Today we did our rotations in the community. Now every student and teacher has worked in the Creche, the Community Centre and the Spirituality Centre.
We started the day with the Emu's cooking breakfast. It was interesting. We ended up with some pretty thin crepes instead of pancakes when "someone" added too much water to the shaker. But the stawberries and banana and maple syrup were very delicious so nobody much minded! With full bellies we headed off to our third rotations.
Vanessa, Olivia and Eden headed into the Creche for the morning. On arrival there were only 2 kids there but by lunchtime there were about a dozen. The girls did craft with the students, played in the yard and played inside. Today was quite warm - a balmy and sunny 20 degrees by lunchtime so the Creche were taking advantage of the warmer weather.
Meanwhile Mrs Monk (J) , Alissa, Emily and Elizabeth (EV) headed into the Community Centre. The centre is community owned and provides salaried jobs for the staff working there. They provide meals each day including a main meal, dessert, 2 slices of bread and a breakfast pack with oats, powdered milk and tea and sugar for the elderly in the community. The other groups have helped prep vegetables then packed the breakfast packs. Sonia must have realised she had a hospitality student and a teacher who enjoys cooking as she set us to work in the kitchen. J & EV made the bechamel sauce and prepared potatoes and veggies for the clients who don'/can't have pasta, while Alissa and Emily followed a recipe and made 2 beautiful Orange cakes, zesting and juicing oranges for the batter. We even had a morning tea break and watched the Matilda's in the soccer on SBS with the staff.
After cooking the meals they are portioned and put in paper bags for delivery. Enter Trevor our driver for day. We piled into the "troopy" with the meals and went on delivery. We saw lots of the Old Town and newer areas and Trev would warn us if the owners had a dog who was "cheeky". At one house he said he would deliver the meal as the dogs were "naughty". It was certainly an experience to see the housing situation in the area.
Mr Horder, Sienna, Gabriella and Xandra went to the Spirituality centre to learn about the art works and how the women express their culture. All week as we visit the centre we have been "putting aside" the things we want to purchase. The table was looking very full this afternoon which should make the staff happy.
After our slow cooked pumpkin soup and cheese toasties for lunch we got some washing done and at 2pm met Sr Liz at the Spirituality Centre to learn about the history of the community and the issues facing the community today.
Santa Teresa was established as a Catholic mission in the 1950’s to house Aboriginal people who mostly came from the Alice Springs region.The Saint Terese mission was started by the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart at Arltunga was moved to Santa Teresa in 1953 after some men and priests had come to the area from Arltunga to build a new church. Once established it included a Mission school and dormitories which accommodated Aboriginal boys and girls aged 5 to 17 years. Hospital care was also provided. Children would live in he town and go to school and return to their families who mostly lived traditional lifestyles on the weekends. Because of this few were affected by the Stolen Generation. Now it has a school, a clinic, Catholic Care, Centalink, a Community store and a police station. Sr Liz has been here over 10 years working in the parish and with the community.
As explained by Sr Liz the biggest issues facing the community is Housing as many homes have up to 4 generations living in a 2-3 bedroom home. The conditions of the housing and he lack of maintenance from the Housing authority leads to disease and absences from work and school. She told us of one member of the community who waited nearly 6 months for their only toilet to be fixed and had to use a neighbours bathroom for the whole time.
Another challenge is employment - in remote communities there are not a lot of jobs and if a vacancy in a job becomes available it is snapped up. Jobs in the school as a teachers aide, in the council, or in the clinic are the most highly sort after. People who don't have a job have to "work for the dole" and up until recently that meant 5 hours a day, 5 days a week to qualify. Hence the work in the Spirituality centre or Men's Shed.
Finally another challenge is Income Management. Since the governments "stronger future" program came in all Centalink payments go half onto a basics card which limits what can be purchased and half into an account. People here have to prepay for electricity with a Power card and if they run out of power after the store shuts on Friday you can't get another until Monday morning. Families struggle to afford white goods like washing machines and Fridges and can only purchase them on layby over many months. They will usually go without for a longtime. Sr told us how she has made an arrangement with the women in the Spirituality centre for the last few weeks to hold their pay to save it up for them as they will all take their families into Alice for the show next Friday.
Sr Liz's talk was very confronting for our very comfortable students, who all have their own bed and bedroom and made them realise how luck they are to live how and where they do.
Tonight the Goanna's cooked us Taco's for dinner and Apple pie and Ice cream for desert. We played charades and laughed. It's been an eye opening day so lots of students (and teachers!) are ready for bed and some journalling.
Must say it is very freeing to not be able to receive messages or emails! I'm sure they will all be waiting when we come back into service on Friday afternoon!
Much love to our families and friends and apologies to Elizabeth and Olivia's parents if their downloads are too high. We need to hotspot to even do the blog!
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