Going fast...slowly

Tomorrow we head to Howard Springs area to look at a church there, then a BBQ or Pizza lunch with the Smiths, our long time friends here.
Sam and Jessie are enrolled at Palmerstone Christian School now and have their uniforms ready for Monday, and Sam played his first game of cricket in the A grade under 15 team for Palmerstone Cricket Club. He bowled two overs, for one wicket and three runs. A great effort, he hasn't sprigged shoes yet and they play on a great turf pitch, so he had to bowl spin, with one fast ball, as he slips too much if he runs in.

I have had someone look at the Hilux, which looked great at Picker but very dirty here, so I spent 3 days cleaning it up and nearly went too far yesterday and felt pretty spent an a bit ill because of it all.

I now need to wait for the confirmation call from Marrarah to see if I actually show up on Monday for work.

Will get back to you.
ONYA,
Len

Good Grief, Charlie Brown

I can't believe that it's only a couple of days since I last posted (I accidentally typed 'pisted' by missing the 'o' and thought it looked funny. Don't know why I wanted to tell you that, just did, OK!).

So much has happened. We are at 30 Kakadu Parade, Palmerston, NT 0832
It is small-ish but great.

We have so many people who have rallied around us and donated furniture etc, it is great. Yesterday I spent the day collecting furniture and speaking again to the Principal of Marrarah Christian School, he has offered me a full time job, if I stay 'till the end of the year.
It would be 50/50 music and relief or in the music room repairing and getting things organised etc.
The music dept is a bit sad and need someone to show the way forward. I think I would like that.
Jude would pick up ome relief work as we needed it.

I have someone interested in looking at the hilux, which is great, and all is moving fast here.
If we stay sam and Jessie would be required to attend a regular school, which I think would be good for them. Mind you KSA is GREAT.
Judith and I can't do Sam's algebra!

So, more big decisions to make.

We went to the Darwin Baptist Church on Sunday and he said he could not sleep the night before he had to preach, and he changed his topic.
His topic came from Psalm 5 which say something like 'Crying comes in the night, but joy comes in the morning'.
He reckoned that ther was some one in the meeting who had a rough time of it lately, but to let them know that there would be joy in the morning.

We felt like it was for us.

And there has been.

Another matter....

My eldest daughter Michelle is on the front page of the Tasmanian 004 phone book!
Here is the pic they used.

Until next time,
CU later, Len

M.I.A.

Hi all.
Today we leave for the next adventure.
Our new home in Palmerston.

I am unsure when we will have internet as of a couple of hours from now.

Please contact us via mobile phone.

Jude is 0408 569 753
Len is 0418 585 660

I also have a chat with the Principal of Marrarah Christian School later today, so I may get work there, we are still unsure if it will work, given our intention to not be here for too long.

Perhaps we have to stay in Darwin until...... well who knows??

Bless ya all.
Love
Len

Life - Post Tiwi

Here we are in Darwin.
We have been staying at Mirambeena Resort with the Salters for a few days and now we are at the home of Karen Kidd, who generously allowed us to stay for free. It is beautiful. We have our own marina, but unfortunately not a boat.
On Monday the 13th we move to Palmerston, just south of Darwin, where we will rent for term two, then hopefully we will still afford to be able to go to Vietnam mid year.












Leaving Tiwi was very sad.
This is a picture of our stuff leaving on the barge, we left on the ferry. Confused yet?
We travelled by minibus to Paru, opposite the town of Nguiu, and boarded the ferry with Patrick and Thomas Salter who had spent two days on the island with us. Partick was great to have around in the business of leaving and the emotional ups and downs we had as well.
The night before we left we had Bernard Tipoloura (a Tiwi Elder whom I love) around and it was great to speak with him and let Patrick watch the genuine Tiwi culture show through. He is 70 Y.O. this year. That is quite a feat for any Indigineous person.
He is also 6 ft 4 inches tall and has a goatee. He calls me 'Bro' and we joke that no one can tell us apart except our mothers.
He is very black.







This is picture of us, can you tell who is who (most can't!).


