Nhulunbuy and Wandawuy!

What a "small world" we live in! The pilot who flew me to Nhulunbuy used to be a drug rep, and he remembered visiting us in Leongatha! It was fun to chat about his journey: giving up a career that he wasn't really enjoying, and following his childhood dream of becoming a pilot.  He has young children, so it works for him to be based on Elcho Island, while getting his flying hours up, to move into a larger airline job.

I have the use of a car at Elcho, so drove myself to the "domestic" part of the airstrip. "Just leave it there with the key in the glove box and we'll come and get it, don't worry, it'll be quite safe."  Comparisons are odious....  but, it's great to feel relaxed in this way.
How exciting to begin the descent, and to land! Taxiing in to the "domestic" bit of the Nhulunbuy airport, I could see Cathy, Georgi and Isabel waiting (Andy was on the phones to my mum, telling her that they're expecting another baby!).  Then the pilot opened the window and I could put my hand out and wave!
Isabel has been talking ever since about how "gramma came little pane".  So very dear. It's just so special to spend this time with the family. Tim came "big pane" on Saturday night: Andy, Georgi and I went to meet him.
 Nhulunbuy feels like the big smoke compared to Galiwin'ku (keeping in mind that comparisons are odious..) - great to have other options for exercise (pool, bike), and shops. It's a great place for young families.  Andy and Cathy have some good friends here.

We had a day trip to Wandawuy (pronounced waa-ndaa-woy).  It took about 2 hours to drive there.  It's a homeland, and is the home of the family who adopted Andy and Cathy.  There was a funeral going on! So it felt a bit strange to be showing up for a social visit.  But Andy had checked it out, by saying that his parents were visiting, and everyone said, "you must come."  We took food for a BBQ, which we had by the creek during a lull in the dancing.  The funeral was going on for days, and what was happening was dancing, which tells the stories of the land, animals, people etc, teaching children the culture.  It was so good to watch, and to talk about it with the family.
We met lots of the family, learning the relationship name we call them.  The mother of the family (my sister) gave us names in addition. I'm ngurula (seagull) and Tim is meriel (pied imperial pigeon). Not sure about the seagull idea! At the creek the children caught yabbies and we cooked them on the fire. At one point, a plane flew over, and my "sister" talked about how it was taking a patient to Nhulunbuy.  After coming back from hospital the previous time, my sister had told her how they were praying for her, and she said, "I know, I could hear you."   What a great day - so hard to put it into words!  Better, some pictures perhaps.  Many were taken by the "grandchildren".

                 

 yabbie pots

  just twist the pincers off, then put them straight on the fire - when they turn orange, they're done!

Andy with brother Peter and 2 of his girls

My sister  ("yapa") said to me, "Yapa, sit here"

so it seemed the right thing to do!  Cathy did a lot of the food preparation

Tim with my "brother-in-law", whom I call dhuway, and Tim calls wawa (brother)

We had an overnight camp at Rainbow Cliffs, which was fun. Just 20 mins from town, and a lovely bush spot, with a beautiful beach - bit of the shine off it due to the fear of unseen crocodiles.

we didn't catch any fish...