This Old Man

Learning "This Old Man" is so much more fun with the right choreography!

The landscape

Can you see the moon above Uluru? It feels as though the moon is everywhere here, it is prominent and lights up a clear and amazing view of our milky way. There are no street lights in Docker River, which has made locating planets and observing the ever changing night sky an absolute joy. This week I am taking some students on a camp out along with an astronomer and a telescope. Lucky me!

From the Docker River turn off you can see the Olga's from a different angle.

It is mostly about 30 degrees and perfect here but the winds at night are rather fearce, resulting in a the trees and grass all being uniformly slanted.

The landscape is absolutely amazing. I didn't imagine that it could ever be so beautiful. It's like someone has turned the colour up. The reds come in all shades, as do the greens and blues. Sunset is my favourite time of day, watching the blue sky turn to lilac, orange, yellow and finally black.

Good night to you! xxxx

Pitchury

Computers are slow, I rarely have access and there is so so SO much to take in about this place, the people, the intervention, the politics, the culture. Sorry for being a crap updaterer. I will attempt to share some of the details of Docker with you over the next week to give you an idea of what it's like here.

I will start with what I thought was a whole community of people with mouth cancer. Pitchury. You can see it in the mouth of the girl to the right in the photograph above.

Docker is a dry community, I was warned on arrival that there is a $50,000 fine for anyone caught with alcohol (rather severe for a community where there 99% of the population are unemployed don’t you think?). Petrol here no longer contains any mind altering qualities so people have come up with their own mind altering concoction. Pitchury.

Pitchury is a mix of ash from a particular tree (this tree looks albino, tall, thick and bright white, the contrast to the deep red earth surrounding it is pretty amazing) and tobacco, it is then then rolled into a ball and placed inside the lip. I am told that it brings numbness to the face and has a relaxed calming affect on the body and mind. The youngest person I have seen with pitchury is 3 years old. It is common for parents to give this to their children to chill them out.

Tonight I am moving houses, I have been living on my own in a little house (I was housesitting a cat-Finn, who despite my preference for dogs I ended up becoming rather good friends with). I am moving into 'the shed' where I will stay for the rest of my time here. I will update more throughout the week.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Sunday Mum.

Love Shan xx