Aussie Sponsors

Part of the exchange program included having two sponsors. One, from the community, to help us around the town, and one at Mike's school. We also asked Shani, our Australian exchangee, to find sponsors for our children. She found some and sent us their contact information. The children made e-mail contact prior to coming. When we moved here, they had an instant friend. This was the first time our children have been the 'new kids on the block'. Having sponsors made the transition easier. The families of these kids instantly welcomed us, as well.

Jakob's sponsor is Aidan Drenkhahn. Like Jakob, he is also keen on sports. They played on the same soccer and touch footy team and ran competitively against each other in cross country and athletics (track). Aiden has an older brother named Riley (year 7). His mom and dad, Linda and John, are both teachers, although John used to make a living shearing sheep out west.














Mariah's sponsor is Jessie Collins. They played on the same soccer team and touch footy team, too. Jessie is going to be the first woman prime minister of Australia. We plan to get her autograph before we leave. The Collins family (Dave, Tina, Jessie and Jai, who is Jakob's age) and the Drenkhahns family did not realize when they signed up to sponsor a child that they would be sponsoring an entire family. Both families have done so much for us all year and driven places so many places.






























Kyle's sponsor is Brett Tyrpenou. Brett is very active in the surf life saving club. He likes to paddle board while Kyle surfs. I always feel better when Kyle is out in the water with Brett. We don't know his parents very well, but they sure raised a fine son. Here is a picture of Brett in his surf rescue shirt standing in front of the surf club.
























Our community sponsors are Peter and Jeanette Christie. They live next door to us. They have constantly been very generous and helpful. The first night here, they put food in the refrigerator so we could wake up to brekky. They have put our clothes in their dryer, driven our children to school twice a week, (when they mind their grandsons), have happy hour with us on most Thursdays (see the picture of Jeannette with her nibble platter), and bring in our mail while we are on holiday, to name a few things. They enjoy the retired life, golfing and taking care of two of their grand kids.
















Mike's work sponsor is David Long. He is one of Mike's golfing partners. He teaches math(s) at Chatham and is looking forward to his retirement at the end of next year. He and his wife live on 25 acres where they run some cattle, they love golfing and one of their daughters just had twins to make them grandparents. One boy and one girl. David took Mike on his pig shooting adventure and has been a big help to Mike at work.







We have seen some beautiful places this year, but we will miss our sponsors, who have become new friends from the Land of Oz, the most! We hope someday that these families can come visit us and we can repay their hospitality and generosity.

Mum and Fred "Down Under"

Can you believe we have been living in Australia for an entire year and my dad and mum come to visit us only 4 days apart. They were even in Sydney at the same time. Once again, Mike went to the train station to pick up my mum, Judy, and her husband, Fred. It only took them 2 weeks to arrive in Australia via a class reunion and a tour through New Zealand. This is my mum's 3rd trip here but Fred was a virgin.

As with all of our guests, we served them more Aussie food: snags on the barbie, leg of lamb, pavlova, sausage rolls, meat pies and their favorite, vegemite. Don't worry, we are planning on bringing some vegemite home so you all can have a go. These are a couple of shots of them 'enjoying' it.

Judy and Fred signed up for the sports tour, although they started out with separate excursions. The first morning Fred was here, he had to leave at 5:15 in the morning with Mike and Kyle to drive 3 hours north for Kyle's 2 day basketball tournament. Kyle played 4 great games without one minute on the bench. I know Fred wanted to ref the games but he stayed in his seat. Not all of our guest got to see an Australian basketball game, so Fred should feel pretty special. Most Australians haven't even seen a basketball game.

Judy's sport excursion was a little more active than Fred's. We did an hour and a half beach walk from Old Bar beach to the next beach called Wallabi point. Then we did an hour bushwalk keeping our eyes open for snakes. They are just coming out of hibernation and are ready to mate so they can be a little nasty now. Next, Mariah, Jake and I took my mum 30 minutes south to the town of Forster. It is a beautiful beach town. We enjoyed the big white pelicans, eating ice cream and more exercise, hiking up to a lookout.

While Mike worked (someone has to), I played tour guide and took them to the Koala Park to pet the koalas and feed the roos. We took the long road home to see Ellenbourough Falls. It was raining so much we got out just long enough to take a picture. Their sports tour included a hike to the bottom but we decided to leave that for next time.

The next day, the sport tour included the horse races. The Melbourne Cup, like our Kentucky Derby, was running. We could not fly to Melbourne, but we drove to our local horse track and pretended we were there. Everyone got all dressed up and even wore fancy hats. There were local horses racing and you could watch the Melbourne Cup on the telly. My mum and I both won money on Purple Moon.

The following day, the sport tour headed to Sydney so Mariah could race in the state athletic (track) meet. After Mariah ran a personal record in the 800m (2:29), it was time to head to the airport. Saying good bye was another emotional time. Seeing all of our guests has been like a special gift from home.

