Playing Catch-UP!

Well it is now Monday and time to play catch up with our blogging. I still haven't heard any news on my computer, but am hopefully that I will get it back fully functioning this week.

On Friday we headed up to Renmark to help Julie Hahn with her workshop. She came to the office to pick us up and then we went with her home. We needed to wait for her daughter Tiarna to get home from school before we could leave. While we waited Gabby got games and things together to bring, and I attempted a puzzle that peaked my interest by being labeled as extremely hard. I was proud to finish it in about 20min, with a couple vital hints from Jesse (Julie's 16 yr old son).

The car ride to Renmark was about 3.5 hrs so we had plenty of time to chat on the way. Gabby ( 18yrs), Tiarna (14yrs) and I talked about accents and different ways of saying things between cultures for quite a bit on the way up. It is interesting to talk to the girls about things like this because they've both lived in the US for a bit. They were quite young, but they remember certain things that make it easier to talk about differences. One interesting thing about driving up to the riverlands is that there is a quarantine on fruits and veggies because they are working to continue to keep the fruit fly out of the riverlands. We stopped and threw away any fruits that we had and then continued on our way. We stopped in Berri to eat at Cafe Primo, mostly because of their free pancakes (which you may remember from a previous blog), but all of us were too full at the end of our main course to actually eat any pancake. When we arrived in Renmark we went straight to the school to help set up for the following day. Afterwards we went to the home where we would be staying and met our hosts Brian and Bron Shilling. (Bron is pronounced like Brawn, so I began to think of them as "Brains and Brawn" to help me remember). We tried to visit, but I was falling asleep and needed sleep since the next day would prove to be a long one.

On Saturday morning we made our way to the school around 8:30am to get everything ready for the day. The parents and children began arriving around 9am. Julie's workshop was about parenting, but the main role for me and Tiarna would be working with the childcare that was provided while the parents were with Julie. Morgan attended the sessions and Hilary was with Helene in Adelaide. There were 11 kids from baby to about 9years old. There was a huge spectrum of different behaviours. We did some arts and crafts and some outdoor play with them to amuse them throughout the day. We were by far the youngest volunteers. There were many volunteers who were retirement aged and worked mostly with food and supervision. It was great to see their desire to be involved. They obviously found what was going on important for the community. In the afternoon Tiarna and I went and sat in on the 2nd half of the parenting session which talked about the 5 Languages of Love and how it connected to parenting. I found it really interesting to connect the two, especially since I am familiar with the 5 Languages of Love, having read the book for myself earlier this year. Sitting in on the session it further proved the unfortunate truth that the majority of parents that seek out help in parenting skills are the ones that already have the right idea. It doesn't make what is being done any less meaningful, but it does make one think about how they might approach reaching out to some of the parents that clearly need the help but aren't coming forward for it.

At the end of the day we helped clean up things and load them back in the van. We went to Brian and Bron's house to pick up our bathers (swimming suits) and headed to the motel for a swim. It was really refreshing. We didn't have too long though, before it was time to head back to the house to get ready for tea (supper). Julie decided to stay at the motel and rest after her long day, but Gabby and Tiarna chose to come along to a restaurant with Brian and Bron. We ate at a nice hotel restaurant which has a great reputation in the town. I had fish and chips, but Morgan was brave and decided to try Kangaroo Fillet. Of course she let me try a bite.

I was also quite amused by the different types of Tomato Sauce (Ketchup) packets that they had. You simply folded them and squeezed and the sauce poured out. It was amazing. The Kangaroo meat was very similar to steak, but it was definitely leaner. Apparently, there is no cholesterol in it whatsoever. I suppose I can't say the same for my Fish and Chips.

After supper we walked along the Murray River and looked for Possums. We found a bunch of them who were quite tame. We even got to feed them! You'll have to forgive the sideways pictures, I can't get them turned around today for some reason.

A woman gave us a strawberry to try to feed the possum, but it didn't actually like the one I had. It kept dropping it to the ground and then wouldn't fully grab it after a while. We made our way back to the house and went to bed pretty much right away.

On Sunday morning we went to church with Brian and Bron at their church, St. Johns Lutheran. From there Julie, Gabby, and Tiarna met us and we left from there to go home. Our trip was quite exciting though, as we decided to make a bunch of "touristy" stops. The thing we did, was drive to the border of Victoria, which is a bordering state. This is the state where all of the bush fires that you may have heard about have been going on. We took plenty of funny pictures of us half in and out of the state and such.

Our next stop was actually back in Renmark, since we needed to be going the other direction to actually get back to Adelaide. It was lunch time! We got Subway sandwiches and for lack of a better place to eat them, stopped and had a picnic in the median of the highway. At this meal I also had my first taste of Farmers Union Iced Coffee. Yummy!

When we finished eating we got back on the road. We stopped next at the World's Biggest Orange. Unfortunately the gate was locked. Later I found out this is most likely because the orange and the surrounding land has been sold. Oranges are a grown mostly in this area. Actually, in the pictures of our picnic the trees on the sides of the road are orange trees which are a part of the orange groves. It is clear when looking at them, though, that the drought has taken a serious toll on them.

Our next stop was the Monash Adventure Park. It was quite amazing. As you can see from the pictures below we had a lot of fun! There was even a maze!

The final stop that we made was at a chocolate shop, which has some amazing treats. Their specialty, though, was a hot chocolate with chili in it. I didn't think it would be to great of an idea to put more liquid in my on our road trip, so I opted to try a couple chocolates that had chili in them instead. They were amazing. But I don't think anyone else really enjoyed them as much as I did.

When we reached home it was just in time to stop at Helen's for tea. I practiced a bit with Tanya for the service that would be happening tonight. We headed over to the church to do a bit more practicing with the violinist and keyboard. I was able to get Hilary to video some bits of me singing so that mom and anyone else interested can see them. Hope you are able to enjoy them!

That seem to be all I've got for now, though. Just another day at the office today, spending most of the day getting this blog together. Hilary has been picked up, but is still feeling a bit under the weather. Hopefully she will be starting to feel better in the coming days. Tomorrow is an exciting day, since we can officially get ourselves moved out and into Helen's house to house sit for a bit.