Journal no. 3

we arrived back at uni at about 10am yesterday, so i went to class.
had missed 2 hours of it, but really glad i attended the rest of it because the tutor thought my name was something else and had not marked my assignment!

she said she was missing part of my assignment and will talk to me later. then she talked about how people don't read the deliverable requirements as she was handing out the grades.
after she was done, she said she was missing my written report and i was like, i put both in a folder under my English name and student number.
and she was like, "oh! i thought that might be it!" ............... this whole time she didn't realise that was me because she was only looking at my Chinese name. .................. wtf


anyway, the trip was really good because the 3 girls i travelled with were amazing. the leader J and R went on all sorts of volunteer/mission trips and were very experienced and nice. B was an awesome and funny storyteller, as was J. B and R went through very difficult things in their lives, so it was eye-opening to hear their stories.
it was better for bonding as we had open-minds and hearts towards volunteering, as opposed to R's previous group of fitness instructors were not comfortable about the experience.

we changed accommodation nightly - there were villages for miners, and a house, all really comfortable and sponsored by mining companies. the food was buffet style at the mess halls of the mining offices, so i totally stuffed myself.

the town has no one to open the youth center, so the kids only get to use the facilities when the volunteers go over every fortnight.
there was one very sweet girl, Lakeisha, who volunteered herself to help me and asked me to play air hockey with her. i'm sad that i didn't see her on the second day.

the food in Leonora is super expensive - a pet bottle of coke is $4.50. the prices there were about 20% higher than in Perth, so eating healthy is a challenge.

what we did:
1.5 hour drive to Leonora from airport town.
played dominoes with 2 nice old permanent residents of the hospital.
opened the youth center and supervised them playing basketball, snooker, air hockey.
had a girls' night where we played them the "Sisterhood of Travelling Pants" and provided make-up and nail polish. there were problems with the teenagers who were very insulting and banged on the locked doors after they didn't want to stay.
took some pictures at the restored abandoned town of Gwalia.
did weeding, feed kangaroos, played with dogs and puppies at a wild kangaroo sanctuary owned by a very kind couple.
opened the youth center, cooked pancakes for kids to eat, supervised them playing again.

the pictures are in the official camera, so i will put up photos after the debrief.