Rained in at Warburton... James does some weaving... and Tom goes to high school! (by James)

We never got to Blackstone school because it rained and rained. There was lots of thunder and lightning and the roads were closed because of flooding. If you drive on the road when it's closed you can get fined $1000 per wheel of your car! Anyway, we went back to Warburton School for a few days and Miss Katie was very pleased to see me. I did some weaving to make a bag and brought it home to Melbourne to finish. Here is a photo of my work so far:

Tom did finish his work in Grade 3/4 so he was allowed to make scones with the high school girls. So instead of having a party at Blackstone we had afternoon tea at Warburton. (They were going to have sausages but the store was running out of food because the trucks couldn't get through.) Here is a photo of Tom wearing his apron:

The road was opened at last so we got back in time to catch our plane from Alice Springs. We stopped at two other communities (Blackstone and Wingellina) so Mum could do some work but there wasn't time to go to school there. Tom and I are looking forward to seeing our friends at Sacred Heart again soon!

A Bush Day (by Tom)

On Tuesday I went for a bush trip with the Grade 3/4 class at Warburton (all 11 of us)! We went to a place called Ngulpirr Ngulpirr (a rock hole) or Kampurarrpa (bush tomato or yellow berries). Three old ladies showed us around and one of them was born right there back in the 1940s. There are piles of rocks that you can roll together to make more kampurarrpa grow after rain. It is a Seven Sisters dreaming (tjukurrpa) place. The ladies also found witchetty grubs but I didn't feel like tasting one. So I had a sausage instead. I was in the car with the ladies and I asked how you catch goannas. So they stopped to show me how to dig them out with a crowbar. I don't think they realised I just wanted one for a pet (they are really a bush food) so maybe it's just as well they didn't get one after all. My teacher Mr Gary teased me for holding everyone up. Poor James had to stay at school with the 1/2 class and was pretty glad when we finally turned up an hour after school had finished. Miss Jo, the principal, took good care of him in the office until we got there. Here are some photos from our trip:

And just in case you're feeling sorry for James, his class at Blackstone School (where we'll be next week) is having a party on Tuesday. But here is a photo of him in the meantime:

P.S. We went to Warakurna School yesterday and the kids there call me 'Tom Tom'! They also put James in the 3/4 class with me but I have to say he managed pretty well.