Sausage on the Barbie (SP?)

Its about 10:30pm on Tuesday here.

Today was amazing! We headed to the office a little earlier and made it about on time. We used the most efficient route which seemed a lot shorter than the one we took yesterday. The morning was spent working on our personal goals. I also worked on writing an article for Lutheran Community Care's(LCC) newsletter about us. We have also decided to try to apply for an American grant to work with the aboriginal population in the Northern Territory and took some time to start looking at the requirements for that. The history between the European population and the Native population here is similar to that of the US. Long ago the white population intervened in the Native populations to try to provide services, but it was decided that they were interveneing too much and the government pulled out of the aboriginal territories completely. Unfortunately, it seems that they've actually left a void and a people who are not able to receive services that they need. As a part of this the aboriginal areas are no longer provided services to their area such as those that our organization provides. We're hoping that through this we might actually provide a lasting program. We also did a little research into taking a trip (or Holiday as they call it) to Central Australia to see things like Ayer's rock and what we would call the outback. Helene and Helen were amazed when we found that we could fly to Alice Springs from here for about 80-90 dollars. They are suprised enough that they are thinking about joining us. We still have to explore the other expenses involved, but it seems like such a great deal since it usually costs around $200. I suppose I should mention as well that this is Australian Dollars, which convert somewhere around $0.60 USD to the 1 Australian Dollar.

We were also somewhat disappointed to find that there was an article published in the Wartburg newspaper about our trip which misquotes us quite frequently and portrays our semester as something entirely different. So if anyone reads that article, just know that this is our reaction to it.

Helen and Helene organizaed a barbeque and invited other staff and members of the community for us to meet. There were about 20 people that decided to come. We went to the store to get food and then came back to begin preparing the food. It is interesting that they have supermarkets like we do in the US, but most often they go to the fruit and vegetable shops, bakeries, and butchers to get those specific products. They also don't have Hershey's chocolate here. We've also discovered that they sell Kangaroo meat at some places.

I thought this picture might give some faces to put to names. I realize it is small, but its something. This is us starting to prepare the salads and fruit. From the Left is Rose, who works as the assistant to the Director of the organization. I honestly don't know who is directly behind her. The next person to the right of them is Morgan, who has her back to the camera. Directly at the end of the counter is Helene. To her right is Emily, who we will be working with spending time at a Domestic Violence shelter nearby. The person farthest to the right is Helen, whom we have had the most contact and is taking very good care of us. At the store we bought some Australian candy to use for dessert. The barbeque was very nice and we all sat around and talked until almost 9pm. Before we knew it the room was being cleaned up and we decided to walk back home. Tomorrow is an even earlier morning, but it will bring new things to try.