Around home.....

Okay...so not ALL the pictures here are from the house...but most are! The first ones you will see, however, are of Sam's first Northern territory fishing trip which he took with some of the other teachers and their friends. Mandy opted not to go since it was the middle of the day, blazing hot...and well...she doesn't like fishing... but Sam had fun and got some great photos. This was just between Beswick, where we live, and Barunga, which is the community 'down the street'. It's a little early in the year for fishing but our friend Ryan managed to temporarily snag a nice Barramundi (which then took off with his lure). We are both excited to keep trying! Barramundi is one nice meal!!!!!!

Next we have more pictures of....the dog! Well we know some of you may not be that excited about more Snoopy pictures but he provides us with hours of mindless entertainment and we occasionally have fun making him look ridiculous ...which you will see below!

Weee!!!! Superdog!

Sam actually volunteered to wash, dry, and clip Snoopy...wonders never cease!

Yes...that's dog fluff that floated into his hair....he's not amused

Post-cut!!! Yes...he has a mohawk! Now we just need a leather collar with spikes and we're good!

And finally, for those who were wondering, here are some photos from the inside of our house after we got all our stuff delivered. Unfortunately the green granny couches were already here so we had to keep them...and the walls are a little bare...but all in all, we have all our stuff and we are happy to be at home!

So not the most exciting pictures for those of you wanting to get more info on the school and community. Mandy is taking the camera to school next Monday so she can get pictures of the camp dogs and Sam's classroom and stuff.... again...you probably won't see any pictures of the Aboriginal people we work with on here, but we will try and get some good blackmail photos of the other teachers! Check ya soon!

Oh.....did we mention that Mandy made the most delicious cake ever? Well she did! And here is the recipe...because everyone should make one!!!!

Blackberry Cake with Maple Icing:

3 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cloves

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1 large egg and 1 egg white

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup blackberry jam (seedless if possible)

1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup buttermilk (or 1 cup regular milk mixed with 1 tbsp vinegar)

1/2 cup powdered sugar

2 tbsp plus 1-2 tsp maple syrup

Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly grease a bundt pan.

In one bowl, stir together flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, cloves and salt.

In another large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat together sugar, oil, egg and egg white, and vanilla. Beat in jam and applesauce. Gradually add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately, beginning and ending with flour, beating on medium after each addition. Pour into bundt pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack for 10 minutes. Turn the cake out onto the rack and let cool completely, about an hour. Transfer to a cake plate.

Mix powdered sugar with 2 tbsp maple syrup. Stir more syrup in drop by drop until icing is pourable but not too thin. Drizzle over cake. Slice and enjoy!!!!

Darwin to Beswick.....

SO HERE IT IS!!!!! AN UPDATE!!!! (and you thought we had neglected this poor blog). No siree! Here we are with all sorts of news and a heap of pictures to match!

First...let's go back to after the Alice Springs incident, after Daly Waters....that leads up to...oh yea! Darwin!!!!

So in Darwin we stayed at the Travelodge Mirimbeena Resort (Paid for by the Dept of Education...thank you very much!)! Ritzy place, great food, expensive as heck and they tried to rip us off....(but that is a box we won't open right now)!

We didn't get many pictures from Darwin because well.....we didn't see a whole lot. Sam was so busy getting shipped from this training to that training, from this dinner to that lunch meeting that Mandy almost never saw him. Plus we were completely broke and everything cool and touristy of course costs money... so Mandy spent days on end in the gym, swimming in the pool, and watching new episodes of Chuck (love that show!). Mandy did venture out one day to the Darwin museum, which was a total find! It is free to get in and has several art galleries plus several rooms with dinosaur bones and rocks and all those other things you typically find in a museum! There were also no pictures from the museum because even though she lugged our 2-ton new camera (okay..that's major exaggeration) around, every room she entered had a big "NO PHOTOS" sign posted at the entrance! But the museum was AWESOME! You'll just have to take my word and see it yourself someday!

Sam and I did venture out one day to head out to the beach in Darwin. Although swimming sounded delightful in the hot, sticky climate....Darwin waters are off-limits unless you want to get stung by jellyfish (including several of the 'box' variety) or eaten by a crocodile....fun. So we just played in the sand a bit and were able to experience first hand how quick rainstorms come on during 'the wet'

P.S. For all the non-Aussies....the Northern Territory has 2 seasons...the wet and the dry. One is characterised by massive rainfall, floods, etc and the other is when everything is dry and brown....yin and yang.....

Blue skies...nice walk on the beach....

