The "Break"

I put the title of this post in quotation marks, because to say that you had a vacation while you are already in OZ seems a little counter-intuitive. This last week, we didn't have class in order to give students an opportunity to travel. In order to save money, and because I can't think of a place I would actually like more than Lennox Head, I stayed at the camp with five other students. On Wednesday, I took a bus into Ballina, a neighboring city, in order to volunteer with Coastcare. This group looks after the beaches by planting native vegetation, taking action to prevent erosion of the beaches, and eradicating invasive species. I worked for a few hours cutting back Bitou bush that had been sprayed with herbicide a month or so earlier. It was rough work, and we all ended up with scrapes and bruises. I was especially impressed with the 60 year old man named Ron who worked with the five of us. He seemed to be working harder than the rest of us! I mentioned this to the leader of this operation, Lee, and he informed me that Ron is 88 years old! I think there must be something to this bacon and cane sugar diet.

Thursday, I returned (after getting lost and touring most of East Ballina) to help out with a group of school children who had come to help plant native wattle in place of the Bitou bush. The kids were typical 8-9 year olds. When they found out that I was American, they were sure that I must know Miley Cyrus personally. They worked hard in the heat, and most seemed to enjoy being outdoors for once. I found from the teachers that the children don't often get to take breaks from the classroom to go outside for trips like this. Considering that the school is walking distance away from some of the most beautiful and biologically diverse land in the country, this is unfortunate. Environmental education in Aussie is sadly lacking in the same way it is in the States. When I individually spoke to the kids about what they learned about in school regarding the environment, they had mixed reactions. Some impressed me with their knowledge of erosion of beaches, littering and other issues. Some of them said they had never even heard of global warming. My favorite answer regarding global warming was, "Well... its like when you litter... and then all the penguins... they die.... and that's bad cause they're cute!"
I will say that these kids were remarkably well-behaved and hard working. It was a pleasure to spend time with them, and I hope to get to do it again.