Reporting on a BIG week!

Dear All, [Don't forget you can enlarge all the photos except central ones, by double clicking on them)

Last week I taught for the first time and Kath and John were in town. That makes a BIG week! Otherwise 'normal' things happened.

I ended up teaching four lovely ladies from Milingimbi - on the central northern coast of Arnhem Land. They would speak Yolngu matha language normally but are quite fluent in English, but the written English and writing it take them longer to deal with than if they were native English speakers. Three of them were sisters and their father (who has six daughters) is a Uniting Church Minister so their knowledge of their faith was very good. The father was in town and did a Reflection at each of the 8.30 am Chapel Services . You can see him in an earlier blog when Rev Helen Richmond was inducted - he gave a talk then. He is a very distinguished man and speaks with profundity and simplicity. The other lady was a friend - they are all friends and would know everyone in the Community. Here are a couple of pictures.

1) They were doing a role play of Jesus casting a demon out of a man in the synagogue. Melissa, standing, was 'Jesus'; the other 3 were seated in the 'synagogue'; Dianne, nearest to Melissa, was charged with screaming at length when 'Jesus' was preaching and, when he commanded the demon to go out of her, falling to the floor in silence. I have all of that on movie - we had a lot of fun and the falls to the floor were most excellently executed - but you will have to be content with the still.

2) The second picture shows us at the end of the week. Don't I look pale and washed out!!!!! In front you have: Maria Yiwarrnga Garrawirrtja and Melissa Natulnga Garrawirrtja; Behind you have: Julie Naramul Dhamarrandji, myself, and DianneWakikurr Garrawirrtja. I'll give you three guesses as to what name I used to address each! They are all mothers and involved in their community at home. Two sisters were back at Milingimbi and one was in Darwin for treatment for a brain tumour. Their mother was also in Darwin to start dialysis, so the family has plenty of worries at the minute.

We were working on "A Contextual Theology of the Holy Spirit" based on Biblical texts and making use of Aboriginal Art works and stories as well as interpreting texts.

Kath and John arrived on Monday and came to tea here where they were treated to a lovely meal and company. We had a very enjoyable evening and I took them home after tea to settle after their trip. Their apartment was adequate, but 60s era and most fixtures were not new. However they told me they slept very well every night, and enjoyed their little balcony which was big enough to sit out in and chat and eat. I'll put in two photos of the Peninsular Apartment Hotel where they stayed

1) This one shows the side of the Hotel where their room was on the second floor, about 2nd or 3rd from the end - it is hard to see the balcony because of the trees.

2) The second picture of the Hotel shows the front of the building and you can see what the balconies are like. Every apartment has a balcony. Kath and John enjoyed theirs, and also dried clothes there on a rack provided in the room.

We went to Stokes Wharf on Wednesday evening and had a good meal. It was very crowded and there was a rather noisy DJ and singer set up so we moved as far as we could along into the crowd. J & K preferred the quieter side on the west where we went and had coffee later.

1) Kath & John at Stokes Wharf - you can see the multiple tables in the background (there were many many more tables than here) and the entrance to the food-purchasing areas. John's bottle of beer was nowhere near as large as it looks in the photo at this angle!

2) Here are Kath and John very relaxed at the Mindil Beach market - in an open area behind some stalls, away from the crowds a bit. We went down there on Thursday evening. They really enjoyed the experience and noticed with pleasure the lack of alcohol which is prohibited in parks and such-like in Darwin. The market had a family and friendly atmospher with stacks of tourists - mostly 'European' but also Asian, and only some younger Indigenous people.

3) Someone passing offered to take a photo of the 3 of us!

John was chuffed to get some really nice Indonesian food and exchanged Indonesian words with the girl serving - both smiling broadly. I had the same food - as did Kath - and while the skewered meat was very hot (spicy!), the satay sauce and the compressed rice patties in it below provided a perfect balance. The satay sauce was sweetish. I really enjoyed mine. We enjoyed looking at the great variety of stalls - plenty of food but also plenty of crafts. There were entertainment areas for children (I think one is at the back of the photo) and as well as Jumping Castles and such like there was a Punch and Judy type show. Some little 2-year-olds were very excited by the action of the puppets and jumped up waving their arms with excitement.

