and as Henry proudly announces every time he makes them, they are the pancakes eaten in heaven! For this reason, he is not allowed to give me the recipe…bitchy.

Fit with candles and everything!

M for Marty!

After a very lazy Saturday, I awoke super early on Sunday morning and headed over to paint the donga. It’s getting closer and closer to being finished and I suppose that was my motivation to get out of bed at 4.30am in order to paint the outside before it got awfully hot. Having done all the painting bar a few doors my attention turned to cleaning up my mess. I had assumed that the floor was being replaced and therefore didn’t put sheets down while I painted. BAD idea, because the floor isn’t being replaced and I’m forced down on my hands and knees to scrub every drip away. Oh well, hard work makes excellent people! I was hoping to fit a nap in before the afternoon adventures dawned upon me when I decided to quickly clean the pool. I had checked it on Friday and all was well but between then and Sunday morning we had had three storms and leaves by their hundreds has settled not only on top of the pool, but the bottom as well. It was quite an effort trying to scoop them all up and certainly one where talent is necessary. I’m slowly getting the hang of flicking the leaves and quickly scooping while they are flying above the bottom and did that for quite a while before vacuuming it and heading home for French toast. Yes I know, I know, not the healthiest of meals but after the scrubbing and scooping for hours on end, plus the early morning I deserved it!

I was heading to Billiluna with Father John and Michael at 12.30pm so after chilling for a bit wandered over to the Parish house and clambered into an already squished troupie. The only issue was, we were picking up more people! Watching more and more people try and climb in made me think those fabulous three words; ‘Only in Balgo’. Only in Balgo do you manage to fit like a million people into a ten seated vehicle. Luckily for me I was deemed the smallest person and got to sit up the front with Michael who entertained me with a life full of stories. That certainly kept my mind off the motion sickness! I also had an excellent view of all the wildlife crossing the road. We spied about five goannas and plenty of horses, but Michael said he had seen a herd of camels driving to Mulan earlier that day so anything I saw automatically didn’t live up to that feat.

Billiluna sports were on and the community was probably triple its normal size. There were people everywhere watching the sports and catching up with everyone but we drove past all that to the school and the small chapel Father John says mass in. I had picked a special day to come; the Middle Primary class was making their First Communion and Reconciliation and having missed the Balgo kids making these sacraments, I was very excited. Billiluna is a lovely little community and probably a little bit quieter than Balgo. The people also seem to be a little bit more interested in their appearances, something I quickly observed when I met three of the girls doing their sacraments. They looked absolutely stunning in lovely dresses, all clean and shoes on, and all very interested in who I was and what I was doing there. New people are so interesting!

Reconciliation was first, and the small ceremony was quite intimate and very much something an honor to be a part of. Mass is held in a small room in the school, more of a chapel than anything else but despite this, it’s coming along nicely. Anne, the Principal just had the floors done and they brought a new altar made completely of Jarrah wood. It sits proudly in the centre of the room, it being the focal point ensured through its beauty.

Shaniqua, Erica and Candice, Reconciliation candidates.

Only three out of six students were present in receiving their First Communion and the three girls changed into their dresses, looking absolutely amazing! Anne had got them when she was in Broome and it certainly complemented the ceremony. The girls, Ruby, Shaniqua and Erica were very proud to be wearing such beautiful clothes however I was rather afraid they would trip over in the red dirt and absolutely ruin them. It brought me back to when I made my First Communion and found a massive black stain on the bottom of my dress, just as we were ready to go to church. It seemed like the end of the world at the time but it quickly came out and I felt like a princess!

Shaniqua reading with the help of her teacher, PJ.

HAHA John, caught on camera!

Father John being silly witht the first Communion recipients.

Erica, Shaniqua and Ruby.

There was one picture in the chapel that caught my attention. It seemed rather morbid and I asked Anne what it was about. She told me that the church leaders had painted it as a memory of a tragic event in the history of Billiluna that still affects most of the community. The Sturt Creek massacre occurred at the creek not far from the town where indigenous people in their masses were drowned in the creek, basically for the entertainment of the station workers. This occurred in the very early 1900s, and I felt sick to my stomach while the events were being detailed to me. The massacre was for no reason, was not avenging anything, was not over religion or a disagreement, it occurred because a few people were bored. That is truly sickening!

