Another Kind of Stuck

Well, we're in the middle of a bit of another adventure. I'm tagging along on a work trip with Justin and J. Originally we were going to a couple of different schools, but the road to the second was known to be impassible before we left Katherine, so we decided to limit ourselves to one school.

There was quite a bit of rain for part of our drive down, but we got into the community (Yarralin) okay yesterday. However, more big rain came last night and the nearest creek crossing is at 1.4 meters--a bit too high to cross, even in the 4WD Troopie that we've got. (Just for an idea of how far it needs to come down before we can leave: the education dept tells their remote teachers not to cross water that's more than 0.4 meters, and health workers are allowed to cross up to 0.6 meters in an emergency. Considering Justin is an inexperienced--though trained--4WD driver, we think we'll stick to the 0.4 limit.) There are also several other crossings between this community and the Stuart Highway.

The thing is--there looks to be more rain on the way, and this community often gets rained in for months at a time (at this time of year). SO....this particular adventure is not over yet!

The weather is interesting: quite gray and cool. I'm wearing my new Blundstone boots with the requisite thick socks and long pants and am quite comfortable (except for the blisters from the long wet walk in my in-other-circumstances-beloved Chacos). Of course, it is still air conditioned in the school.

School has been cancelled today for "sorry business" (a death in the extended family of a community member), so it's a bit quiet around here. The three teachers are using the day to do lesson planning, etc. Teachers everywhere can always use an extra day for prep work, and these teachers seem to work very hard. I'm sure I'll be able to post more about the school later.