2019 seemed to end (like all the years of my adulthood) in a rush, staggering to the finish line.
Ed spent the last 5 weeks of the working year studying intensively in Melbourne. He worked very hard but felt that the work was going to be so useful in the classroom. He also enjoyed the time with our 3 Melbourne based Grannies. We did miss him though!
In Maningrida time ticked by with new friends, our new pet (Leily the turtle is alive and well!), work and school. There are cubbies to build and bey blades to spin and Harry Potter movies to watch. There are always stray puppies to play with too! We have wormed the ones that live nearby as resisting playing with them proves impossible!
Childcare was a remarkable disaster. There is no after school care available. We tried
to get a nanny for this period but surprisingly no one found Maningrida a tempting enough location for a short visit. Ed arranged before he left for one of the assistant teachers from school to fill in every afternoon - this was a profound failure. Mum came for a week. A lovely chap called Robbie filled in for a week and we had a visit from the delightful (big) Charlotte who helped out in the afternoons too. Mum was awesome in every way (of course). Robbie turned out to be a man of patience and generosity who kept the children entertained with sprinklers and an overgrown puppy. Big Charlotte came to get some work experience in a strange environment and doubled as a team mate for me at home. All together I felt remarkably supported in what was in many respects a very stressful period.
The school had their end of year concert which surprised me with it's anglo-Christmas themes and 90s music but the enthusiastic crowd responded with all the enthusiasm reserved for the biggest event in the Maningrida Social Calendar (excluding the footy grand final which should be filed as a sporting event). I do think other schools could take a leaf from their book in terms of appreciating simplicity. In the photo below you can see the cowboy costumes for Charlotte and Zoe were repurposed paper bags from the local supermarket.
In the end we shipped the children to Sydney after a weekend in Darwin, on a solo flight which they managed with aplomb and Mum and Dad filled in some gaps in their education with daily swimming lessons, several tennis lessons and some speech therapy for Charlotte (who has some subtle speech impediments that are too minor to bother the over stretched Maningrida Speechy with). They squeezed in plenty of Sydney fun too.
Christmas was upon us before we knew it.
And then Charlotte's birthday. We have had some excellent birthday "experiences" in recent years in our attempt to minimise materialism and the family excursion to see Circe du Soleil with a pizza dinner extravaganza was a huge success and the birthday girl loved it.
We ended 2019 in our happy place. We were only mildly shrouded in smoke and can't possibly complain about our summer holiday except to express our deepest concerns for our children's future. For now we appreciate the family and friends and our time in this paradise where the forest meets the sea. We greet the new decade with some trepidation and renewed enthusiasm to make some small impact in our new home. Ed will give his energies to the education of Maningrida's grossly under priviliged youth while I patch their wounds and manage their multitude of chronic health conditions. We've been thinking about how to better engage with the local community about environmental issues and we will direct some energy this way in 2020.
What a beautiful round up Emma. And fabulous photos. Such a special time with you all here. X