Friday 24th was the Show Day holiday and, by request, we headed off to Humpty Doo and then to Fogg Dam which is the area where John worked at one of his early jobs in Australia. I didn't take any photos there, but we went on to a marvellous tourist site called 'Window to the Wetlands' which will give you an idea of the Fogg Dam and Adelaide River area. It took a few photos there.

1) This is an Aboriginal place, although Indigenous people were not clearly in evidence when we were there. There was a marvellously constructed explanatory display downstairs - interactive with buttons to push and light up various items of interest. There were even some swimming fish and turtles in some glass windows - long necked turtles. We went upstairs and there was a continuous video showing and an excellent coffee machine which ground the beans for the coffee - $3! So we sat and sipped and watched the TV then went out on the balcony for the views.

2) You can see Kath and John peering through the telescope towards the Adelaide River floodplain and

3) I will show you below what they saw and where we were.

1) The photo of the 'map' is self-explanatory except that the red is not a reflection from some light, but the beginning of the turle dreaming path on the map which was too long to photograph in its entirety.

2) The picture shows the area towards the Adelaide River bridge. The River is not visible althought the trees along its banks are. You can make out the road and some buildings on the right where the road moves into the bridge. The coffee shop was there.

We headed to the coffee shop beside the Adelaide River after we had spent quite a bit of time at Window on the Wetlands, and that was a good move. We had a late 'lunch' (having had only a cuppa, with cheese and biscuits, plus a bit of paw paw near Fogg Dam). The river was in full tide and we had about 3 croc sightings. I took a photo of one of the sightings, from where we were sitting in the coffee shop. Very exciting. It looked big. Kath thought this one was the same croc we had sighted earlier a bit further along the river. Maybe. Boats leave from beside the coffee shop for 'Jumping Croc' tours along the river. Someone who had been on one told me it was quite horrifying to see the crocs all making a bee-line for the boat they were in and swarming around it. We chose not to engage in such 'delights'!!!!!

The first croc we sighted would have been about 4 metres long we thought. This one in the picture was on the far side of the river - which is quite wide - and goodness knows what length it was - some metres, at least.

Humpty Doo has a lot of fruit growing - we saw rows and rows of mango trees, truncated about a metre up into the brances for convenience. There were other crops as well such as melons and fruits we couldn't identify. We found the Catholic church there and thought it quite delightful and well kept. It is used at weekends and obviously cared for well by parishioners and other users. I think the strong neo-catechetical community has their Saturday evening Mass there and this could help to explain the obvious high level of care for the place. Fogg Dam had a tremendous number of water birds for viewing but we couldn't walk across the low dirt wall because there has been a very large (4 m) and cheeky croc sunning itself on this wall of late and it doesn't move for anyone! It was photographed from a 4-wheel drive which had to go around it! There is a one-way road across the dam wall and we went across with great caution because there were a few cars and only a couple of wide places! The thought of being pushed off into croc territory increases ones natural sense of caution.

I will finish with a bit more of nature's delights: We have this dear little brush honey eater who built a nest in a potted bamboo plant at Nungalinya. Two eggs were laid and have hatched and now I will give you a viewing:

1) My head brushed the bamboo as I leaned in to take the photo so those capacious yellow mouths were thrust upwards to receive food from what they thought was mother landing on the nest! Isn't it wonderful?

2) You can see how flimsy the bamboo tree is and how hard it is to see the little nest in the centre.

3) It is 4.30 pm and the little mother has returned to sit on the nest. I have another photo which shows her curved beak, but this photo is a better one so will do.

On that note I will conclude for this week. That is enough I think. I hope all goes well with you.

Much love from Rita

Dear All,

I have been back at Nungalinya for a week now and things have hotted up because it has been all preparation for real, live students this coming week - and I will actually be teaching a unit for which we have done a lot of preparation. The numbers are small in this first group but I will have 3 females who are sisters all from an Arnhem Land community (all are mothers, but that does not mean they are very old). I have no idea what their English skills are either orally or written. So it will be a learning week for me. But some others who know them said they are very quiet and scarcely say anything in a larger class. Could be interesting (that is, to see me squirming around trying to interet them and get some response from them!) ! I will start by showing a Power Point of those pictures of me as a child + family that someone (Mary?) sent me on a CD and hope this will thaw them out before we start the Unit on the Contextual Theology of the Holy Spirit. I must say I have found that actually doing the preparation has been quite motivating even though there has been a lot of work.