He gave me one of his family names, which is pronunced 'Poomp a roo', but has some amazing spelling, I wrote it down but it is packed away somewhere at the moment, so I am unable to share that with you.
This is an honour, and I might like to be called that instead of 'Grumpy' for the granchild/ren.




On the ferry we were very upset.
It was a perfect day, smooth water and warm weather.
Just as the ferry pulled out of Nguiu we had a student hand us a plastic bag which contained a woven basket in it.
This turned out to be a present from Bernard and his partner, Lynette.
We rushed to the back of the ferry and Bernard's car was there, with Lynette waving to us. We waved, but emotion got the better of us both and we shed a few tears.

Everyone saw us upset and then we noticed that the news of why we were given a present from an Elder, and why we were crying spread like wildfire around the ferry.

Very embarrassing.

During the voyage we had many come to us and touch our arm and say thanks for what we had done and wishing us well etc. It was very moving indeed.
In some ways it was the best way to leave, slowly saying goodbye, rather than the 18 minute flight to Darwin.

I (Len/Poomparoo), have been feeling the weight of providing for my family in unknown circumstances, yet I also am sure of God's provision for us as well. A contradiction I guess, but that's the way I feel.



I gave Bronwyn Salter the ochre look.



Today (Saturday, 11th April) I had a call from a teacher at Marrarah Christian School who wanted to know if I had work or not.
Not, was the answer.
As I type this I have just had a missed call from the Principal of Marrarah, who will call later.
They have a job for a music teacher available and sound pretty keen to speak with me.
It seems that they have some rock band stuff but not a lot of music lessons at the school and are wanting someone to get it into shape.
Sounds right up my alley, and at a very good time as well.
So, I might have a job already by the time you read this!!

It's like riding a roller-coaster.

Our newly purchased (well 1/2 purchased) caravan arrives at the end of the month from Queensland.
The loose plan is at the moment, work until mid year, Vietnam, hit the road down W.A. and return to Tas next year if I get work that is.
Then again, who knows where and what we will be up to then.

We hope to sell our two vehicles we have here, after I do a fair bit of work on the Hilux to make it not look so 'Melville Island-ed' and purchase either a Landcruiser, Prado or Jackaroo which will pull the caravan for us.

Family have recovered fairly well to the trauma, and all are quite settled at the moment.
Sam has had a few 'moments' and his grade 8 algebra is not helping!!!

At the school. We fear a bit for Bevan French and family, and Wayne Vincent the Vice Principal, as they are the two remaining teachers at Picker last year and it will be very hard for them now.
We also worry about the management of the school there, and it seems to have all the malaise that I have seen in other Christian schools, sadly.

(I always seem to type 'teh' instead of 'the'. Drives me nuts fixing them all the time! I may have missed a few.)

So, stay tuned. Never a dull moment here.

Thanks so much for the prayers and emails of support that some have given. It really helps.
Love to you all.
Len and family.

Lots of pics

I have submitted a few pics to Panoramio, they are the ones who allow pics to be placed on Google Earth for others to look at.
If you would like to see my pics, go to;
http://www.panoramio.com/user/682414&comments_page=1&photos_page=1

Has a few of the Tiwi Islands, amongst others from central Australia and Tas.
Cheers.

The Last Post....err.....Week

So, here we are in the last week of our time on Melville Island.
It feels quite strange.

The tensions are high-ish and there is no end to the support that the general population ha shown us, it has been fantastic. They put on a farewell for us last night and it was great. They are lovely people here.

There remains tension between us (and all the rest of the community actually) and the management. It is difficult, I feel for them as they have made some hard calls and they were never going to be popular ones.

Mind you, they have very little contact with the general population and this is the cause for most of the discord, even though they would not say the same thing themselves. There are some serious issues here and people are very disqueited by the turn of events of late.
Since I posted last another Family Group Home Parents have resigned after feeling they were given no viable alternative. They are a great couple and will be sorely missed.

Yesterday I had the best adventure.
I went north to Jessie River to fish.
What a primeval place. We have been there before, and it is croc heaven.

