day 7

Goodmorning to all

Final day yesterday was a day loaded with emotion!! To see our students saying goodbye and goodbye and goodbye, photos and hugs and hi fives and 'hands in cheers' at the school brought amazing thiughts to the surface. Our kids loved every minute of their time with the Kurrawang mob. And as I write this, the words seem hollow in comparison to what we felt yesterday as we drove away. The Kurrawang teachers were overwhelmed with all that was accomplished and look forward to meeting up with us later this year.

The evening was capped off with a terrific swim in Kalgoorlie Oasis Recreation Centre. The warmth of the water was lovely to swim in and the facility was quite beatiful. Much nicer than we have in Perth! Instead of everyone going their own separate ways, it was nice to see everyone joining in a game of 'tag'. After a quick relax in the spa (total of 9 in at one time) and warm showers it was time to hit the road home. A slide show of photos taken over the week and part two of our movie finished the night off perfectly.

Our bus trip home really only began about 20 minutes ago but already we have raucous laughter from the staff, a total of 12 students playing 'Mario 64' on Nintendo WiFi at the same time with the rest are just tuning out with their own music.

We really want to express our thanks to God who has enabled each one of us to do all that was required. It would not have been possible otherwise. Look forward to seeing all our families soon.  Appoximate ETA is 4.30/5pm this afternoon. Please allow your son/daughter to tell all their stories and share their experiences, some will be more tired than others. The transition into normal life again will be a challenge that they wiill need your love and suppport.

day 6

Hi everyone,
I am writing tonight's blog racing against time. The whole block surrounding us has just gone black out, NO POWER!!! .......and we were just getting into our movie for the night!!:((( Real Steel!! Hugh Jackman!! Part two tomorrow night.
Today was another fabulous day. We had so much happening it was truly remarkable to stand back and watch our kids do so well. Team 'Double Trouble' (Dave and Tony) were true soldiers by working through the night to paint the second classroom.This really put us in front for the day and brought a huge smile to our friend Kerryn. The 12's prepped the whole job last night by emptying an incredibly busy junior primary room. The ten's showed up and coming manliness when the concrete truck arrived. Ben the trady showed some brilliant moves with the wheelbarrow. The pathway was nicely finished off with a few tiles and they showed it off perfectly.  The garden is really taking shape now and the kids keep on having to make up excuses to leave their desks to check out the progress.
Our dinner comprised of lovely beef Rogan Josh complete with crunchy pappadums. Our nght activity was fraught with surprises courtesy of the Beachman.  We finally ended up with our movie and popcorn.
Tomorrow promises to be a terrific ending to a fantastic week. I think we might even witness some tears. The Kurrawang mob have become good friends with our kids and it was superb to walk past little groups this afternoon interacting with such ordinary ease. Girls were being girls and boys were being boys. It was super.
 Lots of love to you all xxxx
Mrs Barham and Miss Taylor.

Day 5

Hi Everyone,

Today after another very cold night in Coolgardie we woke up to breakie at 7:00am. We all ate really quickly and quietly, then rushed upstairs and made sure we were on the bus by 7:30am.  For some people that is really easy, for others it takes a bit of extra time to get moving.  As soon as we reached Kurrawang we did morning devotions which included a drama and songs about talents.  The kids really enjoyed it and they even sung us a favourite song - he is my everything. 

After that we began our normal rotations. The construction group made good progress getting the retic finished as well as the garden beds and the form work for the new concrete path that we are hoping to lay tomorrow if the concrete truck arrives on time. The blue metal arrived and is almost completely laid out. The maintenance group completed painting the whole first classroom including trusses and skirtings and are now preparing the second room. The teachers were really excited to choose the new colours for their classroom and they have chosen a variety of bright colours that the kids will love.

The classroom workers were involved in a dance and sing along in the afternoon. Once the kids had gone home we continued working and some of us began correctly organising the library shelves. We left the school at 4:30pm, leaving our year 12 leaders behind to do more maintenance work with mr Beacham. The year 10's then had showers and prepared our own dinner of hotdogs and salad. After dinner we left for our night activity and collected the leaders on the way. We went to glow in the dark indoor rock climbing. It was a different experience which we all found exciting. After the rockclimbing session we headed to Hungry Jacks for an ice-cream.

We are all exhausted and looking forward to a good nights sleep.

Shout outs:
Hey mum, having a great time away, doing lots of hard work, so tired, see you soon. Love you lots xoxox
Georgina

Day 4

It was rise and shine at 7am on the dot to Mr Beacham ordering us to be quick and ready for the day. After a big breakfast we got our hard working gear on and headed out to the bus to Kurrawang. As we got to the school we where introduced to the students and staff.