I must put in a few pictures I took of the Eastern MacDonnell Ranges on my last day in Alice Springs - the ranges are a bit different from the Western ones (surprise!). I drove out to Trephina Gorge in the Hire Car early on Saturday 11th choosing that destination because the map showed a sealed road. To my disappointment, the road turned to dirt with corrugations about 2 km along an 8 km connecting road to the Gorge from the main highway on which I had travelled for 70 km. I had no option but to turn back because it was a condition of hire that I not leave the bitument! Snif! Snif! So I took quite a few photos of the general scenery on the return trip and called in a Jessie Gap (mainly because of the little green building just off the road!!!!)

1. There were cattle in this area (no fences and signs to say watch for wandering stock!) and you can see why with the lovely grass.

2. The is a distant view of the range in the next picter - Picture 3. It is very attractive country.

1. This first one is self-explanatory, but you will have to double-click on it to enlarge it enoguh to read the print. 2. Look closely for the stripes on the rock in the middle - those are the stripes on the poster at the left. This is just a nice picture and I put it in - probably the same ranges as the first lot.

I had a good flight back from Alice Springs. It said 'Refreshments' on the flight detail, so when pretzels & soft-drink/water came along I though 'This is it!' and resigned myself to scratching up an evening meal when I returned about 7.05 pm. Lo and behold! A lovely chicken and penne in tomato and onion sauce turned up with a bread roll, spring water, and a little chocolate to have with coffee! That was really good and so, when I arrived home from the airport on the shuttle bus I could concentrate on other things - like greetings, and unpacking, and all those sorts of normal things. There were only 6 people on the shuttle bus - as well as myself there was a honeymoon couple from Italy and 3 members of a family of 7 who didn't fit in the car driven by a friend to meet them. I was dropped off second, right outside the door. Very nice. It was a good break in Alice - and since a change is as good as a holiday, I felt refreshed.

There are lots of tourists in Darwin at present - the streets are full of them and all the eating places are busy. I am looking forward to seeing Kath and John tomorrow; they arrive about midday and will catch the shuttle bus to their accommodation then browse/rest/whatever until I pick them up at 5.30 pm to come to tea down here at the Convent. Someone is very kindly getting tea for me, because Monday is usually my night. I'll be teaching every day and will only see them in the evenings but luckily Friday is Darwin show day so I hope to spend the day doing something further afield with them then. We can go in the car. They are going to catch the bus to the Ghan on Saturday morning because, apparently, the Ghan being a very long train, the bus drives along the platform and drops people and luggage at their carriage! In a car I would have to stop some distance from the train. I might be able to drive out and see the train and where they are - Taa! Ta! etc. The weather is uniformly fine but they may find it hot, although I don't - but then I don't go out in the hot sun during the day. They will find their week passes all too quickly as there is a lot to see up here and it will be so nice to be warm for a week I would imagine.

We had a little 'missioning' ceremony in the Chapel last Thursday evening for Sr Philippa who has been Principal of St John's for the past 6 years (at least) and has made a very good job of this. She is now going to Mapourdit - the refugee settlement in Southern Sudan where our Sisters have been involved for about 12-15?? years now. Someone who visited there once told me it is the poorest mission she has ever seen! There is a large school there with about 1200 pupils - the majority in primary school. Sr Mary Bachelor has just turned 80 and has built it up since she went there a long time ago (early 90s?) She will be glad to see Philippa I am sure and it is a big challenge for her and a total change in her life, so we gathered for the little ceremony. Afterwards we went to Stokes Wharf and had tea and...... we were cold! It was only about 16 degrees and there was a good breeze off the water. I rang Kath quickly on my mobile and told her to make sure they packed a couple of light cardigans!

I'll finish with the new window in honour of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart which has just been fitted in Darwin Cathedral. It is a gift from our Congregation to the Diocese on the occasion of the Centenary of the OLSH presence in NT in 2008 and this year is the sesquicentenary (the 150th anniversary) of the title "Our Lady of the Sacred Heart this Year." Sr Carmel (Corinda) with others drew up the beautiful design and someone up here has executed it. It really looks very nice. It was a bit hard to photograph because of the shape and the strong light coming in behind the statue. I had to use a flash. It has yet to be dedicated and there was a question of whether I should publish the picture because of this, but all the tourists are taking whatever photos they like and sending them wherever they like so ..... The Bishop will have to decide the date of the Dedication and no doubt we'll have a big ceremony.

