finally! some cheap internet!

so first off, let me clarify the whole points issue. as i recall, that quote was from the infamous episode of Saved By the Bell. As i further recall, the conversation went as follows:

Jesse: there's no time, there's never any time! i don't have time to study, i'll never get into stanford, i'll let everybody down, i'm so confused...

Zack: jesse! you really are taking pills? slater was right...

and that's all i was looking for. it has been brought to my attention, though, that there was that part where zack was talking about the time they went to see ET and they were scared then and that everything was gonna be ok, but i think that part might have been after... anyway, i apologize for the confusion.

Now that that's out of the way, let's get to the important stuff. who have i been meeting, what have i been doing, and what have i been eating. We've finished our 5 days and 4 nights at Uluru in central australia (Northern Territory, actually). We'll take this day by day so i don't get ahead of myself. i will do my best not to bore you, but i really find this stuff interesting. i'm trying to record it so that i can make space in my head for whatever's coming next. and because i think some of you all might find it interesting too.

so. first night at uluru (and the dirt really is that red. it's crazy.), we did a nighttime sky tour and got shown lots of constellations and the southern cross and zodiac and all that good stuff. our guide, ian (not in the cute tour guides calendar, reminded me a little of karen's arch-rival on will & grace - you know that short guy she always trades insults with?) told us that we are all not the star signs we thought we were. 2000 years ago when the greeks came up with the signs of the zodiac, they were looking at a different night sky. now that the tilt of the earth has changed, everbody's off. so instead of a saggitarius, i'm apparently a scoripio. and nabia's a saggitarius. i always wanted to be a scorpio... but that was really interesting. and we got to look through their (impressive) telescope at a globular cluster (described eloquently by a Japanese child as looking like sugar spilled on black paper), a new star birth area (past the second star of Orion's sword), a red giant, sirius (so bright!), saturn (totally saw the rings), and the moon (filled the lens- it was one night off full, so we could see the profile of the craters. amazing. really really cool.).

next day, we went on a sunset tour with Anangu tours. Anangu is the name of the Aboriginal tribe that lives at and around Uluru. The tour guide(s) (we had the pleasure of having 2 of them) are aboriginal and speak their native language, which is very forward in the mouth and mumbly and the vowels sound a little like Hindi to my ears. our group walked around with them after spending a little time at the very interesting cultural center, and, with the help of interpreter Ambrose, we learned about some of the Dreamtime stories about the mythical animal people that helped form the landscape, the evidence of which is still set in the rocks. "Dreamtime" is a lame name for it, not to mention confusing. they called it Tjukurpa - it's the verbal history of the people: their laws, stories, traditions.. all that. so that was really interesting. we learned about the poison snake people that came to punish the one woma python man at uluru. once he was speared through the thigh, his punishment was complete and they left only one poison snake man to take care of him and make sure he was fed. the python man's aunt, kuniya, far away in another land, felt in her stomach that her nephew was in trouble, so she strung her eggs around her neck (woma pythons can actually do that) and slithered off to uluru. she put her eggs down at the rock (there's a spot where the boulders look like eggs - it's called kuniya piti - kuniya's nest) and went to find the poison snake man, liru. as she went, she curved the sides of the rock by the Mutitjulu waterhole. the walls are still curved all the way around until the spot where she found him. they are also orange and black striped - same colors as a woma python. she killed the poison snake man, her presence paralyzing him with fear as she struck him with her digging stick in her human form. so that's the story. you can see the place where she knelt in the rock with her digging stick and threw handfuls of dirt in her anger. You can see the form of a coiled snake above a cave with paintings in it that were used to teach the children these stories and others. it's so fascinating. and if you go, please don't climb the rock. it's really sad to see where shoes are wearing away the rock - you can see the whitish path up the side of the vibrant red rock. so, although you still have a choice, the Anangu ask that you please don't climb it. There is no Tjukurpa up there, and it's also not really safe (36 have died there). so yeah. We did that tour. we learned about the women's tools - the digging stick and the piti (bowl), and some of the foods. we sampled bush plums (bitter, but good).