The white in the rectangle are bones, the circle is a well also with bones in it.

Shocking.

We had dinner with Anne, a lovely salmon past dish that reminded me of home, but not as much as a flowering plant she had outside on her verandah that we have planted in our garded. We call it the Mother in Law bush, because my Nonna (mums mum) gave it to Dad and it has truly the most amazing smell. Homesick no more, we began the roundup of all those we had brought up and drove back to Balgo, entertained the whole way by the most spectacular lightning show I have ever seen. Lightning was just going nonstop in varying clouds around the sky, and I couldn’t keep my eyes of it. I can’t explain its magnificence, but I know that I am not going to be moved by thunderstorms at home anymore after living in amongst some spectacular natural shows.

Driving towards Balgo in the dark, I always look out for the lights of the community as we approach. At first, you can only see one. Then it doubles, triples and multiplies into the town. It’s rather exciting to see home from such a distance and watch as the community comes alive before your eyes, aided by the shimmering lights leading the way.

The Thunderstorm clouds.

With most of the community in Billiluna, the day was rather quiet with just three kids; Antonio, Frena and Shonielle. They had a good day playing on the computer, colouring in, playing on Jenny’s guitar (they called it a ‘geee-tar) and doing a number of fun activities while the adults cleaned and organized. I set up the Christmas Tree while we had time and attempted to get the kids to help me make decorations, but I think Adrian’s photography lesson took over. So I decorated it myself with tinsel and handmade pipecleaner candy canes. I even made the star; my creativity skills really are improving. They also enjoyed free time during the whole swimming lesson and even managed to get me into the pool, fully clothed! Frena used me as a taxi, with my head as the steering wheel and I was forced to take her to and from varying ends of the pool with my neck being tugged this way and that. When Shonielle cottoned on to the idea, I drew the line; glad Jenny called it quits not much later. For such a quiet day, I certinaly ended it rather tired!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree!

Here’s some homework for you all between now and Friday; pray for NO RAIN ALONG THE TANAMI! If it rains, more than likely Halls Creek shire will close the road and I will be unable to go on Friday. Most of the staff are going during the week for a PD and we’re heading out on the Friday for a night on the town, staff dinner and to get our Kris Kringle presents. Hopefully it stays dry because I really want to see more of Halls Creek than just a fuel stop will allow!

Reinforcing that message; PRAY FOR NO RAIN!

Thank you.

Lists, Paintings, Camels, Keys, Funerals, Dingalings, Aerobics and Rainbows :)

I am absolutely blown away by how fast the days are going by. Take today for example; I was absolutely convinced it was still Monday because I had absolutely no recollection of the transition from one day to the next, just because things had gone by so quickly! It didn’t help that I was kept up most of the night by a fear that my washing was going to be blown all over the community, but that’s another story. What concerns me most is that I can’t really recall the time passing from the end of our Northern Territory trip to now. I think because most of the teachers believed the last term would kind of go slowly but we have had so much to do things have just flown by! It’s so intense and I can’t get over the fact that I’ll be leaving soon. Occasionally, the rational Steph will take over and for a moment I get this awful fear of panic that engulfs me as soon as I realise that yep, the year you never wanted to end is soon ending. Then the irrational Steph takes over and I think I’ve still got AGES to do all the things I want to do before I leave! I have a list, and it is as follows;

·         Go to Billiluna (achieving this on Sunday!)

·         See the Luurnpa Holes.

·         Buy a Balgo painting (sale coming up).

·         Camp out in The Pound (actually doing this with my class, stoked!)

·         Go to a 7am morning mass (it’s meant to be quite nice and I’ve been trying to go for a month. Every time the alarm goes off I snooze it and postpone it to the next. NOT THIS WEEK!)

·         Go to Yagga Yagga (don’t think this is likely because of the state of the road. Unfortunate, but I’ll be back eventually!)

