All the Way from Alice Springs, Australia

A co-worker, our counselor at Trail Wind, has spent the last year teaching 3rd graders in the Northern Territory of Australia.   Her husband took a two year contract to work there, and she found something to do too.  Alice Springs is a town in the middle of nowhere with about 29,000 people.  They are having a big adventure. 

Connie is in Boise visiting for a couple weeks, so we had a little get-together in the school nurse's back yard.  It was interesting hearing about her class.  The Aborigine children have no rules at home, so they're a little hard to fit in the system.  They're also horrible at math.  I guess their culture has no need for math.  They count, "one, two, three, a lot" (except they have a different word for a lot). 

It's hard work and a lonely place, but Connie and her husband are meeting people from all over the world, learning about the culture, enjoying the beauty, and working hard.  If they were LDS, it would be like a mission, except with vacation time.