One week down

Tim here - does it get confusing?  I said I'd write about health, and I will, because that's why we're here.  But not just yet.  We've had a great week.  We've explored some water holes, lit a fire on the beach and cooked and shared food with a few others, visited outstations (well Joy has), laughed with local people and listened to the stories of some real personalities.  We even had a party at our place last night.  It has been almost enough to push aside some of the disquiet about living in a strange cultural gap.

Back to the party.  Julia (our medical student friend) left today, and we decided to have people around last night.  She invited about 15, and we revved up the BBQ that was sitting in the corner of the shed.  It seemed to work OK even if a bit slow.  After a while, we realised that the pipe was perished and was leaking.  That's when it caught fire.  It's funny how things can happen in slow motion at times.  My two thoughts were about how I would explain the house burning down to the clinic manager and about how Wadeye might be in the news for reasons different to usual.  However, we got the fire out with wet tea towels and proceeded to have a fun night.

There are some really interesting people in the non-indigenous community here.  Some come for one-month-on, one-month-off work, with family elsewhere.  Some have been here for years, like the sprightly 95 year old catholic nun.  Some seem to be escaping, and have interests limited to drinking and watching AFL on TV.  Our plumber friend is doing a 5 year contract maintaining all the houses here and in the surrounding area.  He has been in the army and has experienced some tough stuff.  But he's a passionate reader and has a robustly passionate view on life that is enormously refreshing.  Some are in the honeymoon stage of culture shock, and others seem a bit jaded and weary.  With all of that, we continue to be challenged and impressed by the genuine care of the clinic staff.  Tomorrow night we have been invited to dinner with a ranger, who I have come to respect deeply, and his Balinese wife, who is a passionate fisherwoman.  We're looking forward to that.

If you are still reading, well done!  I'll save the medical stuff until next time.