I mis-read the tides chart and instead of arriving at low tide we arrived at VERY high tide.
We decided to fish anyway (it's an hour's drive from Picker). We had to drive through some of the sea to get to the creek where we then walked up to a large flat plain inland. Steve, the groundsman, used his cast net to get some live bait, which then died.
At one cast he caught 5 Barra, one was 50cm, and he threw them all back, as the legal limit is 55cm.
In Tassie I would have kept them all and had lots of beaut fish in the freezer.

I took some of Steve's reject fish and went downstream on my own and promptly caught a 65cm Barra. Later Steven's son caught a 60cm one as well, and a new teacher, Mark, caught a Black Fin Salmon.
We then lit a fire and roasted it in the coals, and ate it there and then. It was great!

On the way out we had to fight our way through the bush, as the tide was so high we could not get along the beach anymore. This included cutting a big tree out of the way.
The last bit before we went inland was again in teh sea, and I was worried we might not nake it, but we got out to the road safely.

Along the forst section of the track a huge Buffalo was on the road, and I took off after it.
They can run at 40kph, and they don't slow down.
We were so close that it was throwing dirt onto the windscreen like paintballs. It went for 700 ish metres and then veered off the track.
You can't outrun a buffalo, OK.

On the main road home I noticed that the diesel was lower than it should have been, due to the torturous route out of the beach area, and so turned off the A/C, and wound down the windows to conserve fuel.
Then a wallably came across the road and, deciding the this was not the time to die, tried to do a U-turn.
It was almost on it's side, scrambling for traction in the road gravel, we missed it by a few centimetres, and it sprayed a heap of gravel throught the window into the car, and across my face in the process. A first for me.

Almost all the warning lights were on the car, due to a fault caused by teh water I assume, and then the fuel light was on.
We made it home, JUST.

Man, what will we write once we are in civilisation again?

The plan is to finish packing and then send all our stuff via Tiwi Barge (grrrrrr...) on Wed night/Thurs morning, possible some stupid hour like 2AM, due to the tides etc.
We then have Patrick Salter and his son Thomas visiting on Thursday, so I will pick them up from Millicapiti on Thursday morning, and we will all leave on the ferry to Darwin on Friday afternoon.

I am scared about the future, yet we know God will provide, and it will be interesting and exciting as well.
We have some options opening up already.

This week we paid 1/2 of the purchase price on a caravan that is in Q'ld, and it will be delivered to us in the next few weeks. We pay the other 1/2 when the courier checks it out for us and gives the all clear on it.
Even buying a caravan is not normal for us.

Well, I have to work and pack, and plan and ... well you get it.

CU in the next post.
Len and Judith

My... how times have changed.

Re-reading the last post is funny.

Enough money to keep things rolling blah, blah.


Well.... I wa wrong.

We were sacked yesterday, with 6 weeks notice.

So were another teacher and some support staff.

Jude is devastated as she in particular has been able to get through to the girls and started one-on-one chats with them about how to handle situations they face etc. Her class has some great breakthroughs as well.

So, we will be here for two more weeks and hope to pack up by then, and then we have two more weeks in Darwin. After that, they don't expect us back for the PD weeks so we are totally unsure what to do or where to go.

We have to be in Darwin in June as we have prepaid tickets for a trip to Vietnam, or we lose the money, yet we have nowhere to stay and very little money.

I guess we were after adventure!

At the moment, and this could change before I even finish typing, we are contemplating trying to get a term's work in Darwin and save if we can, go to Vietnam and then travel around W.A. until Christmas.

We can't go home, our house in under contract until Jan next year, and we have to find somewhere for our gear, as the house is full etc.

So, we need;
1. Prayer, not to get bitter, and to find a way through this path.
2. A job or someone who has millions to give it to us and save all that work thing!
3. A good sale for our vehicles so we can get a caravan and a landcruiser if we travel.
4. Lots of encouragement, it is a dark few days, even though the sun is out :-)

and finally,
lots of bloody Grace!!

You can email us at tiwassie@gmail.com, as comments still won't work I think...grrrr.

Love ya all,
Len