Wish me luck with my first teaching tomorrow. It will be different with the girls are so shy and my ignorance about most of their culture. I do not know what their English is like either. It will be quite exploratory for me. I had better get to bed so I am fresh.

Much love to all from Rita

Events of the Week in Alice Springs

Dear All,

I must put in one of my lovely early morning photos of the the MacDonnell Ranges just outside the Convent in Alice Springs. The morning sun really lights them up and the ghost gums really add to the picture. I have several other just as good, but one must choose!

There have been so many interesting things going on this week I will just have to select a few of them to put on this blog.

I visited around the town on Monday and checked out various places where courses from Nungalinya could offered locally - took photos and checked on details etc. Then on Tuesday I headed off to Santa Teresa with the Nurse and Doctor (Sue & Alice) in their 4WD over the rocky road and drove myself home after lunch in the Parish 4WD which was needed in town. I didn't find out until I returned that the reason it was so heavy to turn was because the fluid had drained out of the power steering!!!! (before I got near it!) Luckily the road is fairly straight - that is its only virtue as it is unsealed and mostly stoney. If I had false teeth they would have rattled out of my head. I couldn't resist taking a photo of the surface. It is 70k out to Santa and only about 20k are sealed, Fortunately it was neither wet nor dusty dry when the 'bulldust' can be a hazard. [Don't forget to double-click on the picture so you can see the stoney surface in all its glory!]

I spent most of the time talking to the Sister in the Parish there about the Intervention. There are many negatives for the people in Santa Teresa - mainly with the Cash Card. They have no idea of what other money they have because rent, electricity, children's lunches etc gets taken out of it and they never get statements. They have to ring up to find out what is left. The remainder after expenses are paid can go into a Key card but there is effectively no cash in the town at all. Sr Liz went to the store (with a visiting American girl who knew nothing of the joys of Tim Tams) with $15 to buy two packets of Tim Tams and two Cornettos and was $2.80 short! Store prices are inflated by over 100%. It is not hard to spend all of one's money well before the next lot comes. Liz has had some women come to her with absolutely no food to give the people dependent on them and no way of getting any.

One lady came and showed me around the Church. It contains the most beautiful and inspiring murals all around the walls and she was one of the group of painters who did these so she explained their meaning to me. I couldn't take photos of the interior but have a snap of the exterior. Everything was inculturated: the Nativity Scene showed an aboriginal mother with a baby in a coolamon and two grandmothers gazing on with her. On a hill at the rear were the three 'wise men' - three warriors silhouetted with their spears, all in the distance. All the animals in the picture were significant. Another picture showed the people moving through the desert and over them a little white cloud - as Moses lead his people through the desert where they received God's law, so their Arrente people moved through the desert and were given their law. I have a booklet with the pictures in it. The lady who showed me around had a great sense of humour and was chuckling about her sister, who has poor health, and has just been admitted to a Nursing Home along with their mother. The sister, Mia explained, has had many 'resurrections'(chuckle! chuckle!) - and she recounted twice where her sister was pronounced dead, only to return to life: - the first time everyone was mourning and crying outside the house and the priest rushed down from Mass and went in, only to find the corpse sitting up! He nearly needed a Doctor! A previous time the sister had been in hospital and pronounced dead and taken to the morgue but the Dr came for a final check with a stethoscope as she lay there in the morgue and found her breathing!

Sunday was NAIDOC Sunday so we had quite a few special things at Mass. We started outside with a smoking ceremony and you can see with the picture that Fr Raass's vestments are quite spendind and obviously Aboriginal. He is in Alice Springs specifically to work with the Aboriginal people and is Fijian himself. Near him is the Aboriginal woman who did the smoking ceremony. They had a bit of trouble with the start time because the first fire died down but they had to have the leaves just right and green and the fire just the right heat to get smoke, so they worked on the dead embers and we waited.

