A Star in the Desert

Things have been pretty quiet in the desert since my last blog. Adrian, Dallas and Aminda are all in hibernation due to just getting back from there holidays and being totally wrecked. So i have had a lot of time on my own. Which as you probably know i hate hahaha. But i am sure that it is making me into a more independent person (or so i keep telling my self).

At the moment i am very focused on the 20th of May where i will get to leave the community and go and meet my parents in Broome and then we are going to El Questro!! for those who don't know what El Questro is here are some pictures:

These photos where not taken by me but i am sure by the time i get back i will have plenty more to show everyone. 

A few weeks ago i had the very responsible task of opening up the office here in Balgo which has youth workers, centrelink, disability support worker and a tele centre in it.. however when i went to unlock the door handle there was something very sticky on it so instinctively (who really knows why) i smelt my hand to my absolute disgust it was piss. someone had pissed on the door handle in which i then spewed all over the door. Unfortunately i had just consumed a massive cup of tea......... The next bad part of this was a very respected elder was sitting next to the door and yes he did get a bit of spew on him... needless to say i have not been given the task of "opening the office" again. 

My Next bad desjion of the week was when i decided to do a painting activities with all the young people thinking i should do this inside (again who knows why). this painting activity is now know to me as the paint incident... as there was paint in places i don't even know how it got there, on the floor, tables, walls, roof, all over my clothes (i wasn't even painting) on the air condition. And then when i went to the shop it was all over there walls.  But the kids had a great time.  

Some of the kids enjoying paint time.

My last blog i wrote about Easter and how i attended mass on many occasions. One thing i forgot to mention was how the shop for Easter put in the wrong order and only got a very small amount of Easter eggs. however the church did get Easter Eggs and father John handed them out at mass, this moment when he handed them out was like he was the Beatles and the kids where 150 teenagers girls he got mugged. I found this video of mass and the blessing song and some of father john getting mugged.

At the moment in Balgo there is a lot of wild life getting around including birds, snakes, lizards, dingos and kangaroos. but i think the coolest thing i have seen so far was a thorny devil.  The kids found it near the shop and tell me it was pregnant.



please note in the background federal Minister for indigenous affairs Jenny Maclin, and offcorse sister Alice long time resident of Balgo.

I have also been running make up groups with the girls. This has been allot of fun although the make up supplies here at Balgo are very old we still seem to get everyone out looking different.

Me and Marley after i gave her a fake tattoo around her neck. (very in here).

A few weeks ago we took a trip out of the community after work to go to some places i had never been to and offcorse to cook a garlic bread. Sometimes we all get sick of being in the community so we do quick trips out to entertain ourselves and to give us a bit of space from Balgo. This trip we went to old lady boar which is an old cattle station (no one has lived there for years) and to the swimming hole to see how full it was after all the rain.

Water hole

Adrien and Dallas starting a fire for our bush tucker of garlic bread

Last Friday, it was school photo day in which the school decided to take the 80 students and staff to the pound (a geological pound not a dog pound)  to have there photo taken.  The idea of the day was to have all the staff and student taken off the cliff in a shape of a star.. 

Result: 

I am located at the top point with one arm up. Here are some other photos of the day. 

Mindy And his Class!!

The Troopies

The pound

The kids trying to form a star.

Thanks for reading the next installment of Meg's Life in the Desert...

Stay tuned for more.... xoxoxoxox 

  

My New Balgo Project of Blogging!! 5mths in the Desert

Things are pretty quiet in the desert at the moment so with inspiration from my new friend Steph (who writes an amazing blog on her time here in Balgo) i have decided to share Balgo with all my friends.  I have been in Balgo now for 5 months and it has been the most amazing experiences although i do miss my friends, family and most of all Beer! but it is an amazing place to live and there are some wicked people that I get to go on adventures with.

The past 2 months have been awesome!! epically when we got a visit from Bae!!! it was so good to have a person from home come up and see where we are living and what this little place is all about!!!  While bae was here we went camping to Mulan Lake!! which is just the most beautiful salt lake you will ever see in your life.

Camping was the best fun!! until we got back and discovered we had a few bug bites... then woke up the next morning and i had approximately 8700 bites all over my body... I went straight to the clinic and with out a diagnosis got a shot of Phenagon (our fav word for the week) and two days of work! which worked out great, as i got to spend more time with Bae and Dallas's foxtel!!! Bae left after a week and Adrian and Dallas headed off with her as well so after having a great group of people it was left with just me and Mindy and the rangers.

Aminda was the next to leave Balgo headed for the Kununarra Tavern and some good times!!

then it was time to say goodbye to the rangers, Lane, Anton, Tips, Kaea and baby tia left Balgo Easter Saturday never to return to Balgo. it was a sad day as you grow so close to everyone here they become your second family!! But we are all sure that we will be catching up with these amazing people again!!  They were the coolest people!! even if they were kiwis!! hahaha (had to get one stab in there)

Next was Easter and the school holidays!

Easter here was pretty boring, there was no Easter parade like back in Bendigo. It was school holidays so i decided that i would work all these days to get extra annual leave! Which at the time sounded like the best idea i had ever thought of. Over the Easter periods I went to more mass then i think i would have been to in the past 5 years but they are not like masses at home! they are totally full of action including singing, dancing, bon fires, jokes and of course dog fights. 

Good Friday the shop here was closed which is really the hub of the community. when the shop is closed it is difficult to find a single local person around. However we were determined to find some kids to make bush crosses for that nights mass. Steph, Henry and Ali (volunteers at the schoo) came with me as we tracked down around 6 kids to help us make them.  The end result was the kids painting there hands and having a boxing match! But we still got some amazing art work done and father john was pretty happy with us!

Over the rest of the school holidays i worked flat out as Dallas was away in Bali and it was just me to run all the holiday programs we did movies, arts craft, sport and community BBQ we also did a blue light disco that was heaps of fun!

My Favourite part of the holidays was going out to a river fishing with a group of the teenage girls. The spot that they took me to was so beautiful and we had a perfect hot day. It was such a good day it was hard to believe that i also get paid for doing this!!

After my day out at the river, my boss decided that i needed a break for the weekend and last Friday i trekked to Darwin, 2 planes and a car ride later i was in the big city of Darwin with a cold pure blonde in hand. I spent the weekend there and on Monday morning at 4am drove out to the airport to pick up the Bali two.... Dallas and Adrian!! with plenty of laughs on a drive back to the hotel with all of there amazing stories, it was back to sleep until we got picked up for our lift back to Balgo. We drove 10 hours from Darwin to Kununarra.. with some of the most beautiful mountains and rivers i have seen in my life. We also saw a lot of bird life including one hawk that just didn't get out the way of our land cruiser (RIP Hawk).  Arriving back to Balgo it was like we had never left but it was amazing to have the boys back.!!

This weekend we are planning to relax and i am hoping to con the boys into a bit of fishing, but with the footy on and them still trying to get over their Bali bellys i am not sure if this will happen!!

Hope you enjoyed my first blog... stay tuned for the next installment of the Balgo desert! I am thinking that the next blog will be a tour around Balgo, my house and the town!