Travelling
Ok so on Sunday the 20th October the big journey to the APY lands Started. AT the airport I met up with another girl who was going to the lands as well. Boarding the plane without my parents or a friend was strange, even though I knew exactly what to do. The flight to Alice Springs was about 2 hours. A few weeks before I had fallen down some stairs and bruised my Coccyx, so sitting in a small chair with a person on either side of me was a bit uncomfortable. Thankfully they had TV’s so I forced myself to watch about an hour of ‘Grand Designs’ and tried to really care about the special windows that were being put in the house. I know right. Then I watched ‘Modern Family’ and that took my mind off the pain for a bit. Flying over South Australia was amazing to see. It looked like a great big patchwork blanket in some places. Different coloured squares and circles-brown, green, yellow.
We had to wait in Alice Springs for about an hour and its lucky we were inside as temperature was said to be 40 degrees. We felt the heat when we stepped off the plane and walked on the tarmac to the arrivals gate. As we walked inside a wall of cool air hit us… and it felt good.
Flying from Alice Springs to Ayes Rock or Uluru or even Yulura (as that is the place where the rock is) was again amazing to see. The land was dryer and again in some places it looked like a patchwork blanket only with different shades of brown. At one point we were flying over some land that had huge cracks in it. Because everything else was so tiny from up in the sky, like the roads and houses etc, looking at these cracks made it feel like we were only just flying above them because they were so big. We were only in the air for about 20 mins (excluding take off and our descent). They gave out a small snack of crackers, cheese and an apple and I had barely gotten through my apple when they announced we were descending and were coming to get our rubbish. I didn’t see Uluru from the air but I saw it when we landed from a distance. It just looked like a big black mass.
Myself and the other girl met up with Jane* went to the local shops to stock up on food we would need until we got to our communities. Jane* drove us around Uluru and it really was amazing to see up close. It was about 2 hours to Amata, where we stayed over night and had a BBQ with the other teachers. Before leaving Yulura Jane* said that there were two ways to get to Amata. One way was smooth and a bit boring and the other was beautiful to see, but very bumpy- we chose the beautiful way. Now when Jane* said bumpy I didn’t realize just how bumpy it was. The only way I can describe it, is that if you are a female you would need a really supportive bra to travel that way. The other girl who came up is staying there for the two weeks and will come to Murputja at some point to have a look around. On Monday the 21st, I went to the Amata Anagnu Preschool for the morning to have a look. It looked like a preschool in Adelaide in some ways and in some ways it was different. The children are absolutely beautiful, both in looks and personality. Just the way they look at things and are so inquisitive about things is just wonderful to see and to share in that curiosity with them was great. At about 11:30am Myself and Jane* set off to go to Murputja.
It was about an hours drive to Murptja from Amata and the landscape was again beautiful. Arriving in Murputja was completely different to arriving in Amata. Amata is a community where both white people and the Aboriginal people live, Murputja is where the teachers and police live and then the Aboriginal people live in two communities not far from Murputja. Murptja School is gorgeous. It’s nestled in a little valley and I can not wait to get out and explore the area. The school is small with no more than say 30-40 students, if that, and only around 5 teachers with a one or two other staff….I think. I(t’s only the first day so I am not sure what everyone does around the school yet). This afternoon I got to see the preschool and meet the teacher Jess*. The preschool has had a lot of work done to it and will have more done during the term. Again the children are beautiful and welcoming of this new stranger in their school. They were interested in my jewelry and when they were doing some drawings one little boy kept asking me to look each time he added something to his picture. I felt a bit special.
I think that it is all for now. It is hard to write about stuff when I haven’t really done anything yet. Also I am very tired from traveling, I know that is a weak excuse but I am. Hopefully when I get into the swing of things I will be bale to write some more riveting stuff about what I have done and how I am feeling about it all.
Sheri :)