Week 2, 8 to go!! Not counting much!!




Such an unusual sight......Clouds!!!  Not only is the dirt red but the rain in the clouds had a red tinge. You probably can't see if from the photo, but it was!!!




This is the little Balgo office where Jeff will be working.  I'm looking forward to Jeff coming up..(.Shhhhh, just don't tell him how hot it is up here ) 


The children were having a music lesson where they got to play lots of different instruments.  Drums are their favourite.  The children are always drumming pencils and anything else they get their hands on that can double as a drum stick!!!





They really enjoy making music with Mr Dan.


My class is proudly presenting their work at assembly.  We read the Big Book 'The Hungry Giant'.  They all have written a sentence about the Hungry Giant and his Bommy Knocker!


We studied a book on ants which provided lots of great activities and utube clips.  We made these ants from plastic spoons and pipe cleaners.







The ants got away and are now climbing the walls!!  A nice change from the kids climbing walls!!!

Filling in the last 10 minutes after a swim.  The kids love to play with the lego



At least once a week we do painting.  Here Henriqua is painting  ants.  We watched a Utube clip that showed ants who drank a coloured sugar mixture who then got a coloured abdomen.








Antonio enjoying some construction time





Alexandra, Bessy and Henriqua from my grade were playing in the red dirt on one of our walks this week.  


The locals like to go out to country and catch the wild horses.  Some of the elders were stockman in their younger years so they have breaking in skills.  The kids are waiting for their turn for a ride


A couple of baby camels were also caught.  Sadly their mums and or dads came into the community looking for them.


The kids are loving the new pool.  It is opened each afternoon, but if the children don't come to school they cannot go to the pool.


The kids from my grade had a swim in our school pool during the week.  The town pool is closed one week in 5 to give the pool workers a break.

My grade helped me celebrate yet another birthday!
The cake was a real treat for us all.



My amazing friend Cate sent me my favourite chocolate.  Our mail comes via Halls Creek on a light plane.  Our hot temperatures mean that nothing arrives unscathed! 


We headed down the Tanami to Halls Creek to get my headlights looked at.  Along the way was the very large trailer on its side with its load strewn for about 200 metres.  I believe it has been like this for a month.  Of course it would not be easy to bring in something to recover this.  It is a couple of hours from Halls Creek.



The Tanami Road is unforgiving as shown in the truck photo above..  The corrugations eventually damage the cars.  A power wire has worked loose and dragged along the ground for way too long!  Our best friend out here are cable ties, but I don't think the trailer could be saved by a truckload of cable ties.

This is a statue in Halls Creek that pays tribute to 'Russian Jack', a famous figure in the 1850's goldrush.  He once carried a sick friend over 300km in a bush made wheel barrow over tracks to seek medical help. A great display of mateship.


Balgo style.  Fly nets are a must at this time of the year.  Eating flies is not the way I wont to get my protein!!!



A lovely sunset at the airport.

Comments

  1. Marietta31 October 2019 at 00:32

    How wonderful that Jeff is coming up! Love the blog!! Every best wish Michelle!

    ReplyDelete

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