Well, as I said, I'd be updating our Blog again fairly soon as there has been a bit happening over the last couple of weeks. Firstly, there was a pretty exciting pre-season AFL match between the Adelaide Crows and the West Coast Eagles, which the Eagles won by about 10 points but it was a good game with the score see-sawing all the way through. I'm not really into AFL but chose to support the Eagles because they wore Parramatta colours! All the students went (except those who were on detention) and about a third of the girls were really into it!! The other two thirds were more interested in watching the crowd up behind us and trying to get the staff to agree to them going to the toilet 10 minutes after we got there!! It was an interesting experience and I'm really glad that I went! I actually even got paid for it in the end as they needed more supervisors!

Also in the last few weeks we have had the opening of the new 'Footy Academy' here at Yirara. The Clontarf Organisation, which came out of AFL in Perth, do a great job in involving the fellas in daily training and there are all sorts of incentives used to encourage them to stay at school. Every morning at 6.30 most of the fellas are out on the 'paddock' kicking the ball around. The Clontarf guys do a great job and now they have a great club house in which to engage the fellas in other activities like games and story-telling. Their input certainly makes a difference to school attendance.

Following that we had the school swimming carnival which was a lot of fun for everyone. The participation level was up on previous years so the staff were particularly happy as they put a lot of effort into everything that happens here! The girls have to work especially hard as they wear fairly long shorts and sports shirt over the top of their swimmers!! They are too shy to just wear swimmers in front of the fellas.

Then we had Nathaniel's 13th birthday in Warwick's dorm, when the decibels go up even higher than normal!! The only time there's a modicom of quietness in the dorm is when the boys are in bed and asleep or when they are out of the dorm! The noise has to be heard to be believed, so you can imagine what a birthday party means!! Nathaniel has difficulty doing what's expected of him at any time but he was the quietest one at his party! If the level of noise has anything to do with it, everyone had a great time!! The birthday boy is the only one without a hat!

Another group that is doing a lot to improve the health of indigenous kids and encouraging them to stay at school is 'Hoops for Health'. I don't know where they originated but Anthony Mundine was here last week with the group and they visited several schools in Alice Springs motivating kids to get active and healthy and to stay at school. Last Friday night there was a big Basket Ball game on in town and all the fellas and about half the girls went to it. Anthony Mundine made a very short speech and I think played a bit too. Two students (one girl and one fella) from Yirara were given awards for not missing one day of school in the past 5 terms.

Well, that's about it for now. We have 2 more weeks before the end of term and I must say that I am looking forward to a bit of a holiday. We hope to accompany some of the students home to their communities before flying home on 4th April. Until next I write.............