Media and more!

Yes, it been another very busy week here for us. On Tuesday, the Minister of education (3rd down from the Prime Minister) visited along with a group of dignitaries from Canberra, leaders from the Northern Territory government, leaders from the Tiwi Islands and plenty of media personal for the official opening of the family group homes here on campus. We were interviewed by the “Melbourne Age” (a large newspaper in Melbourne which is the second largest city in Australia). The article hit the paper on the 21st. It was a very positive article which was encouraging. One funny thing in the article was the reporter said, “we are from Tennessee and have southern accents”!! Quite funny!
I was also interviewed by the “4 Corners” program media. The special on Tiwi College will be airing sometime next month.
It was a very stressful couple of days for us as we prepared the house being we were the host house. We had in excess of 60 people on our covered porch area for the celebration and some tours around the home. We were glad when all of this was over.

Overall we had a great week with the boys. We are seeing steady progress and it is encouraging to see the boys settle down into a routine around the house. We are working to make them feel safe and loved as the Tiwi College culture is developed.

We were very surprised yesterday when our leadership asked if we would like a weekend in Darwin to rest in a nice Hotel expenses paid by the college! What a huge blessing!!! We will spend two nights in Darwin and return on Monday morning to start another week. Of course Linda will like the shopping opportunities and we will both enjoy some meals out to local restaurants. Darwin is a beautiful city and we always enjoy our time there.

Here’s a couple of tidbits we came across this week with the students that made us laugh and/or shake our heads….

On Monday as I was picking up the students from Milikapiti for the week, one of the young ladies told me that her brother has a Dingo for a pet. I then asked if he bites? She replied, “only if he’s hungry”!!!!

Another one was… during class, one of the boys was struggling to sit and participate. He then left the classroom setting and went to the bathroom and used a piece of soap to scribble a four letter word on the mirror. The interesting thing is that he spelled the four letter word wrong!! Needless to say this student is struggling with his reading and writing skills and really needed to get back to class!

Keep us, the staff and students at Tiwi College in your prayers. Thanks