Please pray for us. For Belinda and the pregnancy;Russell and his work at Yirara (I have some very good days and some very deflating and disconcerting days); Kurtis and Elijah with their schooling.
If you feel like donating- some good Christian music would be good to give the Yirara kids (eg Planetshakers, United, Christian bands etc). With apologies to churches who make mega-bucks from CD sales, even burnt copies would be good enough. Heavy guitar and drums preferred.
Football boots, old or new would assist the footy academy program. Like most teenagers, these kids get what they want, not what they need sometimes.
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Highlights so far
We had a scan and definitely have a baby in there and definitely a Modlin. The baby was very still and so we got some excellent photos of the baby’s legs, feet and profile. The Yirara mob love the photos.
I have started going to football training. South Alice Springs Kangaroos. Yes, I have come out of retirement. I am one of 2 whitefellas in the team. A few of the Yirara lads train and that helps the relationship building. Not as intense or what I am use to, but we will see if I can get a game out here, or at least a kick for that matter.
Elijah has started riding his bike without training wheels. We now cannot get him off the thing, but it was something he decided to do
Kurtis has lost another tooth and I have kept up the system of pulling out every tooth he has lost.
Shopping and coffee on Saturday morning is a big social occasion in Alice. The Yirara mob (fellas and girls from the boarding house) live for shopping– they can’t buy anything, but we see them and they love seeing you out there with your family. Some of the kids use it as an opportunity to run away, and that can cause some headaches.
I am having my first community visit over the Easter weekend, driving a troop carrier of 10 kids to Aeryonga. Very excited. Hopefully some photos!!
I have started going to football training. South Alice Springs Kangaroos. Yes, I have come out of retirement. I am one of 2 whitefellas in the team. A few of the Yirara lads train and that helps the relationship building. Not as intense or what I am use to, but we will see if I can get a game out here, or at least a kick for that matter.
Elijah has started riding his bike without training wheels. We now cannot get him off the thing, but it was something he decided to do
Kurtis has lost another tooth and I have kept up the system of pulling out every tooth he has lost.
Shopping and coffee on Saturday morning is a big social occasion in Alice. The Yirara mob (fellas and girls from the boarding house) live for shopping– they can’t buy anything, but we see them and they love seeing you out there with your family. Some of the kids use it as an opportunity to run away, and that can cause some headaches.
I am having my first community visit over the Easter weekend, driving a troop carrier of 10 kids to Aeryonga. Very excited. Hopefully some photos!!
Life at Yirara College of the Finke River Mission
A new phase in my teaching career has occurred. I have been fortunate enough to get out of the classroom and am now teaching PE and coordinating sport for the fellas at Yirara. Quite a bit of extra commitment and time, but absolutely loving it. I teach a few classes of Health, and so I do get to stand up in front of a class, but it is totally different from teaching Grade 12 English from a postmodernist perspective.
All of the students at Yirara are ESL and there are about 200 students. The majority are at a level of Prep/Transition to about Grade 5 level. Many have not had much schooling, in cases very little parenting and find it very hard to have another “boss” other than themselves. Unfortunately, self determination has confused matters and now many kids believe and have been told, “You are your own boss now, the government tells us that.”
Something I have had to realise is that each community (or tribal group) is different. If you talk about “an aboriginal problem”, then to suggest that is wrong. Each group is different and is at different stages. Some communities have major issues, some have none; to group them altogether just does not work. Top End Aborigines are different from Western Desert who are different from Western QLD who are different from Torres Strait Islanders who are different from urban aborigines. To lump them altogether as “aboriginal problems” and say it applies to them all, is why there are “problems”.
Teaching is challenging. There are students who are there because they want to learn and want to interact with you; there are some who are there because the parents want the Christians to fix their out of control sons and daughters; there are some there who are there to make some peoples’ lives a misery...does this sound familiar to anyone? Again, I have come to realise that people are people, and they need God.
I am enjoying building relationships, and having to learn a heap of new behaviour management strategies. I have had to learn to raise my voice and “growl” at the students...if I don’t, they don’t respect me. I have had to get use to fellas holding my hand, stroking my arm or hairy chest in the pool and walking around with their arm around me...a sure sign they respect you and like you– just uncomfortable when they do it in public.
Australian Rules Football and Basketball are the two major sports; so to do Swimming and Volleyball this term has tested me and my resilience to push through with it. I have had varying degrees of success, but now probably at about 98% participation, so I feel I am getting somewhere. They are naturally very gifted athletes, but “training” or listening to a coach can be a very foreign concept for many. “I weak Mister” or “Too hot Mister” or “Let’s do Basketball Mister” was often yelled at me early, but I withstood these “tests” and now may have “won this battle”...perhaps.
Teaching staff are experienced with many towards the end of their career rather than at the stage I am at. Many I would say are “Heroes of the faith” to me because they have been committed to indigenous education for most of their careers; with very few thanks and letters of appreciation from students or parents. The staff are extremely unified and supportive. A great blessing to me in my time here so far.
My Under 14 basketball team is in the Grand Final this afternoon, so wait for word on that. God bless you all. Please keep in touch.
All of the students at Yirara are ESL and there are about 200 students. The majority are at a level of Prep/Transition to about Grade 5 level. Many have not had much schooling, in cases very little parenting and find it very hard to have another “boss” other than themselves. Unfortunately, self determination has confused matters and now many kids believe and have been told, “You are your own boss now, the government tells us that.”
