138 / 156
140
around the school she could see the young aboriginal children
laughing as they chased each other across the grubby yard or as they
lined up for class. Olivia didn’t understand why; didn’t they know
the filth they lived in? All through her tour the plucky school
principal had barked in her ear, explaining emergency procedures
and what to do if a child was hurt. Soon they came to a stop outside
the entrance to the reception.
‘Do you have any more questions about how things are run here?’
the principal asked.
‘Where are the toilets again?’ Olivia said as her heart crept into
her throat.
Once in the bathroom Olivia locked herself in a stall and inhaled
deeply. Mistake. The bathroom smelt as if it hadn’t been cleaned in
weeks. After dry retching in the toilet a few times she sat with her
face in her hands, elbows braced on knees. Why had she agreed to
come? She didn’t belong here in this dirty, filthy place! What on
earth made her think she could survive three weeks of this? Well the
choice to come hadn’t exactly been all hers; her parents had made an
ultimatum. Either she payed for her entire University tuition or she
helped out at an underprivileged school for a few weeks. No big deal,
the choice was easy back home. ‘Besides,’ her parents had argued,
‘this will give you a chance to become more worldly’. Worldly? Olivia
thought bitterly as she looked around the cubicle. There was nothing
worldly about this.
On the bus trip home she brooded silently, her mind wracked
with misgivings. What if the kids didn’t like her? Or worse, what if
they hadn’t learnt anything? She was undaunted by the lack of
experience back in Sydney (she had, after all, helped her little
brother with his maths homework now and then), but now she
wasn’t so sure. The day had been horrendous, the kids even worse.
They were all aged around the 10-year mark and had reached the
bratty stage. At the start of the lesson they filed in and glanced at her
as if she were one of the fixtures. As they passed she tried to fit
names to faces, working from the clean sheet of paper.
Adoni, Gannan,
Darri, Moree
… she sighed. She would never learn them in time.
However, it was once the class started her day took another
downward spiral; Eerin and Adoni had just learnt the wonders of
paper planes. As she was trying to teach they would toss the folded
paper high in the air and watch it soar across the classroom, fingers
Of Dust And
Dirt And Other
Godly Beings
12