Off to the Island

Yep... we are off to Pickertaramoor this afternoon. We have had a great time here in Darwin and have gotten a lot done in preparation for our time here in Australia. We now have NT, Australia drivers licenses, bank accounts, health insurance, etc...
We again went out to Woolaning yesterday for some training. The training was excellent and has given us a lot of good information concerning our work with the Tiwi Aboriginal youth. After the training we spent time with the staff there on campus. They filled us with a lot of good information that will be helpful. We also spent time with some Aboriginal youth while there. We went swimming in their favorite swimming hole. The swimming hole is a series of heavily flowing small waterfalls with very deep holes to swim in. What fun! The water was in the 80's f surrounded by beautiful tropical forests. The kids were delightful to be around and enjoyed rocking-out to music full blast in the van as we drove out. Their home had a family atmosphere. 11 students were in the house and seemed to enjoy the comforts of home. After school some were on the computers, others watched TV or played video games while others played ping-pong. Over all of this the stereo was cranked up full blast repeating an old song by CCR "Who Will Stop The rain". I guess that is an appropriate song being it is near the end of the heaviest monsoon season the area has seen in a long time!! One of the highlights of the evening was a couple of younger teacher aid staff caught a baby Crocodile and were excited to show us. The little croc was not thrilled about the ordeal and was looking for opportunity to have a good bite at someones finger! It was about a foot long.
It was dark by the time we began our 2 hour trek home. As we left the campus there were several white cockatoo still stirring before settling on a branch for the evening. The road home was dark with an occasional Kangaroo hopping across the road. The roads are very dangerous at night.
Will be in touch again as soon as possible.

Aboriginal kids playing Aussie Rules football

We've arrived to Darwin!

We had a very smooth trip here to Darwin with absolutely no problems. It did take us a couple of days to overcome jet lag but we feel now we are living well with the change on the other side of the date line. Our employer has put us up at a resort here in Darwin for about 8 days to help us acclimate before heading out to Tiwi College. It is really nice! What a wonderful blessing this has been and we are very thankful for this extra time here in Darwin.
The first evening here we had dinner with the principle (and his wife) of the college who is our boss. We were so encouraged as we listened to him speak and hear his heart for the Tiwi people and some of his thinking concerning running the school. We knew after that time with them we were in the right place!!! They are a wonderful Australian couple who love the Lord!

It's been almost 10 years since we have been back here in Darwin and it is so nice to be back. We were here from September 1997-April 1998 for our DTS training before heading to Papua New Guinea. Not much has changed other than a few new buildings. A lot of memories have come back since arriving. This is the wet time of the year so it is exceptionally humid. Most of the rain has been falling after dark with beautiful hot sunny days.

Darwin a quite an interesting place. It is possibly the most laid back city in the world. It is common to see someone in the grocery store doing their shopping bare footed. It's a very slow paced community which we like just fine!!

The social issues of the aboriginal are evident around town. Its common to see them drunk and/or sleeping on sidewalks, fighting, etc... We are thankful for the awesome opportunity we have to start work with the up and coming generation of Tiwi aboriginal youth on Melville Island.

Darwin has had a couple of tragic events where the city was flattened twice last century. In world war II the Japanese bombed Darwin with about 60 bombing raids. On Christmas Eve 1974 Cyclone "Tracy" moved across Darwin with the strongest winds ever reported on Mainland Australia. The devastation was horrific.
Today Darwin of course has been rebuilt and is a very friendly, beautiful city. It's been fun for Linda and I to travel around town via bus and get reacquainted with the area. We have also caught up with some friends here which has been a wonderful time. It's hard to believe 10 years have gone by???
On Friday we had an opportunity to travel to a College named Woolaning Christian College located about two hours outside of Darwin. We had a wonderful time there with the staff as they shared their knowledge of the work to help us prepare for the work we will do at Tiwi College. We will also make a return trip to Woolaning on Monday for a training course before flying out on Tuesday to Tiwi College.
We thank everyone for their prayer. We know as we go over to the island we will face some very difficult challenges. We have heard that it has been at least 20 years since a Tiwi youth has graduated a secondary school and possibly even high school!
We heard we should have Internet on the island in about two weeks so we will make contact asap. Love ...Bill & Linda

Flying out today

Later on today we will be flying out to Darwin, Australia. We leave Denver at 5:35 pm with a stop in LA and Sydney before arriving to Darwin on Monday 1:35 pm their time (Sunday night USA time).

We have had a wonderful time here in Colorado with our children and grandchildren! It's been good spending quality time with them. There is a rush of emotions as we leave today. We will miss our family but we are excited about our new work in Australia.

We have learned that we won't be flying out to the island for about 8 days after our arrival to Darwin. We are thankful we will have time to acclimate to the very hot weather and the drastic time change. One of those days we will go to a NTSCA school in an area called Woolaning in the outback to tour and chat with staff there. We are excited about that being it will help us to understand their program before we begin our work at Tiwi College. Tiwi College is a new facility just opening with much more construction to be completed.

We continue to hear that the monsoonal rains have been exceptionally heavy. Construction has temporarily halted. The children's classes are being held under a roof with no walls with mud everywhere. Good thing the dry season is just around the corner! The children are having trouble settling in to a educational enviornment and structure with a lot of disciplinary issues. We have also heard stories of water Buffalo and wild horses around the landing strip area with the pilots needing to be exceptionally careful as they maneuver in to land. Definitely sounds like we are in for quite an adventure! As crazy as it sounds... we are looking forward to digging in!

Thanks for all your prayers as we go!!