“Farewell has a sweet
sound of reluctance. Good-bye is short and final, a word with teeth
sharp to bite through the string that ties the past to the future.”
―
John
Steinbeck, The
Winter of Our Discontent
I have now returned home
to Perth and it is good bye which applies to my adventures at Mt
House. Guess what? "Cooee" was used by parents to summon their
children who would be some distance away!
My time at the station
was harder than my gig in Bangladesh, which was strange as I was
supposedly working within a familiar culture and the Anglo-Australian
paradigm. I do not use my blog to bag about a situation and always
try and reflect the positive stuff that has happened.
So here are the positives I take back
with this experience:
Another situation of
cultural shock but as I had done several units at University on
Australian history I was prepared for a little of what I witnessed
and lived in.
I made some great
friends who ironically are not West Australian or Kimberley folk but
are Kiwis who are imported as a source of labour into Australia.
I was situated in
some incredible and spectacular scenery. The sunsets equal those of
Africa and the night sky is stunning.
I climbed Baobab
(boab) trees. I swam in crystal clear fresh water. I jumped into
gorges. I fished for my supper. I got an idea of how stations of
over 1 000 000 acres are managed.
The food I ate was
wholesome and healthy. I learnt to cook starting from basics.
I have become a
better educator because of the difficulties I encountered.
The Kimberley School
of the Air staff are wonderful and the station children who have
this kind of schooling unfortunately do not realise how privileged
they are as they not only have top quality teachers but their school
is better resourced than the average metropolitan state school here
in Perth.
I agonised for about three weeks whether I
should return to do the fourth term at the station when I picked up a
PD James novel and found written in 2002 a most strange inscription
on the opening page.
Interestingly it was written by one of the owners of the station pastoral lease who
resides most of the year in Sydney.
Read it for yourself and make
what you want of it! LOL!
I will not dwell on the negatives but my
final photo might tell its own story! I wonder where my next gig
will be?