We had pre organised a play and devotions which consisted of singing and the drama play ''the good samaratin." The kids really enjoyed the play and singing allong as we did. Zion was a donkey in the play and he had to carry Jordan to a Inn, and on the way there, Zion the donkey dropped Jordan onto the floor which the kids had a good laugh about.

The day was long and hard but we pushed through it and had a great outcome. The veggie patch is coming along very well and the paint in one of the classrooms is finished its first coat.  The groups rotated through helping out in the classrooms both the kindy and the rest of the classrooms. For lunch time and recess we responsible for looking after the kids and we all played games such as football, bastekball and some games that the kids had made up themselves.

For dinner we all had meatballs with pasta and veggies, which was delicious.

Everyone was totally obliviouse to what we where going to do for our night activity (which is normal for Mr Beacham & Mr Prinsloo, we soon found out that it was boxing, we were pushed to our limits in a number of exercises. We all got taught how to shape up and defend ourselves and had a go at using the punching bags and lots of boxing techniques.

We are all sore and very tired from today's activities, but we have had a great day.  A good nights sleep is all on our minds as we ready ourselves for tomorrow.

By group 3 , Jordan, Naomi, Colin, Zion, Drew

Day 3

8:00 am wake up, Lovely!!
The smell of bacon, egg and baked beans fill the dining hall.
After the scrumptious meal we headed to the Kalgoorlie Baptist Church (KBC) for the 10am service. Upon arrival we were greeted by the extremely friendly community of Kalgoorlie locals. Which of course involved tea and cake :) After introducing ourselves we entered the auditorium and were greeted by Tom, the lead singer of the church. After some amazing singing Pastor Ash Palmer was invited to the stage and he talked about the heritage of the church, which was very cleverly done and was incredibly engaging.

Afterwards we all went to Hammond park where we enjoyed a sausage sizzle together and had some chill out time, playing footy and talking to friends. We somehow managed to get all three of our footy balls stuck up a tree which took a very long time to get back down again, throwing fire wood to get them down. After retrieving our footies we headed back to the bus and headed to Kurrawang to get a tour of the school that we will be helping for the next four days. It was a real eye opener, just to see the way that the locals live. I can tell you it is way way way different to living in the Perth suburbs.

After we finished the tour of Kurrawang we headed back to base camp, and had the privilege of getting to know the young people of the Coolgardie C.A.P.S, we played table tennis, basketball, football and just generally talked.

At 5:30pm we had dinner which consisted of Hamburgers and salad. After filling ourselves up we headed to a combined church service which was lead by Pastor Ash Palmer, and the main message of the service was that when becoming a Christian there are so many distractions in life. Afterwards we headed to base camp and began our debrief.

We cannot wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us as the real challenge of helping the school in Kurrawang starts.

Missing you Micah, and everyone else.
-From Caleb

To Michael Noppers
Hello everybody (Kaeloo)
-Sam N.

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well.  It is really amazing here especially seeing the super pit and a real bar of gold :)  I am missing you all heaps!! xx
-Blakke N.

Group 2 Blakke, Kurt, Sam, Claire, Caleb.

Changes to commenting on the blog

Dear parents and friends, 

The settings for commenting on the blog have been changed to allow anyone to send comments.  We look forward to reading your future comments.

Thanks

The Kurrawang 2012 team.

Day 2

Today we woke up at 7:30 after a freezing cold night to cereal for breakfast. After breaky, Miss Taylor gave us a tour around Coolgardie. She showed us the CAPS schools, allot of roads that led to no-where and the main streets of Coolgardie. We came back to the Hostel, quickly got dressed and hopped onto the bus.

After a short bus ride, we arrived in Kalgoorlie and hopped onto a tour bus and headed out towards the KCGM (Kalgoorlie Consolidated Gold Mine) Super Pit. The size of the trucks and the size of the pit made us feel smaller than ants. We stood at the lookout and took a few photos, and discovered how much work actually goes into mining. After the 'Super Pit', we went and had lunch at a nice park. At the park we saw emus, kangaroos, peacocks and a cockatoo that talked and copied what we did.

For lunch we had salad sandwiches with oreos and chips. Once we finished lunch, we headed off to a museum in Kalgoorlie. At the museum, Mr Prinsloo guided us around. Mr Prinsloo also told us that he used to be tour guide in South Africa but we weren't sure if he was joking. We walked through a working vault, where nuggets of gold are kept. We then walked through replica cottages of where miners would have lived in the 18 and 1900's. We left the museum and went to a candy store. A few of us bought coke in glass bottles and other types of soft drinks, as well as chocolates. We ate and drank our food on the way to the park. At the park, we all played on the swings and see-saw, having loads of fun doing jumps and flips off of the swings.

We left the park and went back onto the bus, and headed back to the hostel. When we got back to the hostel, we had showers and prepared for dinner. We are hoping dinner is going to be as good as lunch. Thanks Mrs Barham!