The day started off with the realisation that we were saying goodbye to all of the beautiful people at Warruwi, and while some of us were a bit sad to leave the community as we have created so many wonderful memories and connections, we were all very excited with the next part of our adventure!
We all woke up bright and early ready for a jam packed morning of packing away beds, bags, tables, eating and painting. Breakfast started the usual way, with the Aboriginal children slowly dripping in for their morning bowl of Weet-Bix and Milo. After breakfast, we all went to our seperate classes to spend some time with the students and help them with their learning. It was so much fun, and while it was the last time for our Big Experience trip of 2017, we know we will eventually come back some time in the future! We then left the classrooms at 10:30am to go to the Recreation Hall.
The ‘Rec Hall’ was where all the kid and the St Leonard’s group played basketball together the other night. We thought that it would be a good idea to show our gratitude for the Island’s amazing hospitality and giving us all an experience that would stick with us our whole life. As the Australia Group of 2017, we painted a mural on the rec hall wall. We painted ‘Warruwi School la [with] St Leonard’s’ and painted our handprints around the words to signify the strong and ever-lasting relationship that St Leonard’s and Warruwi School will share and have together. When we finished the painting, we went back to the school and did our Final Ceremony with the kids. We all stood in a circle and went around saying goodbye to everyone.
We all went to Warruwi Airport at different times and boarded our planes off the island and to the mainland. On the plane, we got some sneak previews to the beautiful country we were just entering, with lush forests to our right and ancient cliff faces to the left. Once we arrived at Jabiru we all had some time off swimming and chilling. We then caught our big bus to the Border Shop, the restaurant on the border of Kakadu and Jabiru, and ate a delicious meal.
We’re all having so so SO much fun.
Love,
Oscar and Mushtaba on behalf of the Australia Group