Day 3: T-Shirt Painting

The set up.

The 31 eager artists. 

Angelic Gabrielle (JD, EMFB, SC and KM this is for you). 

A young Hawks star in the making.

Day 2: Video Blog

Meet Rita and Georgi two of our Activity Leaders as they discuss the first few days of activities with the Minyerri kids. 

Spoiler - there will be fun science!

Day 1: Welcome to Teachabout

We created this video to introduce ourselves to the Minyerri kids. It was well received in our welcome session today, although the grade 6's did prefer the video of themselves from the 2012 Dry Season program. 

Copyright Long Videos.

Captain's Log - Star Date 060113

We have set up camp in the Home Ec. room and started the program with a Sunday spent introducing ourselves around town as well as reacquainting with friends from previous trips. Although, for Caitlin and I, every face and name was a new one. We started out along the top side of town with the aim of doing a loop around which would canvas the majority of houses and families. Rita was a great help given her impressive retention of names from her last visit: at most front yards she was able to give a cheery ‘hello’ and inquire after at least of couple of people whom she knew to live there. Eventually, we reached the Riley mob towards the end of our circuit where the warmest welcome of all awaited. We chatted with Robin et al. (to mention more names here would take up several lines) right up to lunch time until eventually we excused ourselves, though we were invited to later return for a trip to the billabong. Having said that, several kids and twenty-something year olds came back to the school with us just to chill and we spent the afternoon with Abraham, Mickayla, Nadia, Reed and Berome.

After a couple of hours of organizing for the ensuing first day of activities we headed back down to find Robin and two family members working on the Ford which had gone without oil for too long causing the engine to seize up {side note to RAJB, please check my oil}. Robin took us along to the billabong and then on to the old footy field beyond, which had reputedly seen several past Aussie Rules footy glories for the Minyerri Tigers. Impressively, Robin was also able to tell us much about the area, throughout what proved to be a leisurely stroll in the late afternoon heat.

The footy field itself was a sight to behold. While only one set of goal posts remained, as the others had been moved to the new field closer to town, the shape of the oval was still apparent. Unfortunately, Robin couldn’t recall the exact distance between goal posts; though I sincerely suggested that it may well have surpassed that of the MCG. As we did an about turn, on the horizon came some movement in our direction. The ever-faithful drove of Riley pigs was making its way along the road to catch up to their beloved Robin. I should point out that we were at least a kilometre or two from home and they had not left when we did. There is truly something to be said for  pigs as the veritable ‘man’s best friend’, as well has their impressive snouts.

Once home, we enjoyed our dinner in the ever-amicable company of School Principal Alan and his two daughters: Molly and Joanna. Needless to say, after such a sociable day we have spent a number of hours tonight doing further planning are now rather excited for our first day of activities.

Jim.

The drive to Minyerri

Beginning of the Roper. The sign says it all...

Darwin: Stocking up for the Minyerri Wet Season

40 UHT milks. Check. 

The impact of the NT's price on plastic. Saving the environment Tetris-style. 

Caitlin's Diary #1

Well here we are in the Northern Territory. The three musketeers- plus Jim ;) Ever been into a sauna with your clothes on and stayed in there for 24 hours? Well, that’s what Darwin feels like. However, the wet season hasn’t been as wet as I was expecting. It does rain, and torrentially, a crazy amount at a time, but only for about half an hour or so. Yesterday on the way back from a big shop up at Officeworks and Bunnings we drove through a black cloud and out into sunshine on the other side which was pretty bizarre for us Melbournians. We’ve been very efficiently (thanks to Rita’s excellent list-making and delegation skills) navigating shops all around Darwin gathering supplies for a month long stay in Minyerri. 

Getting pretty excited about meeting the kids and getting started with my art activities, but also fairly nervous as it will be my first experience in such a remote setting. Had a great day filming some scenes for our ‘welcome’ video, to show the kids, of us mucking about and generally being acrobatic geniuses in the hotel pool. Today’s other highlight included having the freshest fish we’d ever tasted, Barra of course. Also, as my friends and family will be pleased to know, I have yet to have sighted any crocs. I think I had prepared myself to see them just wandering around main street Darwin, but thankfully this doesn’t seem to be the case!

That's all from me for now, more activity plans to work on before bed. Two sleeps to go!