Back in Wadeye

We've been here a week. It's good to be back: so much is familiar. We're earlier in the season this time, and some of the gums are flowering, stunning orange blossoms. Little corellas screech and nip off the buds. It's been cooler overnight - rather nice. (but it's all relative)

We have 5 weeks here this time. It was great to have a week in NT before starting - we hired s campervan and enjoyed Litchfield National Park & Berry Springs, especially the chance to join with Tim's brother Nick and his family for Nick's 40th. Jerry came up as well. What a great time! Nick & Rosie looked after us really well, and how their 4 have grown! It was special to renew connections. Josh is into fishing, Matt is always seeing birds before anyone else and knows what they are! Zach loves crocodiles (not quite sure why), and Abbey makes friends wherever she goes.

So back to Wadeye. Some of the staff are the same, and also we new ones to meet. The team seem to be working well together, and morale is good. Saturday night we cheered for the clinic at a basketball game, Clinic vs Police - clinic lost, but tried hard! We had a BBQ together afterwards.

There are still no indigenous health workers, and I miss the opportunities this would bring: help with understanding people's issues, and help in explaining medical concepts of disease and treatment. This is important in all our work at the clinic, and I'm very aware of it - I'm working in chronic disease again this year, and I often feel the lack of communication skills. Part of it is basic language difficulties, but I know there's more to it. I'm still not sure how to "do" chronic disease, especially as I'm so short term. I feel humbled when people share their lives with me - it feels like an unexpected gift.

It's good to be back. We hope our being here is worthwhile for team and community. We appreciate the opportunity to slow down a bit in the work context, even though there are busy patches. We appreciate the working day finishing earlier, and evenings without the usual demands of home. We appreciate the beauty of the bush around us. We had a great walk on the beach at sunset last night, with some others from here.

So we will post!

the dry season burn