I’m anticipating the last week and a bit to be epically fast paced as I attempt to cram as much into my time left, plus there are a lot of exciting things happening so there will be heaps to tell you all about. Therefore I’ve decided to do a Ten Day Balgo Countdown, from t-minus 10 days until I leave till day 0, when we fly out. Plus, with all the time we have in between airports if I manage to score free wi-fi or something look forward to awesome pictures from the mail plane; hopefully it won’t be raining like last time. Just what my mother needed; more blog posts to write essays of comments on! <3 you Mother dear.

As you all may have known, last Friday was kind of a special day. So special in fact that a Facebook event was created like a year and a half before it happened. The 11^th day of the 11^th month of the year with another 11 in it. Pretty cool really, especially if you’re like me and consider the 11:11 time to be wish worthy. Anyway I spent 11:11am on 11-11-11 in the Mangarri room eating a plastic cheese grilled sandwich (not as good as normal cheese, but it’s growing on me) listening to Henry very emotively sharing with me his opinion of the significance of the day. Apparently it was nothing special. Tut tut Mr. Jones, tut tut! I don’t think the universe liked that very much because karma was thrown at him in the form of stolen keys. His keys were pinched from the mangarri room by a very sly child as he was sorting out lunch. It’s kind of a thing in Balgo; keys are very important and signify great power. Of course, everyone was on edge knowing a child with keys basically meant any room in the school was a target. So the very devoted Henry spent the ENTIRE weekend in the foxtel room upholding the job of the Luurnpa security guard, popping his head out of the room every time he heard a classroom door being unlocked, even if it was a teacher. The commitment to the position was incredibly admirable. Unfortunately between the hours of 2am and 5am on Monday morning when the incredibly fatigued Henry let his eyes rest the culprits stuck and broke into the Mangarri room. Fortunately all that was taken were some icy poles but in an uncanny twist of fate the door was locked with the missing keys inside the room. The keys were returned by the thieves! Sure, they shouldn’t have been taken in the first place but Henry slept peacefully all of Monday knowing the keys were safe and sound in his possession. A true happy ending.

There was a funeral held on Saturday to remember Margaret Bumblebee, a very special and much loved community and church leader who passed away last term. Two of my students were closely related and spoke fondly of her and I decided to go and show my respects that morning. I’m not a funeral person; I tend to cry regardless of whether I knew the person or not but I found this ceremony to be rather beautiful and in a way, more celebratory than sad. The customs and practices were very different but I found allowed for everyone to grieve a lot more and fully accept the passing of someone they appreciated. Faxes were read out with messages of love from those who were present and those who were unable to attend the funeral, people got up and shared their stories about Margaret and the liturgy was quite moving. It ended up being quite a mammoth funeral because so many people wanted to talk, a testament to the kind of person Margaret was. It was lovely and I’m glad I came. Unfortunately for the people of Balgo, there is another funeral on Friday, this one probably a little bit sadder because of the tragic circumstances under which the deceased passed away. I know I’ll definitely cry at that one, especially after seeing the beautiful mass booklet Sister Alice made and reading the lovely things people wrote.

It was also Jenny’s birthday on Saturday. We marched from a funeral to a celebratory morning tea, quite opposites. I missed a call from my future employer and when returning the call, apologized for missing her, saying I had firstly been to a funeral and then to a birthday party and had my phone off, something she said was rather surreal and certainly a jam packed day. It was a lovely gathering, with everyone making a bit of sweet food and combining it all to provide quite a spread. I think I’m still full from it all!

Corryanne was learning about baby animals with Jenny yesterday morning and what the different names are. When asked what a baby duck was, she responded with ‘a dingaling’ and couldn’t figure out why Jenny and I were laughing so hard. Eventually, she did herself when Jenny told her the real name. I just loved the confidence of her response, almost as if that was what she had called it her whole life. Not a bad name really, could change it! That’s something I love about working in a primary school; you never get the day you expected and are always laughing at the cute things the kids say or do. Not a dull day ever!

There is community art exhibition in a few weeks just for students in Mulan, Balgo and Billiluna. The only stipulation of what the kids have to create is that it has to be something in their community. Primary C painted big pieces of butcher paper with some incredible designs. Julian did a dreamtime story, Francis did a picture of emu hunting, Tegan did a picture of the wind blowing things around and so many amazing creations were produced. I will have to get photos of them when they’re at the display but at the moment the only one I have is Renelle’s; a painting of Mulan road. It is so good and certainly anything better than anything I could do. I hate it when nine year olds paint better than me!