Next morning, we went again with Anangu tours to watch the sunrise. we did, and it was beautiful. more pictures. We then got a lovely continental breakfast and sat with Eric and Leslie from St Louis, who were very friendly and talkative. In contrast to the duo from the day before (Richard and Wayne), who did not really make eye contact with the tourists or engage them directly, Sammy made an effort to connect with each of us. He spoke English sometimes, he made some jokes, he made eye contact, and he was very accessible. We learned more stories of Tjukurpa and learned about the men's tools: kali, or boomerangs (not for throwing in this part of the country - 2 were used together as musical instruments or for scaring animals in a particual direction). the men of our group got to try throwing the spears with the spear throwers. very ingenious. more power and also a multiple-use tool - can help make fire, etc...

Na and I spent the next several hours at the cultural center in the galleries and display rooms - we tried to explain in gesture and our minimal BSL what we had learned on our tours to the group of Deaf people i mentioned in my last blog (they happened to be there at the center too). How about if i give them names? great. They were Xena, Raj, Roshan, and Abdul. Anyway, eventually we made it back to the resort, where we took a longer-than-expected-but-much-needed nap. then we went with eric and leslie to get some refreshing passionfruit gelato at the shopping center (they treated us cuz they wanted to pick our brains about new zealand, where they were heading next. i don't think they were expecting the amount of detail we gave them, but i hope they have a good time!). Then we went back and they offered to treat us to dinner too! I then realized i had misplaced my camera and had a small heart attack. after unpacking and repacking my pack (and hyperventilating a bit), i called the bus company that had brought us back from the park, and they said they'd check the buses and let me know in the morning. so there was nothing i could do. i went and had a lovely dinner with eric, leslie, and nabia, sampling the kangaroo, as i mentioned, eating lemon myrtle chicken, lemon chili barrimundi (it's fish), and a host of other deliciousnesses. After dinner Na and I chatted by the pool until 2:30 in the morning (as i mentioned) with Xena and Raj. We learned some more signs and i'm doing my best to remember them. We decided to try to reschedule the sunrise trip to kata tjuta (the olgas) we had scheduled for 5:15 the next day.

next morning na was nice enough to go meet the bus at 5:15 and tell them we needed to go the next day, and they were nice enough to tell her that they had indeed found my camera. bad amy. no leavy camera on bus. bad. we spent the rest of the day doing nothing really and avoiding the heat as much as possible. we read, we swam, we napped... that was pretty much it. oh, and we had seen eric and leslie that morning in the lobby and they gave us their unused free breakfast buffet voucher. so we took more free food from them and went to enjoy the food. in classic greenwood style, we took some muffins and fruit in napkins in our bags for later. And we also said farewell to Xena and the crew, as they were off to Darwin. we may try to meet up with them here in cairns though.

next morning (we're up to yesterday already!), we got up for the sunrise tour to Kata Tjuta, which is another huge rock formation about 50K from Uluru. Apparently they were formed millions of years ago, when the landscape of central australia looked very different. there was a huge mountain range and very stormy weather. with no vegetation to hold the sand in place, the mountains eroded very quickly. There were two great holes nearby and the first one caught falling boulders while the second caught the runoff of sand. years and years passed, most of the mountains disappeared (only a little bit is still visible). the boulders compressed, and the sand in the second hole became sandstone. add in more weather and wind, and the ground around the now-solid masses in the holes eroded. you're left with Uluru (the sandstone), and kata tjuta ("the many heads" - the boulders). so that's the geology. not sure i got it quite right, but close enough for government work, i think. The sunrise was GORGEOUS. the sky was a bit cloudy and gray, but we got the sun peeking over and through near uluru at a distance, and a lightning storm behind kata tjuta in the morning light on the other side. really. stunning. then we went to do the 8KM Valley of the Winds walk there at Kata Tjuta. na's ankle was still iffy and she was getting sicky sick with a cold, so she walked with me in the rainy breeze to the first lookout. the path was rocky, but the sights were cool. i went on myself to do the entire loop, and by the end i was walking the last 4K through just low bush with the sun pounding down, having burned off all the clouds. hot. i drank my water, but boy was i hot when i made it around. highlight: rounding a corner, enjoying being the only one i could see, hearing only the scratchy sounds of my sneakers on the rocky red ground, to find a huge goanna sprawled across the entire trail. i paused. we stared at eachother for a good few minutes. i waited for him to move. he didn't. not a muscle. his jaw looked like it was injured - skewed a little off to the side. it gave him an inquisitive look. his big curved claws gave him a frightening look. thinking he might be waiting for me to leave, i went back around the corner. he still didn't move. i lobbed a rock into the bush behind him. not a twitch nor a blink. Alberto from california came up on the trail behind me, sporting his bright green bug net. he took some photos and together we decided it was ok to leave the trail in the national park just this once. we went around. the goanna actually turned its head to watch us, but didn't move at all otherwise. we trekked on. the trail was pretty steep at times, just walking across a slanted rock face beneath the shadows of huge boulders on both sides, but it was very cool. i also saw a huge hairy spider. AND got close enough to get a picture. i'm proud of me, too.

