Guys, we are so back on the blog. I have decided to try to make a new website which is more functional than the last one (shoutout to Squarespace and Zac for recommending). What a crazy week its been. I have officially been 1 week in the bush and I’m not going to lie, it feels like I’ve been here for at least a month. While I am having a good time, I wouldn’t say it’s flown by. I think from living a very cruisy life in Melbourne to actually having lots to do is a transition that is welcomed but still difficult to manage.

The house I write this blog from is my own and 3 bedroom. Yes, some of the cabinet doors are coming off and I kill 3-5 cockraoaches everyday but it is really nice having a space that is my own. This is my second time living by myself and I am loving it. I’m definitely trying to get into some good habits like home exercise everyday (it’s too hot to be outside) but it’s difficult because I really don’t like exercising, especially when I have to self-motivate in my own house (did I mention I have my own house?)

One of the biggest changes is that I’ve mostly stopped smoking, minus the 1-2 cigarettes I’m having a day from the naughty packet I bought in Port Headland. Due to this my appetite is through the roof and I’m very irritable. However, I have now given them to the teacher next door to regulate my terrible habit. I feel like if I can’t stop smoking in these conditions I will smoke for the rest of my life because Punmu is one remote place and you have to be very organised or very wealthy to be a smoker out here.

There are camels nearby! (they’re not native). They were brought over from India in the late 1800’s for transport purposes but with the invent of cars they were just left here to their own devices. They are considered pests and there are over 100,000 in the Pilbara region. Martu hunt them occasionally so I may get to try some.

When I moved out to Australia I had planned to do rural teaching so I am really proud I have finally found a role. I didn’t think they would hire me based off my limited experience but I reckoned that if I were to win them over it would be due to my confidence and enthusiasm (success).

When I got offered this job I was out for breakfast with Ruby. It was a completely surreal moment because this role was the last one I was going to apply for in my bid to work at a remote school and if I was unsuccessful I would have stayed in Melbourne for another year.

I am a high school teacher (kids can be anywhere from 13-18) and a generalist, meaning I teach all subjects. Being a generalist may prove a bit tricky because I’ve never taught English or Maths before, but everyone is being very helpful and my kids will be working at a primary school level. This role is something you can make completely your own. I get the sense that due to the flexibility you have over the curriculum delivery you need to be especially dedicated to the job or nothing will get done/the kids won’t learn anything. To be honest theres not much else to do round here so I might as well get stuck in.

My school in the UK had a rigid curriculum, shared resources with a blueprint of what must be covered and when (and how). There was very little flexibility and many schools in the UK work in this way. While there is some clear disorganisation here in Punmu, you definitely have the luxury of tailoring your lessons to your skillset and your interests. Whether this is actually academically beneficial to the kids is another question but I am trying to transition out of a Western mindset towards learning.

**Activity on past, present and future tense**

Rawa is an independent Indigenous school. Martu people oversee the school and they essentially give us the direction of how and what they want us to teach their kids. It seems clear that their main priority is to preserve their culture and language. Secondary to this, they want us to teach them life skills which require English and Maths. Today we learned that some want their children to be able to read and write so they can navigate the court system. This could be to fight for their land or fight for their freedom which is particularly important in such a racist country. They want their children to be able to open bank accounts so they can get paid for jobs, for example)

The main sentiment from the Board is that they want their community held together as it has been for over 60,000 years. This means giving students the skills to make their community thrive without having to leave it (there are many reasons people leave) and the capacity to utilise Western systems while maintaining their culture and Country.

**The community built a little train to pick the kids up for school as a way to boost attendance. They absolutely love it!**

By law we have to deliver the Western Australian curriculum but there is flexibility in how we do that. For example, we can teach maths through taking the students to the shop to buy the ingredients for lunch. The students may learn metrics when weighing food and this real-life style of learning can help teach budgeting and financial literacy.

I’m really looking forward to understanding a different delivery of education, one which is focussed on symbiotic learning, trust and constant adaptation. I’m sure it will be quite stressful at times but I think it will be a different kind of stress to my previous teaching job. I will keep you guys posted on that one.

The Journey

I’m not going to lie to you guys, it was an absolute mission to get here. Grant dropped me at the airport at 5.30am on Tuesday morning and I hopped on the 4 hour 15 min flight from Melbourne to Perth. Only 1,680 miles. I then got straight on a plane from Perth to Port Headland which took a speedy 2 hours and it was only 820 miles. Port Headland is a small airport but the whole plane was full up of miners who do fly in - fly out work. I literally slept the whole way due to the nicotine withdrawal of not having my naughty little vape in my hand (slightly regretting this decision now).