Dad and Karen "Down Under"

You know you are a long ways away from home when it takes people 30 days to cruise to see you! That is what my dad, Bill, and his wife, Karen, did. They boarded the Sun Princess in Seattle, Washington, and cruised all the way to Sydney, Australia, via many ports of call. They arrived on October 24th. Kyle and I drove to Sydney to pick them up. It was an emotional greeting as I knew it was a trip of a lifetime that they came on to see us.

Our 6 days together went fast. The first night, we served them a traditional Aussie dinner. Mike put snags (sausage) on the barbie. Actually an Aussie bbq has a variety of meats unlike at home where we would serve one type of meat. We had enough meat to last their entire visit! Mariah is holding the pavlova we made for dessert.

We took them to the touristy Koala Park so they could pet a koala and feed a kangaroo. You can't visit Australia without seeing a koala and a roo. We toured the wonderful town of Port Macquarie and saw Lighthouse Beach. On the way home we stopped at a traditional old pub for an Australian beer. It overlooked the river and the big white pelicans.

The next night we had a sundowner (drink) and nibbles (snacks) with our Aussie friends. This was a nice highlight of their time with us. We had many giggles (and drinks) as we learned new Aussie words and phrases. Our embarrassing moment came when we tried to sing our national anthem and couldn't remember the words. They put us to shame when they were on their feet singing their anthem perfectly.

We showed them all around Old Bar. We spent two half days relaxing at the beach. They got to watch Kyle surf. They also saw Mariah and Jakob play touch footy. One night we went to the bowling club for a drink. Maybe my dad had two. Remember, Aussie beer is stronger than ours.

When it was time to go, Mike drove them to the train station in Taree. The train took them to Sydney where they stayed a few days before flying back to the U.S.A. We were glad that they could be a part of our adventure "Down Under".

Sports and more sports...

We've been in 'sport mode' again for the past couple of weeks. Kyle just had a fun basketball tourney weekend followed by Mariah having a wet state track meet on Wed./Thur.

Kyle has spent most of his time here playing in the under 18 age group and has had mixed success. He finally got to play in a U-15 tourney and it went very well. Fred Olness was here and he accompanied Kyle and me to Coffs Harbour for the weekend. It is a town about 3 hours up the coast. Kyle's team had 7 players on it, but 2 of them were 12 year olds and they hardly played at all. In fact, Kyle and one of his teammates, Nick, didn't leave the court for one second in any of the four games. Luckily for Kyle, he has been doing track workouts with Karen and Mariah as she trained for her state meet. He had to be in great shape as the games had 10 minute quarters. The team won all three of the 'pool' games and qualified as the first seed into the semis. Kyle scored a lot as he scored mostly from the inside. He was the second tallest player on the team and played inside and outside. He probably had about 60-70 points in the four games. He definitely had a lot of responsibilities. Scoring and passing and bringing the ball up when their point guard struggled. He had to guard past guys and be there main rebounder, too. He is a very versatile player. One of the pictures attached is of him taking a charge. The coach in me loves that! The team lost in the semis to a pretty big and deep team, but they had a real nice tourney. It was great to watch him play with such confidence.

Two days after getting back from Kyle's tourney we packed up the car and went 3 1/2 hours the other direction to Sydney for Mariah's races. She had qualified for the State meet in the 200 and 800 meters. The races weren't at the Olympic Stadium as we had been led to believe. It was at the Olympic 'site' , but at the stadium next door to the one that had the actual Olympics. The site has all the summer Olympic venues like the pool, equestrian facilities, soccer, track etc...

Mariah's first race was the 800 prelims. 39 runners were split into 5 heats with the 5 winners and the next 4 fastest times qualifying for the finals. Mariah led her entire race until the last 1 meter. She ran a PR of 2:29.48, but was beaten by .04. Since she didn't win she could have been left out if other races were faster. Luckily (or skillfully) her time was faster than all the other heats except one and she had the 3rd fastest overall time. After the race she convinced us that she should save all of her energy for the 800 final and she dropped the 200 which had prelims, semis and finals to run. We reluctantly agreed and came back the next morning for the final.

It rained quite a bit on day one, but day two was ridiculous. It poured. Then it poured some more. Then it really started coming down...The top 3 finishers would qualify for the national meet in Tasmania and that was Mariah's goal. She was in 4th most of the race and finished in 6th as she struggled down the stretch. She ran a 2:32 and the 3rd place time was 2:26 so she needed to lower her PR by 3 seconds and ended up going 3 seconds in the other direction. She was disappointed. We weren't! She ran great and seemed to regain some of her enjoyment of the sport. She trained hard and it payed off.

I should probably share some sports story with little Jakey in it....I took him golfing the other day after his touch 'footy' game. His team got thumped pretty good and he was feeling down. He is a lefty when it comes to baseball and golf and several other things. I don't have any lefty clubs so the coordinated little bugger played with my full size right handed clubs. He drove a 130 meter par 3 and 3 putted for his first legit bogey. I thought that was pretty good for a 9 year old lefty!

Karen is going to do entries about her parents' visits as soon as she can get away from the sports fields and party planning.