Northeast of Centre
Well, after a short stint back in suburbia during which my beautiful daughter gave birth to another delightful member of the Jones mob, I've run away to the outback again. This time to Lake Nash, which is North East of Alice, sort of.
It took Central Australian Health 3 goes to decide where to actually send me. First I signed a contract to go to Lake Nash...then they rang me to ask if Id be willing to go to Hermansburg instead...then when I got to Alice on sunday I got another phone call late in the afternoon asking me to go to yet another place further away...
Hermansburg had mobile access and a museum Id always wanted to go to so I said Id prefer to go to Hermansburg..soooo....I spent monday sitting in the RAHC office twiddling my thumbs and exchanging gossip with the delightful staff there waiting for the head honcho to come out of a meeting and share their decision as to where they actually wanted me.
And it turned out to be here...which incidentally was the place they had wanted to send me two decisions back.
But then it turned out that getting here wasn't that easy...and after numerous discussions about finding someone to drive me out here, or drive me to Tennant Creek and then charter a plane..or the funniest, send me on a plane back to Sydney, then on a plane out to Brisbane, then another to Mt Isa and then a 3 hour car drive...they decided the only sensible thing (if alos by far the most expensive) was to charter a plane to fly me direct from Alice to Lake Nash. Which of course couldn't happen till the next day, so then they had to work out who was going to pay for another night at the hotel I had booked out of that morning.
I then further annoyed things by insisting I'd have to have an extra weight allowance above the normal 23kg so I could take some food with me, being coeliac and all, which I'm sure the local store could not cater to. This meant more phone calls and explanations of "special dietry requirements" which made me feel like some kind of nutcase...but oh well.
I ended up just buying the bare minimum, and resigned myself to living without fresh fruit and veges and paying a fortune for basics at the local store..
I'm staying in what they call "The Donger", which is a container with an extra roof over it...its actually quite nice, 2 bedrooms, living/kitchen and a bathroom/laundry. The shower curtain came out of its rings and even hung back up water goes over the floor...but it has a kettle, a toaster, a fridge and a tv, so Im happy...now if I only had internet access there too...
Will be writing this blog in my spare moments at the clinic....
The community seems lovely. It's CLEAN! and seems very well cared for...and the people here all look happy and well dressed...the community store is spotless and staffed by aboriginal people...and there are 3 microwaves outside the store for heating pies etc..
What a change from Docker River!
Everyone I have met so far speaks pretty good english too, which makes my job much easier...
It took Central Australian Health 3 goes to decide where to actually send me. First I signed a contract to go to Lake Nash...then they rang me to ask if Id be willing to go to Hermansburg instead...then when I got to Alice on sunday I got another phone call late in the afternoon asking me to go to yet another place further away...
Hermansburg had mobile access and a museum Id always wanted to go to so I said Id prefer to go to Hermansburg..soooo....I spent monday sitting in the RAHC office twiddling my thumbs and exchanging gossip with the delightful staff there waiting for the head honcho to come out of a meeting and share their decision as to where they actually wanted me.
And it turned out to be here...which incidentally was the place they had wanted to send me two decisions back.
But then it turned out that getting here wasn't that easy...and after numerous discussions about finding someone to drive me out here, or drive me to Tennant Creek and then charter a plane..or the funniest, send me on a plane back to Sydney, then on a plane out to Brisbane, then another to Mt Isa and then a 3 hour car drive...they decided the only sensible thing (if alos by far the most expensive) was to charter a plane to fly me direct from Alice to Lake Nash. Which of course couldn't happen till the next day, so then they had to work out who was going to pay for another night at the hotel I had booked out of that morning.
I then further annoyed things by insisting I'd have to have an extra weight allowance above the normal 23kg so I could take some food with me, being coeliac and all, which I'm sure the local store could not cater to. This meant more phone calls and explanations of "special dietry requirements" which made me feel like some kind of nutcase...but oh well.
I ended up just buying the bare minimum, and resigned myself to living without fresh fruit and veges and paying a fortune for basics at the local store..
I'm staying in what they call "The Donger", which is a container with an extra roof over it...its actually quite nice, 2 bedrooms, living/kitchen and a bathroom/laundry. The shower curtain came out of its rings and even hung back up water goes over the floor...but it has a kettle, a toaster, a fridge and a tv, so Im happy...now if I only had internet access there too...
Will be writing this blog in my spare moments at the clinic....
The community seems lovely. It's CLEAN! and seems very well cared for...and the people here all look happy and well dressed...the community store is spotless and staffed by aboriginal people...and there are 3 microwaves outside the store for heating pies etc..
What a change from Docker River!
Everyone I have met so far speaks pretty good english too, which makes my job much easier...
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