Looking towards Darwin from the beach....

Exact same view towards Darwin 10 minutes later...not even joking!!! RUN!!!

But on the plus side...Darwin has coconut trees! A friend from church found one that had fallen and we cracked it open and ate fresh coconut! Ahhh...that is the life mon! (She says in a Jamaican accent)

Yet another time Sam managed to sneak away was after a dinner they held for all the new teachers. They ate at the Parliament House, so Mandy joined up with Sam afterwards to get some pics....

Front entrance to Parliament House

Parliament House in all it's glory

View from the Parliament House looking onto the ocean

On a side note...the one other AMAZING thing we did in Darwin is walk out to the wharf and eat dinner. This time we just didn't take the camera, because from our motel it is one major walk! Anyway...the wharf is an absolute must if you are in Darwin! There are several great restaurants and little shops plus live entertainment most nights and seating overlooking the ocean! PLUS....one restaurant serves kangaroo burgers, buffalo burgers, and CROC burgers....of which Sam partook of the latter...and it was GOOD! White meat...similar to chicken...but tasty! Yum!

The next part of our journey was to Katherine which is the nearest shopping hub to our community. And of course there was more training... but this time they let me partake and they set us up in another awesome motel! Sweet! The most exciting part of Katherine? GECKOS!!!

Smile...it's a close up!

Sam catching one...he got it...then it peed on him! Good times!

And....drumroll please..... the part you've all been waiting for!!!! Here are pictures from our new home! Now we know most everyone wants to see more of the community than what is actually posted here but Sam and I need to be sensitive to the beliefs and culture of the Aboriginal people. This means that we cannot take pictures of any people or their personal dwellings without permission...and even then we can't post the pictures on the internet without specific permission to do so! Sorry guys! If you want more pictures when we get them, leave us your email and we'll send you some.... but we ask you to please respect the community's wishes as well and keep them for your personal viewing only. We may not fully understand it and it may be a little annoying, but they make an effort to respect our beliefs and so we ask you do the same for them!

The 'highway' out to Beswick or Wugularr. (Yes, that is a one lane road and yes the speed limit in 110...party on!)

Our new casa! Notice the height... that's flood protection baby! We are actually sans most of our stuff at the moment because the wet season makes transport hard but we'll take more pics of inside when we're furnished! It's actually a really great house! Practically brand new and great a/c (Hallelujah!)

Just after we moved in we got a great thunder / lightning storm. We tried for ages to get the lightning but kept missing it. The sky looks pretty neat though...oh! and if you look in the top right corner of the second shot you'll see the very tip of a lightning bolt!!!! Someday we'll get a good one...there are plenty of storms to practice on!

It's been pretty full-on since we moved! We had a staff meeting the day after we got to our new house and then school started 2 days later! And yes, I said 'we'. Although we originally thought Mandy would have to pick up some incredibly time consuming hobby or get a job an hour away to stay occupied, the principal here had hired her part-time and has given her the jobs of office manager, school librarian, school science coordinator, and school art coordinator...I don't think boredom will be a problem!

It's been 2 weeks since we started and we absolutely LOVE it here! The community is great! The people are great and the kids are the most adorable, happy, curious, wonderful children we have ever met. Although they struggle with understanding and sticking the 'western' rules (like sitting down in a chair, facing forward and paying attention.....which is something they NEVER have to do outside of school), they are true delights to get to know! We have never met a more open and warm group of people. We are very happy and feel infinitely blessed to be living among these great people. We know there will be struggles and fights and there with be days when we will want to break down... but all in all...this is once in a lifetime experience among a culturally rich and beautiful people and we are ready to embrace every bit of it...for better or worse!

Below we have added some pictures from the area just surrounding the community. It is gorgeous now that we are in the wet and there are some amazing things to see!!!!

Hey....the people here may not have snow, but they know how to make the most of what they do have

(this one is carved into a very large termite mound)

Yes...look for people...EVERYWHERE! Walking beside the road, walking across the road, sitting on the road, camping near the road, napping smack dab in the middle of the road (at night)... we've seen it all!

That's it for now.... We are out on a mission to get some good shots of the camp dogs for you. There are about a hundred living in this community...no one owns them, no one in particular feeds them, they collectively belong to everyone and noone at the same time. They just breed within themselves and with the local dingo population and POOF! You have a ton of stray dogs everywhere...in every shape, size and color...it is truly something to see! We'll also see if we can get some pictures of the school and maybe the other staff if they are feeling photogenic!

Keep checking! We'll continue to try and update as regularly as we can!