Lockhart cont.

After 5 days in Canberra I flew back to Cairns, where I had to attend a 3 day inservice on Classroom profiling (this relates to behaviour management). Then on Thursday it was back to Lockhart and a few changes. I am now working in a 3/4/5 class with Julia, a first year and we both have days were we do other jobs so we have 1 day both in class and then parts of other days. We have 17 very lively kids and some with very big ATTITUDE! so it is going to be an interesting class! My first week back was broken up with a celebration here called Foundation Day which is a public holiday, teachers had a professional development day. Foundation Day is celebration and rememberance of moving the Lockhart community to its present site from the old Lockhart site in 1969. They remember the old people  and lives left behind at the old site. This was also the time some families resettled up at Umagico, near Bamaga. The day was celebrated with games and activities and a barbeque at the beach.

While games were played on the beach, the local children swam with the crocs (one has been sighted regularly on this beach) and the jelly fish!

Some of the local teachers and partners, check out the 'oldfellow' up in the covered area!

Local dancing- 'shake leg'

That evening we attend a traditional feast as part of the day's celebration. Yes, there was turtle, dugong, fish and local  wild pig served up with rice and salad. The evening finished with more dancing. This was much closer to the islander style dancing and really brought back some memories of up north for Ron and I. It was a late night, but worth it!

 It continues to rain most days in Lockhart, mostly falls of 20 - 30mls, usually about lunch time each day. So at the moment we aren't going out much further than the beach as the rivers and creeks go up and down and you can get caught out.  The dogs enjoy their visit to the beach once a week and its nice to get down there and go for a walk.

The church hall decorated for the feast.