Jealous of the skills of a nine year old. Oh dear...

I have joined an aerobics class! Now that’s not something you expect to hear from someone living in Balgo, but it’s the truth! Rhonda at the Trade Training Centre is developing fitness classes and has enlisted a few of us to trial some of the routines before they are promoted. Sister Nola, Jenny, Rhonda and myself have started with a 3 mile workout DVD and once we get the hang of that will move on to latin dancing, belly dancing and Pilates. The good thing about exercising in a group like that is that I myself know that I’d feel rather embarrassed if I got sick of it and just gave up. Having other people there pushes me to keep going, as does my presence for them. It’s a win win situation for everyone, plus it’s a lot of fun and I certainly feel great after a workout. It also helps we’re doing it all in air-conditioned rooms, score!

Ok, so now here is why I explain why I was worried about my clothes being scattered all over Balgo. Yesterday, I realized I had no clean clothes as I hadn’t found a few hours where I was completely sure it wouldn’t rain over the weekend to do my washing and hang it out. That’s when you know the wet season is in full swing! Yesterday I finally did the washing and when it hadn’t rained by 6pm, I put everything out in the hot humid air hoping it would all dry by the morning. Not to be. About 9pm I heard the pitter patter of rain on the roof which eventually increased to what sounded like a pool being emptied over the house every second. It was intense. The lightning and thunder was non stop and the wind threatened to pull the glass of my windows. Things fell off my shelf because the thunder was so close and the wind so fierce. That’s when I began to think I was either going around in borrowed school uniforms for the rest of my time here or in my dressing gown; basically all I had. So I lay in bed waiting for the storm to slow down enough for me to fall asleep (I don’t think it did, I think I just got so tired I passed out) and awoke to find my clothes still miraculously pegged on the line, just absolutely soaking. After a rewash (they were pretty grimy as well, blurgh!) they were hung out and dried before any more rain was dumped on them. Brother Martin said we had 55mm of rain last night, enough to get the creek running this morning. And they say this is a desert! HA!

I thought I’d finish with the below photos of a rainbow that coloured the sky the other day. Actually, remembering now this was the same day that I watched two dogs attacking the camel (the dogs were winning, camel went psycho!), the day after the camel freaked out during a rainstorm and came and hid under the roof of the Trade Training Centre, watching us do our aerobics and the day before the camel got into our yard and wouldn’t budge. We spent half an hour trying to get her out. Wow, these pictures sure did stir up a few camel stories I forgot to tell you, which is strange because I wouldn’t dare associate a rainbow with a camel…curious. Enjoy :)

A double one!

Happy Wed-nes-day!

I put off writing my blog this week because between the last time I put up a new post and now, I didn’t actually think anything had happened. Then I go and plan what I’m writing about and the list just grows and grows, the little things always meaning more than big bush trips and trips to Uluru. Plus, most of it’s so different to anything experienced back home so while I take it for granted and accept it as the norm, there are always amazing things to be shared!

Anthony turned 20 on Friday; one less juvie to hang with, although I appreciate he isn’t any more righteous now that he’s older and technically more mature than us 18 and 19 year olds. We celebrated with dinner and cake on Thursday night and being the Balgo cake maker, my creation for Ant really tested my creative side. We had teacake with yellow icing (the butter gave it colour, totally unintentional) 100s and 1000s and a lovely ‘A’ on the top made from maple syrup. I’m so resourceful, obviously! 

It was a lovely night and although his present is still somewhere between Balgo and Hong Kong he got spoilt by us all. The boys were planning a camping trip over the weekend, but then this happened…

and considering they were only planning on sleeping in swags, it was probably a good decision! Therefore the weekend was spent showing Sister Lia and Genevieve all the sights and sounds of Balgo and the surrounding area, namely Mulan and Old Balgo while I took the time to paint and make a house look fifty times better!

