Our first 10 week school term at Tiwi College has completed and we are off on a 4 week break. Our first week will be spent in Wewak, Papua New Guinea helping Life FM with their 5 day, on air Share-A-Thon. We are looking forward to our time there. Those of you who know us well know that PNG has been a big part of our lives and is still very much on our hearts. It will be good to see our PNG friends once again!
Our last week at Tiwi College was extremely busy and tense. The boys were very restless the last week and were definitely ready for their school Holidays. The students and staff are definitely in need of a break as well!! This particular school break is known around the Tiwi Islands as “Bush Holiday”. It’s the time of the year when the Tiwi people camp out bush to fish and hunt. It’s interesting that most Australian Aboriginals are traditionally “hunters and gathers” while most people in PNG are farmers and very good ones at that. The PNG people are thought to be the world’s earliest farmers. The Tiwi people will hunt mostly Wallaby (small kangaroos) and water buffalo over the “Bush Holiday”. They will also do a lot of fishing. The biggest sought after fish on the islands is the Barramundi. Barramundi is a very good eating fish and fun to catch.
Also during this last week the Four Corners program aired across Australia on Monday. The 4 Corners program has been airing for about 50 years here in Australia and is a well respected news program similar to 60 minutes. They did a special story called, “Educating Kimberly” which for the most part reflected what Tiwi College is doing on the Tiwi Islands. It was for the most part a positive report concerning Tiwi College but the report revealed much of the negative social and educational issues concerning the Tiwi people. You can catch a streaming broadcast of the airing here… http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2008/s2273093.htm Linda and I are in it a little.
We will be arriving back to Australia from PNG on July 1st and will spend some time in Cairns, Queensland, Australia before heading back to Darwin and Pickertaramoor. Our time in Cairns will be a time of resting so we will be fully refreshed when we go back to start school term #3.
Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we travel and for the radio work in PNG. We will add to our blog again once we return from PNG on July 1st.
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