Once I checked into the hotel I got a knock on the door from one of my work colleagues and we had a catch up over some pizza. She is a crazy lady who flew over from NZ then drove all the way from Perth to Port Headland to meet us. Then she did the drive inland. In total I think she drove for about 5 days.

In Headland we had to go to the supermarket to get our dry goods essentially for the totality of the term (9 weeks). While there is a supermarket in Punmu apparently its a rip off so you really want to get everything in town and bring it down. All in the shopping was very expensive, I literally needed everything from olive oil to toilet paper. 2 months worth of it at that.

The next day we met up with 2 other colleagues (husband and wife - Kadek and Lee) and stocked up 3 utes and a trailer full of fresh food, both personal and for the school. By the time we had faffed around with all this it was too late to leave for Punmu because the roads are dangerous generally, but are especially dangerous at night. We drove for a few hours and stayed the night in Marbel Bar (Western Australias hottest town!).

**Quick swim in Marble Bar - not for me, obviously. I stayed nice and dry as designated photographer**

By this point I had already caved and bought a $40/£20 packet of cigarettes (such a rip off) so I was chomping away on those a bit. I bought a tradies handbag (cooked chicken in a bag) and we went for a little drive to a watering hole. Throughout the drive we were communicating to other drivers on the road (mostly truck drivers from the local mines) via radio which was pretty cool.

The next day we had been on the road for 5 hours and we drove past some Martu guys that had broken down and needed help. There is a cultural practice in a lot of Indigenous communities called Lore and for Martu when Lore is taking place women cannot look at or talk to men. This made the situation quite painfully boring for us 3 ladies and intensely stressful for Kadek. It delayed our journey by a few hours making the trip closer to 8 hours from Marble Bar.

When we eventually arrived I was pretty happy with my house apart from the fact it was really dirty and needed some loving. It’s got 3 decent size bedrooms, an open plan living room kitchen (with cupboards falling off) and a separate laundry room. There were so many dead cockroaches on the floor but the hoover came in very handy for that. I am not pleased to announce that there are also lots of live cockroaches in my house too.

That evening I had some visitors from the community, both children and elders which was very sweet. I tried to divvy up which food I could freeze as best I could, but this process went on for about a week. As I write this almost 2 weeks after I bought the food I have the remaining ‘fresh’ produce in the fridge; lemons, limes, potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, celery, onions, yoghurts, lettuce, avocados. I really am trying my hardest not to eat unhealthily but I have already gone through my 2 month supply of microwave popcorn and my bag of gummy worms (very sad).

School and Any Other Business

The kids at the school are very sweet and while we have only had a couple of days in the classroom, so far I am really enjoying it. Due to Lore a lot of families are out of community at the moment so it has been a welcomed quiet start. The maximum amount of kids I have had in my class at one time has been 3, but because the students are all working at different levels it can be really hard to get through content. However, due to my small classes I really feel I’ve achieved a lot of learning with my kids. They are also teaching me a lot about their culture through both language and storytelling.

**Old pizza oven at the school (picture taken pre-torrential storm)**

In other news, some of the teachers went down to ‘The Claypan’ for a chat, a relax and a sunset watch. I have never been so overstimulated in my life. There were 1 million flies per square cm and I had to ruin the vibe of the outing to go and sit in the car. I couldn’t even focus on what anyone was saying because they were in my eyes and ears. This was also not exciting for me because there was no signal in the car so I was very bored. Womp Womp.

I am nearly finished my packet of cigarettes so I think I’m a big aggitated over that. I really really want a vape. I can see how this kind of lifestyle is very isolating and I really need to be more regimented in a routine but all I can think about is how much I want to smoke. I think it would vastly improve my quality of life if I just had a few more packs of cigarettes with me. I’m sure this is a very common thought for people who are quitting smoking but I’m concerned that no one in the world has ever wanted a cigarette as much as I want one right now.

On top of this, the only routine I seem to be consistent with right now (apart from the consistent yearning for nicotine) is facetiming Grant every night and watching Landman with a massive bowl of popcorn (not anymore because I’ve eaten all the popcorn). But I keep telling myself this is okay due to lack of vape and cigarettes. I am allowed to have some vices.

Other than that there is a spag bowl slow cooking on the stove top and life is good. I hope you are enjoying my new website and I will keep everyone up to date in the next post!

Love Lottie x (Generalist)

1. A Different Terrain

The Journey

School and Any Other Business

2. Back To School