On the last two days in Alice Springs, Fr Raass took me to some Town Camps. On Thursday I went to Amoonguna. Here you can see a photo taken outside the store of 'Annette' and Fr Raass. She works in the local Aged Care Facility which has about 8 - 12 residents. There is the compulsory dog (or 2) in the picture! The town was very tidy - they have started regular pick ups.

The same day we went into town and visited an Art facility which is also the Catholic Aboriginal Mass Centre in Town. 'MK' (her name is abbreviated because there are several 'Margarets') was painting for an exhibition soon to take place. Others were discussing what they would do for Stations of the Cross they are painting for the Church which is going to be built - they have raised half the money so far so it is getting close to becoming a relaity. Fr Raass wants them to do really 'Aboriginal' paintings but the preliminary drawings seemed very 'traditional' so He sat down to talk with the little group.

It is getting late so I will finish here and do some more during the coming week when I get a chance. I will just put in one more picture of Rowan - who was Samson in the film Samson and Delilah. He was a member of the first family we visited on Friday at Hidden Valley Camp. His family are community leaders and you can see him with his father and younger brother in the photo. His mother was in town shopping when we called. There is a younger sister also and he was busily making a race track in the dirt for the remote control truck he brought home from Germany. As he wheeled it up to the newly constructed track, it looked a bit like a base from a motor mower and he started it with a cord, just like that! He seems a nice young chap - in Yr 10 at school.

I'm back to work at Nungalinya tomorrow, so I had better hit the hay. Mass at 6.30 am will be a rude shock! Hope all goes well with everyone. Peter is never too far from my mind at present and it won't be too long before we get the Autopsy report I would imagine.

Love from Rita

Alice Springs

Dear All,

Thought I would write a little blog this evening because I have been here in Alice Springs a couple of days now and have done a few different things.

My plane from Canberra which left at 6.05 am Tuesday, struck a nasty little bit of turbulence about the SA border, (at the conclusion of the journey the pilot thanked the passenger who 'saved' the hostess, but said he did not need to hold on to her perhaps so long!) and we landed quite smoothly. But the weather turned bad for everyone after that in Adelaide and there were violent winds. The plane I was supposed to catch to Alice was delayed arriving from Melbourne by over two hours. I bought a book and diverted myself by taking a photo of the plane when it landed. It took ages to taxi right in and if you look at the ground you can see the swirls of water sent flying by the wind! Take-offs were banned for a while and one place diverted to Mildura. (below) By contrast, when we arrived 2 HOURS LATE at Alice Springs, the weather was clear and the sky blue and you can see the big American Airforce plane which came in like an overfed bird behind us! (On the right)

I was tired that night and the next day spent a fair bit of time doing phone calls to connect with people I need to meet. I also went to the shops to buy some shoes which would not kill my feet and, after looking at every shoe shop in Alice Springs (not a big ask) found exactly what I needed for a bit more than I intended, but I have worn them without problems ever since.

The Convent here is at the south end of the town, near Heavitree Gap. I took a couple of pics of the view out the front.

The first one (I 'removed' the fence in the foreground!) shows the section of the MacDonnell range to the south. The middle one shows the 'front' of the Convent - which is all fence and green roller garage doors; the third looks south west and you can see how close Heavitree Gap is. The Stuart Highway goes through there, so we are very near to it but 3 km from the centre of town. There is a bus goes along near the Gap several times a day, but I haven't had any need to catch it because I have been able to hire a car for my work.

Today I started some of my work activities in earnest - although I had gone out and met up with a Lutheran Pastor on Wednesday. I visited a lovely Retreat place this morning called "Campfire in the Heart" run by a couple about 2 miles beyond the Gap - part of the investigation into possible places to run courses down here. This afternoon I spent time with an extremely nice Uniting Church Pastor who has just moved up here and will be visiting Aboriginal Communities regularly to support local Pastors. I had hoped to travel with him and another Pastor to one of the Communities, but this does not seem feasible. He took my brochures etc instead and I gave him a good briefing about everything.

We have a choice of Mass daily here - 7 am or 5.30 pm. Guess which one I have been going to? It is very dark early, and I like to walk as soon as it is light to save sun damage.

I am very mindful of everyone in this week of the funeral. It went very very well and I hope Leith is happy with what she achieved in preparing it - a magnificent effort. I hope she and the boys, Mary and Jim, and Neil and Kev in particular, are managing OK. I am thinking of you all frequently.

Much love from Rita