I did take a break from pushing a roller up and down a wall to compile the Mirli Mirli, the Kutjunka Balgo Parish newsletter that I collate weekly. I get articles sent in from agencies in Balgo, Mulan and Billiluna, add them in, photocopy and then distribute at mass as well as emailing them to a very large number of contacts. It’s a great way to keep up with the Balgo news even if you aren’t anywhere near the community and if you do wish to be added to the mailing list email me at 2xmirli@gmail.com. Anyways I was almost finished when I heard Father John scream as manly as a man can scream. He then ran into the office where I was working, grabbed a decorative spear stick and ran back outside screaming ‘snake, snake!’ Having not yet seen one in Balgo and knowing I seriously cannot go home without spying a legless Balgo reptile I ran out with him despite the fact that it was a Death Adder and thus very poisonous. It was down a hole just next to the house and after poking around for quite a while, Father John was unable to extract it. It was then that we discovered that the same hole actually led into the house, a left over opening from the renovations carried out earlier this year. So that’s when the real party began! Father Mac stood at the hole inside ready if it came out, Michael the volunteer watched the hole outside and Father John boiled the kettle. I wondered why he was using such a tense moment to make himself a cup of tea when I realised he was planning on pouring boiling water down the hole, in an effort to burn the snake. I went inside for that, knowing angry and burnt snakes aren’t the best thing to be around but according to the trio of snake killers, nothing came up. I hope it never does! But seriously, only in Balgo do you kill a snake with boiling water!

Monday morning at school saw the kids say and do a number of funny and crazy things that makes me love working in a school. Frena asked me to practice the Word Wall in the Secondary Language she has become so fluent in (adding a ‘b’ sound after every syllable) because I am far from being able to grasp it. It was quite cute. Then at Mangarri time Justine and Sharelle, hot and bothered after running around in the sticky air put their heads under the tap and just as I walked past shook their hair like dogs, laughing as I shied away from the water droplets coming my way. They laughed as I cringed but it was rather hilarious, I have to admit! Kids are hilarious!!

You are reading the blog of the relief pool coordinator of Luurnpa Catholic School! Jim is leaving for Geelong tomorrow and as he usually does it, the torch has been passed onto me. I’m rather nervous about doing it all and ensuring chemical levels are all right and don’t hurt the kid’s eyes, but it is quite a good job and one I’m glad to have been asked to do. It involves testing the water every night, pouring in 60 litres of salt every week, looking after the filters and cleaning it when necessary. Quite a lot of responsibility, but rather cool :)

This week I’ve also mastered driving the school bus. It’s quite difficult because the brake and accelerator are really touchy and the first time I stomped on the break my passengers nearly went through the window. But as practice makes progress, I’m slowly getting better each time I drive it and despite the fact that the year is almost over I hope I can drive it somewhere substantial in the near future.

Last night I walked home around 9.00pm in the dark, nothing unusual, but as I got towards my gate I did notice something out of the norm. The light around the area didn’t settle right and as I got closer I saw the figure of a camel standing right outside the entrance to the yard. Fabulous! I began heading towards the side gate, about ten metres to the right trying very hard not to disturb the camel and thinking I was going ok when she turned, looked at me and made two steps. I was pretty sure I was about to get charged by a camel in the dark but made it to the gate without breaking eye contact with her. Camel, 0, me, 1!

Inside, I had another Mexican standoff, this time a cockroach on the wall in my bedroom. Luckily Henry saved me, flicking it, spraying it and picking it up by its antennae to get it out of my room. Apparently cockroaches can live without their antennae, and male roommates are the best to have around when insects threaten to take over ones private living space.

Four weeks today and Balgo will be a speck on the ground as I fly above in the mail plane! It’s crazy how quick the time has gone and I’m going to be so sad when everything comes to a wind up. The only problem is that I’m coming home a bit earlier than my family expected and apparently, my Dad is less than happy about this. He happens to have his Fire-fighter wind up on that night and with free food and drinks, picking up his daughter from the airport seems to be less exciting. That’s ok Papa, I have an 18th to attend to, see you Sunday morning? It’s great to have a date and time to be hitting up Perth after six months and I’m looking forward to catching up with as many people as possible on my return! 