Something I have had to realise is that each community (or tribal group) is different. If you talk about “an aboriginal problem”, then to suggest that is wrong. Each group is different and is at different stages. Some communities have major issues, some have none; to group them altogether just does not work. Top End Aborigines are different from Western Desert who are different from Western QLD who are different from Torres Strait Islanders who are different from urban aborigines. To lump them altogether as “aboriginal problems” and say it applies to them all, is why there are “problems”.
Teaching is challenging. There are students who are there because they want to learn and want to interact with you; there are some who are there because the parents want the Christians to fix their out of control sons and daughters; there are some there who are there to make some peoples’ lives a misery...does this sound familiar to anyone? Again, I have come to realise that people are people, and they need God.
I am enjoying building relationships, and having to learn a heap of new behaviour management strategies. I have had to learn to raise my voice and “growl” at the students...if I don’t, they don’t respect me. I have had to get use to fellas holding my hand, stroking my arm or hairy chest in the pool and walking around with their arm around me...a sure sign they respect you and like you– just uncomfortable when they do it in public.
Australian Rules Football and Basketball are the two major sports; so to do Swimming and Volleyball this term has tested me and my resilience to push through with it. I have had varying degrees of success, but now probably at about 98% participation, so I feel I am getting somewhere. They are naturally very gifted athletes, but “training” or listening to a coach can be a very foreign concept for many. “I weak Mister” or “Too hot Mister” or “Let’s do Basketball Mister” was often yelled at me early, but I withstood these “tests” and now may have “won this battle”...perhaps.
Teaching staff are experienced with many towards the end of their career rather than at the stage I am at. Many I would say are “Heroes of the faith” to me because they have been committed to indigenous education for most of their careers; with very few thanks and letters of appreciation from students or parents. The staff are extremely unified and supportive. A great blessing to me in my time here so far.
My Under 14 basketball team is in the Grand Final this afternoon, so wait for word on that. God bless you all. Please keep in touch.
Dealing with Anger at Yirara
Many of the fellas at Yirara have some anger issues. One of my jobs as a Health teacher is to teach them how to notice when they might feel angry. So, we can ask them to describe what it is like when they feel angry…
“I feel shaky”
“My head hurts”
“I am like a volcano”
Great metaphors. Except the day when one student said, “Mister, when I angry, I am like salami.” Hmmm...I go, “So you mean like it can be hot in your mouth or like on a pizza, it burns up.”
“No mister….Like when that big wave comes and wrecks everything”
“Oh, you mean a tsunami.”
“I feel shaky”
“My head hurts”
“I am like a volcano”
Great metaphors. Except the day when one student said, “Mister, when I angry, I am like salami.” Hmmm...I go, “So you mean like it can be hot in your mouth or like on a pizza, it burns up.”
“No mister….Like when that big wave comes and wrecks everything”
“Oh, you mean a tsunami.”
Monday, March 24, 2008
Settling into life in Alice Springs
Well, we made it.
Thank you to all the people who have contacted us already and emailed or chatted to us over the last 2 months. We have appreciated the contact and yes, it has made us homesick!!
I don’t know whether this newsletter thing will take off, but it might be a very simple way of letting you know how we are going and what we are doing. It might even be a subtle way of encouraging you to visit us in the red centre.
It was a very smooth transition leaving Brisbane. Everything went too well. Once we arrived, we spent 3 days in a hotel waiting for our rental property and gear to arrive. We moved in, but the furniture did not arrive for another week, so we slept on mattresses on the floor and ate out for a week. The gear arrived, but not all of it. The rest of the gear arrived 4 weeks later. Hence, we now cover the inadequacies of service, mail arriving late, lack of fresh food, petrol prices (156.9) and the quirky way things are done out here by just muttering “T.I.A” (This is Alice); with apologies to Leonardo de Caprio in “Blood Diamond”.
We have found a great church (Christian Community Centre) and Belinda has been busy making coffee friends and becoming a very good (unpaid) teacher aide to me.
Unfortunately with only one car, she has spent a large amount of time in the car. Drop off Russell, then drop off Kurtis, home or out to coffee, drop off Elijah, home to sleep, pick up Kurtis, pick up Elijah, pick up Russell.
She is glowing through all this and things will have to change once another Modlin is brought into the world.
While the first few weeks were tough, through it all we knew we had to rely on each other and God. This has definitely brought the family close together and has made us stronger.
Thank you to all the people who have contacted us already and emailed or chatted to us over the last 2 months. We have appreciated the contact and yes, it has made us homesick!!
I don’t know whether this newsletter thing will take off, but it might be a very simple way of letting you know how we are going and what we are doing. It might even be a subtle way of encouraging you to visit us in the red centre.
It was a very smooth transition leaving Brisbane. Everything went too well. Once we arrived, we spent 3 days in a hotel waiting for our rental property and gear to arrive. We moved in, but the furniture did not arrive for another week, so we slept on mattresses on the floor and ate out for a week. The gear arrived, but not all of it. The rest of the gear arrived 4 weeks later. Hence, we now cover the inadequacies of service, mail arriving late, lack of fresh food, petrol prices (156.9) and the quirky way things are done out here by just muttering “T.I.A” (This is Alice); with apologies to Leonardo de Caprio in “Blood Diamond”.
We have found a great church (Christian Community Centre) and Belinda has been busy making coffee friends and becoming a very good (unpaid) teacher aide to me.
Unfortunately with only one car, she has spent a large amount of time in the car. Drop off Russell, then drop off Kurtis, home or out to coffee, drop off Elijah, home to sleep, pick up Kurtis, pick up Elijah, pick up Russell.
She is glowing through all this and things will have to change once another Modlin is brought into the world.
While the first few weeks were tough, through it all we knew we had to rely on each other and God. This has definitely brought the family close together and has made us stronger.
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