Monday, May 10, 2010

The Dry Season

It feels like so much needs to be said about what has been happening over the past few months. I have had 3 weeks of holidays. I visited friends all over the country, and then a week of professional development with colleagues and now I am settling back into term with the kids.

I have also gained quite a few new followers of the blog... hello and cheers for your comments!

The cooler weather has started to set in and I am finding myself turning off the air con and layering my clothing! It is still a steady 30 degrees, but that is quite cold in comparison to the high 40s we have just had. I got quite excited the other day when I used to hot tap in the shower for the first time. Normally the water from the cold tap is warmed from the sun, but now it is cold... such a nice feeling to have a heated shower! I have also whipped out my blanket instead of just using a sheet at night. It is somehow comforting.

The frogs have decided to leave me alone for now - although I did find a dead one on my couch all shrivelled up. Apparently they leave my donga for the dry season and head closer to the water. The bugs have all gone into hiding too! No more huge bugs the size of my hand flying around every outdoor light anymore.

I thought I might share a story about my weekend.. because it is probably one worth writing down for my own sake!

On Friday evening, my good friend and I decided we would be sensible and drive to the pub a few hours away for a meal (just for a treat) and then come home that same night. We usually stay overnight if we head in, but we thought we better drive back because we had so much work to get done. So, we set off on the bumpy, dusty dirt track and were (as always) so relieved to get to the highway without the car falling apart or spinning out in the dust. The road is pretty nasty. When we got to the highway we got about 40 mins down the road until our little car decided to blow smoke...thick grey clouds of smelly smoke. We pulled over and the car was 'buggered up', as the kids called it. Luckily, a road train pulled over and the guy got out to have a look. It was getting close to dark now and we didn't have many options. We had a satellite phone but even it was out of range. So... the choice was pretty limited. We hitched a ride in the bunk of the road train. Those trucks are pretty well set up! I was comfortable and feeling alright about it all until we approached the Wolf Creek turn off... for those who have seen the movie, you will understand why I got a little nervous! The truckie said to us 'do you girls know if they ever caught the murderer from Wolf Creek? I heard he is still out on the loose... do you know if it is a true story?'.... I panicked! I tried to just play it cool and chat about it like I didn't know much about it.. but it was pretty creepy! Then he said 'I wouldn't mind checking it out actually'... needless to say I held my breath as we got closer to the turn off, hoping he wouldn't slow down and make the turn. It was pretty dark by then. Of course... nothing happened, we just cruised on past.. I'm just a drama queen in my own head!

When we got to the town it was fully dark, but there was a concert on in the park, with local indigenous bands playing. The road train pulled up right near the park (those trains are massive) and we had to climb down out of it with everyone watching.. quite the embarrassment!

Turns out we had a pretty sweet night - the local band from our community played (and rocked).. I love the style.. a unique brand of country/rock. Very cool.

So - the car is dead... we had to get our boss to drive in a pick us up the next day. We stayed at the pub courtesy of a friend who manages the place. The kids in my class loved the story when I told them it today - they got so excited about the road train, and they wrote cards to my friend who owns the 'buggered up' car.

Some of the things they wrote:

To Miss C
Im sorry for you for car bunged up.
It will get fixed? You gotta use them legs for walking now.
From L

To Miss C
You got that car all busted up. Hope you have a good time because you is the best.
From S.

And a letter a boy wrote to my brother today said:

To Scott
You got a girlfriend and you send a picture of him?
Do you go hunting Scott? Or just McDonalds?
From B

The kids are adorable. I will scan some pictures they draw and post them soon.

One boy in my class went off on his own the other day with a piece of paper and some coloured pencils. I said he could do a drawing if he sat nicely and didn't bother people who were reading. He was working away really hard for about 15 mins. I was excited to see what he had been drawing, because clearly he was enjoying it. He came back with the paper folded in half like a card and the name of his dad written on the front. Inside it said simply this: "when you can come back? from v"

It broke my heart. He asked me in his broken English if I could send it to his dad. I asked where dad was and he said "He in Fitzroy.. you can send it?"... how upsetting that I couldn't do a thing about it.

So - we see some sad things, some lovely things and some very inspirational things. I am still loving my life here. I do miss having a large group of friends around me. It gets lonely at times. I hang out for that moment when the kids jump off the 4X4 bus every morning and run up for a huge cuddle. It is an amazing feeling to be living here with such beautiful people.

Until next time.. xx

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