35 Weeks Down, 35 Days To Go!

While Queen Elizabeth didn’t grace us with her presence to celebrate what is very much a belated birthday, we were granted a day off on Friday and for most of the staff, it was much needed. The end of week two brought exhaustion and bags under eyes usually reserved only for the end of the term we all marveled at how much we needed a break to get over the holidays. That’s the problem about school holidays in remote areas. You either spend the whole break seeing things, being really busy and while it’s all fun you’re really tired at the end (us). Or you go home and run the risk of spending two whole days travelling back, usually the day before school begins (most of the teachers). While everyone here had a brilliant two weeks away from Balgo I think we all attempted to cram as much in as possible and are only now feeling the effects. But thank the Lord for a public holiday so early into the term!

I woke up on Friday morning in a bit of a daze. My alarm wasn’t set but I was ready and rearing at 6.30am, confused why none of my school clothes were set on my desk, my bag not anywhere in sight and my shoes strewn over the floor. I can’t help it, creature of habit and routine! But as fog lifted and I realized that I could sleep in, I heard the thunder and rain outside and knew that of all the days for no school, today was the day. I love just lying in bed listening to the miserable weather outside, deep under the warm doona and all cosy, and that’s exactly what I did until quite late in the morning each day of the weekend. With coffee, peaches, wholemeal pancakes and chick flick movies on the laptop, rest and relaxation was assured!



Omnomnom!



Of course, I’m not the type of person that could stay in all day and headed out to do something both useful and therapeutic; paint a house! There’s something about pushing a roller of paint up and down a wall, covering up the old and replacing it with a new coat. Jim is restoring the old donga behind Brother Rick’s house and it used to be the most awful lime green colour before I got handed 60 liters of white paint, two ladders and endless brushes and rollers and told to go wild! It’s actually a lot of fun and with the aircon and music pumping inside I get a lot done in quite reasonable comfort. Plus, even just a new coat of paint makes the house look a million times better and I can’t wait to see the finished product.

After three days off, I wasn’t in the mood to return back to school especially as all those late mornings meant late nights, which meant a very grumpy Steph when I had to return back to the early starts. I am not regretting the thermos cup I brought up from home in July; the kids have become quite accustomed to me sipping my coffee in the morning while I listen to them read and quite frankly, I’m pretty sure it’s what I need to kick start my day. This term I’m supervising the students in Primary C on the computers during their literacy and numeracy time. We have a new program that covers an array of topics and questions are targeted at the level of the child. It’s quite good for the class and I enjoy helping them with the questions they are attempting to answer. For every five correct answers, the kids get 90 seconds to play a game of their choice; chosen from quite an extensive list. Often, all in the group will be completely in sync and will be playing the game at the same time, leaving me a minute and a half to do something else. On the downside, it means I have a lot of students asking me for help at the same time! You win some, you lose some! I have also learnt which of the five computers is the best. I assumed they were the same but every time we have a group change over, all the students mob to a particular one (which I would think would be the least appealing computer, shows what I know!) So now I have to have them sitting on the floor, log them in randomly to each computer and then get them going to stop the arguments, but as I found out this morning I’m in the firing line if the same student goes on the dodgy one twice. Oops!

It was Melbourne Cup on Tuesday! I hope you all knew that, because no one can ignore the race that stops the nation. Thinking back over the past few years, I haven’t had the best track record on Cup day. Two years ago I watched it from a hospital bed, giggling at every little detail as the painkillers I was taking for suspected appendicitis turned the usually poised Steph into a childish mess. Good fun. Last year I walked into my horrid WACE History exam just as the gates opened and the race begun. I blame that for my below average mark. I was convinced that for once, I would watch it in a normal situation and although you can hardly count where I watched it completely normal, it’ll do! With Luurnpa overrun by a million Victorians, the celebrations were hardly ignored. Anthony made a staff sweep and for $5, entrants would pick a random horse and get prize money if it came 1st, 2nd or 3rd. I don’t really like the Melbourne Cup and passed on the opportunity, which greatly shocked Father Mac when I told him I wasn’t involved in the sweep. It was like I had offended him personally!! He was so cute, giving me one of his own horses and refusing to take no for an answer. I don’t think the answer I gave him was good enough; ‘I don’t do the Melbourne Cup Father, I hate racing!’ I think he just thought that was un Australian. Whoops. Anyway, I was really hoping the horse I got didn’t win, because I was dreading the impending awkwardness if I won prize money that Father Mac should have!

