Life on Elcho

So here we are on Elcho Island. Took us about an hour and a half in the smallest plane I've ever been on, about 12 passengers, and no airconditioning on it at all, but we arrived safe and sound. We are living right in the middle of the community on the island and about 5 minutes from the store we work at. The town as you may call it consists mostly of run down houses with dirt roads and bare trees. Not much looks alive here as we await the rains of the wet season, although there are still plenty of mangoes dropping from the trees. We are living in an apartment where we share a bathroom with the lady next door. Nice to have our own space again...mostly to ourselves. The heat is amazing here. 39 today, and that's without a humidex and in the shade. Even so, we wandered down to the beach to have a walk around and managed to get great sun burns...not much shade here. Ahh well. The ocean is the most amazing shade of blue, so beautiful, and its beauty and brezes make up for the dry dusty earth around us otherwise.

So our days are pretty much filed with wandering around introducing ourselves to everyone, reading, watching tv and movies and that's about it. Not really much going on these days. There were three deaths recently on the island, so there were some ceremonies to watch. Nothing too amazing, although it is interesting to be here among the community, even tho we feel more like observers than participants. A couple more weeks here and that may change. We will see.

Work is quite routine. Serving food stalking shelves, making fish and chips. Pretty easy. The worst part: no airconditioning! It is so hot in the shop. I was hoping to adjust by now, but no such luck.

So hope to report some exciting news to you all soon....that is if anything ever happens in this tiny town.

cheers, R