Frenetic Dry Season antics

(An old post left in draft for 18 months)

Not sure where to start with this post. I'm so out of practice with writing, reflecting etc....

Maybe a follow up from the previous one... now that the dust of the past week at work begins to settle.

I haven't calculated hours worked yet but it's well into triple time! What a buzz! I am certainly not complaining, nobody makes me do it, I actually like these crazy extremes! For one week a year the mob I work for holds it's AGM, actually I work for a religious institution so they give it another name. My official employment description is Administration Officer... although I have been given the title Office Manager, but to be honest a more accurate description of my role is Man Friday. (There are actually two of us) We arrange travel for about 40 people from all over remote areas in the NT, S.A and the Kimberley of W.A, after innumerable re-scheduling of tickets etc... if we've done our job well we have achieved 80% success in getting people to Darwin for the meeting of the year. This year we had extras, most of them made it. Exactly what we do can't be defined but people coming from remote communities have a lot of needs, family to visit, medical appointments etc... At the end of meeting time each day our real work begins! Up at 6am we head to the dining room to eat and receive orders for the day, tea breaks and lunch time are opportunities to get to the bank, shops, hospital etc... back and forth we go, frantically trying to get people back into the the meetings, rounding up strays assisting those who have mobility issues and so on. After dinner there's a mass exodus as people try to catch up with family all over town, we usually get back to camp at around midnight, linger for a little while and then head home... sometimes it's later. On the final day my mate and I started at 4:30am transporting people to the airport for the early flight to Gove, having hit the sack at 1:30am that morning, by the time I returned the bus to it's owners I'd hit the wall.

Certificate in Theology Graduants

The meetings ended a week ago but people have been lingering and my work is still not complete.

Darwin is an Australian City which lies well within the tropic of Capricorn. The first people know many seasons... I think there are eight... most non indigenous people know three. 'The Wet', 'The Dry' and 'The Buildup'.

July is bang smack in the middle of the Dry Season. The Dry Season sees Darwin turned from a sweltering tropical city into a crazy tourist haven full endless days of sunshine and festivals etc... It's exciting but it's frigging crazy! By now there have already been so many events that most peoples heads are spinning. As I sit here physically and emotionally exhausted, yet again, a dripping nose and head numb with hay-fever I won't bother listing every activity we've engaged, there's been plenty and some quite unusual.

Travel! Again!

 Writing to you from some place I wasn't meant to be tonight... 

After just one week at home with the family and I found myself jumping on another plane! 

This time I was headed to Galiwin'ku, Elcho Island for jama (work). 

...Early morning rush to the airport, takeaway meal at the gate, door opens and we file out of the inefficient aircon and onto the tarmac. Back into the morning humidity and the scent of half baked av gas. 

Into the air again! 

This time I didn't really want to go, I didn't want to fly again but after 10 minutes in the air looking over the wild NT coast and snaking rivers I let go of all the things I thought I could have been doing and settle into reading a a book, 'Homage to Catalonia' by George Orwell. (Orwell's personal account of his experiences in the Spanish Civil War)

The plan was to fly to Elcho on Friday, prepare for a meeting on Saturday, assist reps from various communities with transport, do all the other stuff that's my job throughout Saturday, be on hand for a special commissioning service on Sunday (Dogs body, you need it I get it sorta thing), fly home to Darwin Monday morning... Well that was how it was meant to go but of course there weren't any direct flights left to Darwin on Monday and I didn't want to spend another night away from the family so I managed to get onto one of the charters back to Gove where I could catch the 3:30 plane back to Darwin! Perfect plan, in theory!

What happened? The charter left late, flew around a thunder head or two and arrived just in time for me to bolt to the main terminal... I got a ride half way and would have just made it if my ticket was valid! Yep I was booked on the wrong day and if I had arrived just 15 minutes earlier I could have altered the ticket... but I didn't and so now here I am! Camping at Nhulunbuy for the night (In a luxury motel, thanks to my generous and forgiving employer). My late arrival was no one's fault but my own. It was pretty ambitious to think I could get anywhere on time at this time of year, besides the fact that the ticket was mucked up was entirely my fault!

Tons of mangoes still ripening on Galiwin'ku

About where I've been. Well I just had a great weekend in Galiwin'ku, everything went reasonably smoothly and I managed to be billeted in a house where I had my very own room! On Elcho there's a serious lack of housing and many houses are way overcrowded, but people make do the best they can. Still it adds to the pressure when some Balanda turns up looking for somewhere to sleep and I was grateful to have some privacy! I am truly grateful for my Fijian hosts who were so hospitable, by the time I had to leave this morning I was seriously wondering why I'd willingly leave!


