Back to school...Term 4


Off on holidays....so many plane flights!!!!!

10 days in Vietnam


I loved the fresh food that was avaiable.


Well, we didn't fall out!!!  This was in Holong Bay which was beautiful as shown below


We stayed overnight on a 'Junk' and woke to this beautiful scenery.






We went to the Cu Chi Tunnels that were built during the Vietnam war.  This entrance was secret and very small.
You can see the arms coming from the ground.  So much sadness when you hear the stories of the war from the Vietnamese people.


This is the little, and I mean 'little' plane we fly out of community on. 7 of us flew out so we needed 2 planes.


We are flying over Broome.  This is Cable Beach which is a beautiful beach.  This is where the famous camels walk at sunset!

Some of the amazing colours of our beautiful Australian outback.



This is Wolfe Creek Crater.  It is mostly known now for the film Wolfe Creek.   Many people come to Wolfe Creek on a pilgrimage to see the famed crater.

As we fly into Balgo this is a shot of part of the Balgo pound.  Some rain would be nice.


Balgo as we approach.



From the window of the plane this is half of the community.




My task last week at the Art Centre was to paint the canvas ready for the artworks.  They each need 3 coats of paint. Its amazing how much paint went over me.!!




My class on that day.  Of course a picture taken on any given day will have an assembly of different children. Some of the children come nearly every day but most have only a low percentage of attendance.


My amazing friend Sharon sent a box of goodies to us.  The children are modelling some thongs that were sent.  At this time of the year the ground even gets too hot for the locals.  The red dirt gets sooooooo hot.  Often we need to go out of the school so it is great to have a class set of thongs.  The children are amazingly tough.  The skin on the bottom of their feet is like leather and they can walk on stones and every surface.  I cant even walk out to my clothes line in my bare feet.!!!



Another amazing surprise out of the box were some brushes.  These are going to be fantastic for the children as their hair becomes very messy and we like to tie their hair up with fancy elastics and headbands.


Tonight's sunset from the airport

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 WEEKS TO GO

Image
  AT SCHOOL One week in 5, the pool man goes out of community for a break.  This is when we take the kids outside to play some water games.  Here we are playing limbo with the water stream. The slip and slide is one of their favorites.  The days have been over 40 a lot, so the kids are happy to get wet before they leave for home. Just before the Football grand final, Warrick was doing some spelling words with the letters and he made 'Go Tigers" so I made Go Cats.  Most of the people in Balgo follow the Eagles or the Dockers with a small spattering of the other teams.  There is even a couple of Geelong supporters in town. I took my class out on Country to see the dreaming of the two rocks.  This is a dreaming story of 2 boys and their mother who walked around the Kimberley.  When they got tired the boys turned into the two rocks. This is a picture of the two rocks..... and lots of desert! Cleaning up Country is very important and on this day we cleaned up around the church.  We
Read more

Back in Balgo for 2020

Image
LEAVING BENDIGO FOR THE 4 DAY DRIVE TO BALGO VIA BURRA, COOBER PEDY AND ALICE SPRINGS. We were packed to the rafters.  It's amazing how much we needed to pack for Rusty! Driving out of Mildura we were met by a dust storm.  The car got a taste of red dirt earlier than expected! Rusty had a great seat in the back.  High enough to have a good view out of the window.  However, he slept almost all the time, crowded in by many boxes which threatened to fall. We stopped at the Kulgera Roadhouse. It was the stop before Alice Springs.  Time for lunch and a walk for Rusty. This is a shoe tree!!! We were pleasantly surprised that the first 300 odd kilometres of the Tanami Track was bitumen.  Of course the next 550 to the Balgo turnoff  isn't!!  There had been rain in the last few weeks so we were hoping that the road was not closed.  We met some water and some damp bits but apart from that, the road was good. Here we are
Read more

A busy end to Term 2

Image
CULTURE LESSONS AT THE WAKALA CENTRE Each term we do a Culture topic.  This term it was around family and relationships. The children were being told by Cathy an Elder, about their ‘skin’ names.  Each person has a skin name which dictates who they can marry.  Jeff and I have been given skin names which of course line up.  I am Napurrula and Jeff is Tjapanangka. Kamus was interested in the old tools and weapons which are housed in this building.  It is called the Wakala Centre and it is essentially the Balgo museum. It’s a great place to get lost for a while. CULTURE AFTERNOON AT OLD BALGO 50 odd years ago the township of Balgo as we know it didn’t exist.   Old Balgo is about 30 km away.   This was a mission where desert aboriginals were picked up and taken here.   The children were put into the mission school and were told not to speak their language.   The children were only allowed to see their families at Christmas if at all.   These children ar
Read more