NOT SO ISOLATED IN A VERY ISOLATED COMMUNITY!!!

ISOLATION ACTIVITIES, BALGO STYLE

One of the quietest students in my classroom!!!  Rusty has been coming over to school with me.  It's a cool place for him to sit and good company for me.

Rusty even comes to the Staff Work Room where the photocopier is.  He is happy anywhere providing there is an air conditioner.

I started with a puzzle on day 1 of our enforced 'holiday'.  School was cancelled two and a half weeks before the holidays.  Catholic Education made the decision both because of the continuing violence in the community and the Corona Virus. I took 3 days to complete this puzzle....bring on the next one.

Well....now is the time to learn a new skill while I have some time.  One of our teachers offered guitar lessons for us.  I certainly took this up and am enjoying learning.  I can even make a nice sound out of it now!!!

AROUND HOME

This little fellow sits on our kitchen window each night, ridding the world of annoying bugs.  I wish there was a creature that ate the millions of flies that surround us every time we go outside.

This is the towns power supply.  It is a diesel generator and it is about 300m from our house.  Anyone who knows me will know that a grasshopper flapping its wings a kilometre away will wake me!!!!  The noise is relentless....but with the windows closed and the constant fan and air conditioner noise inside the house, we can't hear it at night...… but it means we can't have a window open when a coolish night comes  (these are few and far between to be honest.)

Jeff is adding some strength to our temporary front fence.  The story is that the fencing contractors pulled our fence down in preparation for the new much improved perimeter fence.  Unfortunately, the next day, the community leaders told them that they had to leave the community due to the Corona Virus restrictions.  So, a temporary fence was put up.  Problem is that the gap under the fence was Rusty sized.  We then had to find some building material to cover the holes.  We headed out to the tip and found the old security screens from the windows of our houses.  This alleviated the problem in the interim but strong winds blew the screens down and on this day, the wind blew the whole fence down!!!  We often have very strong winds here.

Jeff is reinforcing the fence with some star pickets.

Little Hoppy here was enjoying some safe time in our laundry trough.  When you are bite size for the snakes, washing water is probably preferable.

After the fencing contractors pulled down our fences, we were lucky to have a water view from our verandah.  It was like this and worse for about 3 weeks.  Eventually the leak was fixed, much to the disappointment of the local birds.

Rusty was not an inside dog in Bendigo, but he certainly has become an inside dog here in Balgo.  He has no manners and always pushes in front of us to get under the air conditioner first.  The heat and the flies are too much for him.

Time for a mow and whipper snip.  Jeff was on the mower and I wrestled with the beast of a whipper snipper.  After about 10 minutes I pulled a muscle in my back and the string broke!!  I'm  certainly not a gardener.   Kudos to Jeff for mowing our weeds followed by the weeds in our neighbours yard.  The temperature would have been in the high 30s during his mowing. As much as we would like some more rain, it will only make the weeds grow!!

Our resident 'road runner'.  This little guy is often seen scooting into the bushes when we go outside or arrive home. He is sooooo fast.

JEFF AT WORK

This is the Royal Flying Doctor plane at our airstrip at 2 a.m.  Jeff has been doing some nights 'On call', driving the ambulance.  He is certainly learning some new skills.  This night the plane came to take away a suspected snake bite patient who was brought in to the clinic in the back of a ute with about a dozen of her family members.  The plane has to fly from Broome for about 2 hours to get here.

Unfortunately a local gentlemen got upset when a nurse wouldn't give him his medication right there and then.  The ambulance now can't be driven until a new windscreen is sent up here.  The clinic is now using a ute as the ambulance!!

There has been a lot of fighting in the community in the last month or so, and the clinic has closed early on several occasions because the fighting is across the road. Despite the fighting and the numerous break-ins, the locals are always friendly and we never feel unsafe or threatened. In fact if you find yourself going past the fighting, they will  pause to let you through!

Jeff and his workmate Zander have to wear face masks and gloves at the clinic.  They also have a temperature wand they use on patients coming into the clinic.  If someone shows a high temperature they will be taken to another area of the clinic to be checked out.

Jeff is sitting with Marika in the clinic reception area.  Marika answers the phone (when she turns up!) which is a blessing for Jeff as often the language can be a barrier. English is the second language for most Balgonians, and sometimes they can be very hard to understand. 

I seem to have become the resident cake maker.  Sophie, who works at the clinic, was celebrating her birthday and was happy to share the cake. This weekend, I even made a cake for her son who turned 14!

AT SCHOOL

My class went out to 'Big Dam' for a culture trip.  The community often come out here for a swim.

On our way back to school, Cathy asked us to stop the troopy so we could pick some bush berries.  They were quite nice.

This nice young man came through the office door and ran at the office lady with this snake.  I was in the office and we both screamed as it was such a shock first thing in the morning.  He then took the snake around to show everyone.  It is a Black Headed Python, which they eat and of course is not poisonous.,,,,, just scary!

We had a resident snake for a week until someone caught it and gave it to the community.  This is also a Black Headed Python and it is just outside the staff room.  One of the staff members came out of their classroom in the dark and nearly stood on it!

Here he is again, but this time outside my classroom!

In our last few days of school before we were closed I only had one or two students come to school.  Over the term I had about 20 different children but not all of them at once.  The most I had on any day was 13.  This is Ciarna and she is a very good attender.  We did some really good work when it was just her and I.  Her reading is improving in leaps and bounds.

               WHAT TO DO WHEN THEY CANCEL SCHOOL!!

When school was cancelled we made up Education and Hygiene packs for the students. I have spoken to some of the children and many of them have enjoyed their packs.  We don't expect many will complete the work which is a shame.

I took readers to the pool to get my children and any of the other children to read to me. I wanted to continue this all through the shut down, but with social distancing I had to stop.  The children really enjoyed reading after a cooling swim.

We had a Trivia night where Jeff's table won (No Jeff I wont tell anyone that they added the scores incorrectly and you actually came second last).

This was a lot of fun with the staff before many of them flew off home while they still could.

One afternoon we had a game of around the table.  This is so much fun and so loud.

    OUT IN THE COMMUNITY

This is a photo looking down into the pound.  It looked beautiful with the sun on the rocks.

We went out to the pound for yet another sunset.  Rusty was happy when I put my fly net over his face.  The flies are just ridiculous.

My orange shirt is a good match for the colours of the desert.

Yes, another snake.  The children brought this one to the pool.  I am not sure what sort of snake this was but it was dead!!  In the background you can see our really lovely church made out of local stone.

Another cake!!!  This time for one of our Teacher Assistants.  Oriel is a great helper in the school.

LEARNING NEW SKILLS IN ISOLATION

The store was looking for some workers....so why not!  The truck comes in every 2 weeks,  I was helping to unload and stack the shelves.  This picture is inside the fridge.  The shelves have doors from the shop to access the food.

Sometimes the store is not able to get some products.  Unfortunately for me, Soy milk didn't arrive again.  So it will be 4 weeks without any Soy milk.  Jeff was disappointed that no wraps came.  He will have to wait 2 weeks!... but Milo came which makes me happy!!

SUNSET AT THE END OF ANOTHER VERY HOT  DAY