Saturday meeting took up the whole day, I think we finished just  before 8pm which made it a 10 1/2 hour meeting if you subtract half an hour for lunch. On Friday night Elcho saw the first rain for the season. (A good omen)

 Rronang Yuranydjil and Djulunga (+ 1) Outside Galiwin'ku Church

Inside Galiwin'ku Church - Rejoicing and giving thanks. Vows made.

The church service on Sunday included a commissioning service for the Christian Educator for North East and West Arnhem. The service went for about 3 hours (there's a lot to get through following cultural protocols as well as regular church service, heaps of manikay and bungul (singing and dancing). I spent most of that time running around in the rain sorting out refreshments and playing bus driver.

So with all said and done, nearly everyone booked and headed back to their respective communities I thought I was home and hosed. But then chance stepped in and here I am! Writing a blog post from a motel room on the Gove peninsular! Couldn't be in a better place really except whenever I have this kind of freedom the devil wants to come out and play! Dangerous place for me to be! Cranky with myself for stuffing up, nowhere to go, a town full of booze in the middle of Prescribed Aboriginal Land and nothing much for me to do! I spent nearly an hour in the Supermarket battling demons! In the end I settled on a bottle of coke (No salt and vinegar chips... no booze) and, eventually some healthy food for dinner. (Oh and a copy of a film about Lance Armstrong, 'The Armstrong LIE'.

With time on my hands I'm struggling to do the right thing! At least I get points for healthy eating...

Tomorrow is another day!

Visiting friends in the Heart

Just had a magic couple of days in Alice springs! I was there for work but did get a few moments to just enjoy the space! The desert is green, the air is clean and there were plenty of opportunities to sit and breathe it all in. Fortunately we stayed at a fantastic venue and the meals were catered for! We didn't have to shuttle people for accommodation to meeting sites either so there was plenty of time in between meetings, to just hang out!
We even got a surprise invitation to the opening of Hector Burton's art exhibition at the Hele Crescent gallery!
Unfortunately most of the photos were lost when the other camera was stolen from the  hire car at the hospital!    We Thought we'd lost our second camera but it turned up wedged behind one of the seats of the hire car... I haven't seen the photos yet... Hoping there were some decent ones in there!


Ben and Graham hanging out at Hele Cres...(attempted oldifying photo using basic rgb tools)

The place where we stayed is called Campfire in the Heart. It is a Christian Retreat and had some great facilities! Outdoor kitchens, 'Campfire', meetings spaces indoors and outside, an awesome little prayer room including an atrium which created the illusion of the Desert within the house. What I really enjoyed was the stone labyrinth which I was told is 1km long! I walked about a quarter of it before it was time to set up for the morning meeting... It really helped me centre myself before commencing the serious part of my work for the day.
David and Sue, who own the place catered for our lunches and dinner, which not only saved me a heap of work but was a higher standard than I could have managed between meetings! It was a great break for Ben and I who usually end up doing all the cooking as well as meeting duties.
Another great bonus was that David was happy to drive people around a bit! I'm sure I got a great shot of all the old men in the 35 year old kombi... but it was on the other camera! I'll search the other camera when I see it.
Apparently he has owned that van since it was new!
A few of the guys missed out on the show... claiming to have been to too many opening nights. We'll I haven't and I'm totally glad I did go. I was enthralled by the stories behind Hectors paintings and the Trees he painted really stirred me!



Labyrinth at Campfire in the Heart

I wish I'd had more time to just chill, there was definitely some special energy in the Centre this weekend. Full Moon too!
Unfortunately I could only stay for one night and had to return to Darwin at 5:30pm on Saturday. It was kind of a surreal flight home... I was tired and kind of drifting in and out of dream like imaginings.

P.S -
Here I was in an aeroplane again.... Now in the center of Australia, watching the Stuardess demonstrate how to fit the buoyancy vest in case of emergency and wondering what were the chances we'd crash land into the only visible body of water after take off... the Alice Springs sewerage ponds.... What a strange procedure!
Now I'm talking to a fella who tells me all about flying into remote mining camps and working shift for bucket loads of money, gold prospecting and safety training.... 
Now we're getting closer to Darwin and the sky turns dark..... darker... black... Lightening flashes and we're engulfed in darkness!
Now we're circling Darwin just a few ks from the tarmac waiting for a thunder storm to pass...
Now my feet are on the wet tarmac... smelling av gass and humidity... Now I'm hugging my wife and the kids are wrapped around my feet as I try to get my gear from the carouselle... Now I'm home...