Back in Darwin for a week

April 9th, 2008
Well, it’s been more than two weeks since we have made an addition to the journal. We still don’t have Internet but we have been told it will be installed on April 11th. We are on school break until April 15th and we had an opportunity to spend a little time in Darwin during the break so we are here in Darwin. During this time in Darwin we are shopping for needs for our new family group home. We just finished up four days of professional development which has been very helpful for our preparation. We will be returning back to the island on the 11th which will give us a couple of days to prepare the new house for the new term. More on that later on in this entry.
Easter weekend was very good on the island. We had our own service at one of the family group homes and one of the teachers preached at the service. He is a former pastor and the message he shared was excellent!
It’s been really good to live in community again. There are a great bunch of staff and we have been blessed to have the opportunity to spend time with them during these first couple of weeks here.
We have had opportunity to begin to build relationships with some of the students as well during our first bit of acclimation time here. We learned that we will be working with the boys which we are happy about. There has been some change in plans since we arrived. Originally, our family group home was to be complete by the end of April and at that time we would take a new intake of boys to the college. Until that time we would mentor a couple who has never done this before whose group home will be complete by the beginning of the new term. The plan has changed because one of the house parent couples gave notice to terminate which left a void in the girl’s house. Instead of mentoring the couple in the boy’s house, we will now take the boy’s house on our own and mentor the other couple in the girl’s house as time avails. Hope this isn’t too confusing!!
The house in absolutely beautiful! It is very large somewhere around 3 or 4000 sq feet! It has a huge central great room which includes the kitchen and dinning room. It has 2 large bedrooms at each end of the house for the boys (6 each in a room) with a bathroom in each. It has a spacious house parent suite. It also has a large roof covered additional recreational room outside. We of course are very excited about the new house and Linda is already having fun with decoration ideas around the house. The house is constructed to withstand a category 5 cyclone (hurricane). It’s all thick brick with a welded steel roof construction. Cyclones happen here so it is good to know we are prepared.
We definitely need your prayer as we start this new term being the boys have had a very difficult start here at the school. The last week of last term several boys acted out by throwing rocks, swinging sticks, near fights along with nasty verbal gestures, etc... Many times disputes will carry on here from their communities and there will be divisions among them. There are no communities anywhere near the campus. In fact the nearest community is at least a 2 day’s walk from the school. This has been planned so that the students can focus on their education without distractions from their communities. We are literally working in the most remote school in the world! The students here have had very little discipline or structure in their lives so all of this will take time to develop. It will be a challenge but we are thankful we have the opportunity to help to have an influence in their lives.
Internet is coming to the campus and the talk is that it will be installed before the next term starts. We will then be able to make fresh entries instead of waiting until we are off the island. The next school term will last 10 weeks in which we expect to be on the island the entire time. On Monday the day before the term starts, we will fly to a couple aboriginal communities to meet with the students and their families before the term starts the following day. This time is important as we follow up with the students and families before school starts and it is time to build relationships which is critical in this culture.
We will have much more as the school term moves into full swing. Please keep us in your prayer being we know we are in for a challenge with the boys. Thanks
Culture shock has been a non issue for us for the most part. We are excited to be back to this part of the world and working with indigenous people again. I guess if there is one thing that we are trying to get used to is the Water Buffalo in the area. These animals are huge and make a cow look small. I was taking my morning walk one morning and literally felt the ground vibrate as one stomped off through the bush. I didn't see him but what else would give that effect? I had a feeling like I was living in Jurassic park! I changed my walking route after that. More later...