(My horse came third and I won $20. I’m planning on hiding the money in a book he lent me when I give it back. Steph, 1. Mac, 0).

Jenny was really excited all day and planned great activities for the class to do. Every student picked out two horses, coloured them in according to the horse colour and the silk colour of the jockeys. They all got really into it and had a lot of fun, especially when Jenny got them to design their own silks and jockeys! At 11.50am we all marched down to the library, everyone clutching their drawings so they could look out for their horse and jockey during the race. They all sat quietly around the TV, the whole school mushed in staring at the small screen. It was quite a sight, and when the race set off even the quietest of personalities were revealed to be much louder fueled by the prospect of winning some cold hard cash. The kids got really excited when the silk of their jockey came up on screen but after a very exciting race, the mood in the library at its conclusion was a bit of an anticlimax. I filmed the end hoping for everyone to go crazy, but the whole photo finish was a bit of a downer. Sure, it got the anticipation going a bit longer but all the students were so confused. It took a while for it to be revealed that Renelle had the winning horse, Corryanne had the runner up and Rechelle had the second runner up. They were all so proud!

Everyone watching intentley.

The very anticlimax ending...not what I was hoping for!

The Melbourne Cup fever didn’t end with the conclusion of the race as Henry had collated a number of ‘horse races’ during sport time, horses being the noodles and Flemington being the school hall. The students had to run with their noodles, run on all fours, run with the noodles between their knees (harder than it sounds) and a whole heap of abstract methods of getting around the track. The sheer number of giggles I heard during the session was incomprehensible and I assume by how happy they all came out it was a huge success.

The first of November not only brought the Melbourne Cup, but a rather horrid change to Henrys face. Celebrating Movember (which I think is awesome), he shaved his beard and fashioned his moustache into a really seedy French type mo (which I think is considerably less awesome). What makes it worse is that he sits there and twists up the corners so the whole moustache points upwards, a sight to make sore eyes sorer. I only hope he gets a lot of donations to make up for the teasing and taunting from the kids, and adults for that matter. He sure is brave to do it, but 67 likes (and counting) on the photo on his Facebook page seems to suggest he has a lot of people supporting him! I have a feeling he may get his working with children card revoked, simply because if I had kids they wouldn’t go ANYWHERE near him for fear of them developing bad taste.

So you all know what a klutz I am, but up until this stage I had managed to keep that fact away from the students. Until the other day when I tripped over the internet cord in class. As usual, I made it look really classy and recovered well and walked away thinking everyone was too busy to have seen it. Just as I headed off I heard the tiniest giggle to my right and looked over to see Sharelle laughing. She’d seen the WHOLE thing and was silently dying with laughter, the silent part something I thought was nice because it didn’t draw attention to my inability to walk. Gotta love Sharelle, she didn’t make a scene but just went on with her work, only saying something to me later in the day when I tripped up a step and laughing again at my earlier stack. Bless her silent cotton socks!

We’ve had a number of visitors here this week. Brother Ambrose arrived on Sunday and left today for what was a rather whirlwind visit, but it’s always good to have Brother Ambrose around. We also had a number of people from the CEO, including former La Salle principal Mr. Ciccarelli (sorry for incorrect spelling!) I love having anyone connected to La Salle Middle Swan around and it was great to see him and hear about all the happenings in Perth, especially with the Queen visiting Clontaff, an Indigenous and CEO run boarding house for Kimberley and Pilbara students. It’s all very exciting down south by the sounds of it!

Just an update on my culinary skills; I’m coming home a freaking Masterchef! Tonights meal was Chow Mein Noodle Stir-fry, just casually whipped up after a hard day cleaning. Stephanie. Remember that name; I believe you may see me winning season 50 of the show in the future. Woo :) I have to just master the art of chopping onions…

Very yummy!

The title is just a fun fact for you all that I figured out today, just randomly. Not long to go; where has the year gone!