Mount Allan

On leaving Haasts Bluff, we ventured back into Alice Springs for the weekend to restock our supplies and enjoy all that Alice offers.

Our next teaching stint was in the community of Yuelamu, 330kms North West of Alice Springs. It is located on a former cattle station called Mount Allan, that was transferred to Native Title in 1990. The school is referred to as Mount Allan.

It was another two week stint, with Robyn taking the Transition to Grade 4 in the first week and Music in the second week and Rob having the senior class (Grade 5 to Year 10) both weeks. This time we enjoyed the comforts of living in a two bedroom fully equipped house……luxury after many nights in the van. And very welcome too as the nights are becoming very cool (-2) but warming up during the day (20).

Here we met two special people, Phil (Principal) and John (senior’s teacher) who made us feel so welcome and kept us entertained. These two are working so hard in making the school as functional as possible and encouraging the children to attend. John (originally from Stawell) prepares breakfast for his charges every morning and bakes cakes with them after school so that they’ve had something to eat before heading home. Phil drives the bus around the community several times during the morning collecting kids to bring to school (if he can find them!) and uses the school P.A. that can be heard throughout the community, alerting families that school has commenced and children should be on their way to school. The mornings are very cold this time of year and understandably, kids are reluctant to get up!  John and Phil also open up the school on Sunday afternoons for the kids to use the computers and musical equipment. We felt so privileged to spend time there.

While there we went to a nearby waterhole called Centipede Dam and witnessed a mob of wild horses coming down to drink. Pretty breathtaking!

As part of Robyn’s music program, the kids performed a concert on our last day. Although naturally very shy, they did a great job and we were all very proud of their efforts. We left on a high!

 

ALICE SPRINGS

On the way back to Alice we shouted ourselves a night and meal with a few drinks at Tilmouth Well. If ever coming this way I recommend the scotch fillet with mushroom sauce!

We made our base at Jake and Gemma’s and enjoyed a great long weekend with them. We even learnt how to make Sushi rolls under Gemma’s tutorage. On Sunday we witnessed a leg of the renowned Finke River Race managing to get ourselves covered in dust! A must see thing to do though.

That night we took Geoff and his wife Jenny out for dinner to thank him for his efforts in finding us teaching placements throughout the term and being mindful of how suitable schools would be for us and especially Gracie. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed every experience.