we got back to the resort eventually and chatted with Judy, the brit who had one of the beds in our 4 bed section of the 20 bed dorm and Martin, the Deaf German sign language teacher from Koeln we had met, watched sunset, and had dinner with the previous day. Then the airport shuttle was there to whisk us away. Na was feeling very coldy and i was feeling hot, but i cooled down. we flew here to cairns. we watched "Wimbledon" on the plane. movies make the ride SO much faster. it was cute. romantic comedy. i like that actor, though. i forgot his name. the imaginary friend in A Beautiful Mind. nice to watch on screen.

We got here and went straight to a hostel we had gotten the name of from Abdul (one of the guys from London). It's huge and very organized, like a hotel. We're in a 6 bed dorm on the 2nd floor (what we'd call 3rd back in the States), with an ensuite bathroom and toilet and air conditioning. the other guests in our room are 3 girls from england with cockney-ish accents, and until this morning a Swedish guy named Johann (sp?), who was very chatty and talkative and headed to New Zealand and Fiji after here. you can imagine we had a lot to tell him.

and that brings us mostly up to date on what's been happening.

a comment: the history of Aboriginal people here is really sad. They were lumped in with animals for a long time while Europeans were trying to get them off the land. they were just one more thing that was in the way. they've been here for over 20,000 years. in that amount of time, a people gets to learn things from and about the land. we were shown a process of making glue. You find a certain plant that has a growth on it that looks like little white pimples. You dry the plant. You beat it on the ground near an ant hill (it's tighter and firmer there) with your club so the leaves and pimples come off. you use the piti (bowl) to separate the pimples off to one side. this part is women's work. then you take the stick you've been using to store your glue (kiti) - looks like a xylophone drumstick - a pole with a dark black ball on the end - and heat it in the fire. then roll it in the fine white dust. then back in the fire, it becomes the kiti. you can keep adding as necessary. when you need some to use for repairing your bowl or spear or attaching the quartz flint to a new club, just heat it up and it's pliable. don't touch it directly though, because the resin will stick to your skin. lick your finger first and the saliva acts as a barrier.

come on, people! that's amazing! and there's so much knowledge they have. and it's scary to thing it might disappear. the book na's reading is called "because the white man'll never do it" and it sounds really interesting. she recommends it highly. there's also another one our second interpreter, Chris, mentioned: "why weren't we told." I want to pick it up somewhere, i think.

ummm... i think that's it for now. i've been in here too long. i've seen sun go by, i've seen a thunderstorm. it is indeed hot, and apparently it's rainy too. no word yet on the cyclones but i'm keeping my eye out. i'm gonna go see if we can figure out how to get a cheap tour to the reef to see some fishies and things. nabia's still very congested so scuba's out of the question for the moment, but we do have a few weeks and the whole coast in front of us. so that question is just postponed.

ok. i'm off. keep the comments and emails coming. and i renew my request for people to write their names after comments if they are not signed in to blogger - otherwise i can't always tell who you are! (which one of you made a joke about having a crush on me... or which one of you actually does? :) ) anonymity is fun sometimes, but other times i'd really like to know who you are.

that's all for now.
love,
amy


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