2. Back To School
Good morning fellow friends. The blog seems to have taken a back seat due to laziness so I am ploughing through with this post multiple weeks after I was planning to. Little and often needs to be the key. I am definitely still going through the motions of settling into Punmu. Big ebs and flows of absolutely loving it here and then feeling fairly isolated and lonely. The good thing is I am really loving the job. It’s so nice being back in the classroom and teaching the kids. I have so much freedom of what to teach and how and when to teach it which is definitely making me a better teacher.
The kids in Punmu are really lovely. Generally if the kids are in school, they want to learn. I’ve found that they can be a bit cheeky but respond to instructions really well.
Extra Curricular Activities
There is a couple out here called Michelle and Gian. Michelle is German and is the middle years teacher and Gian is Italian and he just keeps the whole show running. He’s the cook, cleaner, handyman, plumber and mechanic (plus whatever else he is asked to do). They are definitely the backbone of the school and have been out here for 4 years. They have amazing boundaries between work and personal time and they tell me this is how they’ve managed to stay out here for so long. They are the ones who arrange all the walks and other fun stuff we do in the evening, we even went round to their house for dinner the other day. I’m really excited to host dinner for everyone this evening.
Pumpkin Risotto
Their house is so lovely, it’s such a home. They have so much beautiful aboriginal artwork hanging which they’ve collected throughout the years. It was really nice spending time with everybody outside the classroom and learning more about everybody.
Some Aboriginal art at school which was created by Punmu Community
Another thing they do most weeks is a home-made ice bath. The house where we do it is a little bit outside of community which means we can wear our bathers. The community isn’t massively conservative but as a teacher I would have my knees and shoulders covered during school hours. On the weekend when I’m feeling frisky I wear my shorts which show my knees.
We also go for a walk a few times a week which is glorious. There are a few places a short drive away which they like to go to. In the first post I showed some pictures of the Claypan which I did not enjoy due to the flies situation. But I have now been gifted a fly net hat which has made being outside significantly more bareable.
My favourite place to walk is at the Salt Lake. You’ve truly never seen panorama like it. The way the light reflects off the water is stunning and I love the feeling of the clay on my feet. The clean up when I get home is a bit tricky though, I’m yet to figure out a system which doesn’t include me spreading mud through my whole house when I return.
Life At School
Teachers leave their houses on Whitefella Street at 7.30 ish to embark on the treacherous 2 minute drive to school. I was really surprised that people drove to school here but then I realised how bitey and barkey some of the dogs are out here and I heard some stories of teachers being bitten, I am very happy in the yute for the journey at the moment. The kids trickle in from 8am for their breakfast. This is only supposed to be a quick 15 minutes before school starts at 8.30am but generally goes on till 8.45am by the time everyone has come in and eaten and washed their bowls.
We don’t have a headteacher on site at the moment but our acting Pinciple Corrie organised for a guy called Dion to come and give us a hand while we’re a bit understaffed. He would make fabulous breakfasts and take the kids out for morning sport which was lovely last week.
There used to be a big covering over the basketball court but it called pulled off in a cyclone over the holidays so it’s difficult to get the kids out this time of year because its so hot. Sometimes in summer the kids will go home after lunch and then we’ll pick them up about 4pm to do sports with them once it’s cooled down a bit.
Most days include some kind of outdoor learning. Last week the kids created a small ‘waterfall’ and pond near the playground and it was so lovely to see them all working together and working hard. I’ve previously taken my class down to the lake to look for watering holes or to see how the tadpoles are growing. I also took some students for a drive around Punmu to create maps of the area which we can then turn into a coordinates map.
Last week we were on Country with Kudu (pronounced Gudu) who was showing us where we could find plants to make bush medicine. The students absolutely love being on Country, they are completely fearless. They were cartwheeling and backflipping down some really steep sand dunes but you can really feel how important their land is to them when you’re outside of the classroom. They are all so knowledgable about the animals that live there and the stories which have been passed down to them about the land.
I’ve been teaching my high school kids how to tell the time on an analogue clock. They have the basic skills for it and some have covered this before, which makes the teaching so much easier. For example, most of the kids can skip-count in their 5 times tables which makes reading the 5 minute intervals in a clock less confusing. It’s still a work in progress but I am seeing them learn in real time (no pun intended) which is just such a wholesome thing. In English, we’ve been covering a lot of grammar but I introduced a few to the thesaurus which they love.
Personal Notes
I’ve had a couple of wobbles this week not knowing how I’ll make it through a whole year of being here alone. The high days are really high, if I have a good day at school and it permeates into a nice evening it doesn’t even cross my mind to go home. But I feel like I’m not being strict enough with myself getting into good habits. I’m doom scrolling on my phone a lot and not exercising, so I think before I make any fatalist decisions I need to sort out those things first. It is difficult missing everybody in Melbourne so much, especially when I see how much fun everyone is having. There is no drinking in Punmu either so it’s not a place where I can drown my sorrows (probably for the best), but after a long week sometimes a girl just wants a glass of wine. Again, I think I’m just in the adjustment period. Either way, I will be staying here till the school holidays in July and I hope that by then I hope I have a bit more consistency with my feelings towards being here. While it is such an achievement and a dream of mine to be here my whole life philosophy is set on having fun all the time. I think I am still adjusting to different kinds of fun here.
There are defintely a lot of perks to being out here. As previously mentioned, its definitely making me a better teacher. I absolutely love the community and the kids and it is so interesting and humbling to learn about their culture, language and history. I think I would be doing a disservice to my students if I were to just up and leave after 6 months. Also the pay is good and accommodation and lunch are provided so there is really good capacity to save money here. On the other hand I am lonely, but I feel like this is something I can adapt to over time. Its about 5 weeks till I get back to Melbourne and I’m really looking forward to it. But as Ruby says ‘Mebourne is going to be there forever’ and she reminds me that there is no need to make a snap decision. I’m hoping for a bit more clarity in the next few months. I will also know what stuff I need to bring to sustain me next time, like 5 times the amount of popcorn and many more lentils (they don’t sell them in the shop).
