Thursday, January 29, 2009

Day 17 - Tuesday 20/1

Today was my birthday so naturally I didn't get much work done :\ (though I tried!) We spent the morning at CUCRH and I was busy typing when Byron (Isabelle's son) came in and asked me to join James and Nadia in the other room. When I walked in, Nadia, James, Isabelle and Byron wiahed me happy birthday in unison and gave me a card which everyone at CUCRH signed. There were balloons on the wall and a cake ready for me to cut. It made me really happy and I thanked everyone for giving me a nice birthday suprise, before digging into a piece of chocolate cake :)

I finally got hold of Helen Pianta (World Indigenous People's Conference) today and arranged an interview for the afternoon. I used the car to go to Pundulmurra TAFE and spoke to Helen for about an hour. She was very helpful and provided me with plenty of material for my article. The focus of the conference was on improving the educational outcomes of indigenous people worldwide. Helen got a lot out of the conference and told me the main message she brought away from it was that the struggle for indigenous people is the same, no matter which part of the world they are from.

This evening Isabelle invited us to her house for dinner and cooked us some delicious food. Joanie and Anika were there too and after dinner Joanie brought out a birthday cake that she made for me. It was no ordinary cake either! Joanie had cut a doll in half and sit it on top of the cake, which was in the shape of a doll's dress. Joanie had clearly put a lot of effort in (as had Isabelle) and this made me feel really special - it was great to have such a good birthday even though I was away from home.


Joanie and me cutting into my cake

The night didn't stop there and Nadia took me to the all seasons hotel and bought me a cocktail. It was delicious! Shortly afterwards the place closed and we walked to the beach before retiring to our beds. Definitely a birthday I'll never forget :)

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