Super Mum "Belinda Carroll"

Good Afternoon and Happy Monday! ….. and Happy Christmas EVE! I don’t know about your home but mine is buzzing with excitement! Miss 10 and Miss 8 can not wait for tonight (it all starts tonight with leaving milk and cookies out for Santa and carrot and water for the reindeer!) and Master and Miss 2 certainly know something fun is happening (not to mention that they were 2 yesterday so celebrations are being extended here!)

Getting ready to party! My twins are 2!

As an adult I still love Christmas and this year I have something even more to look forward to and be excited about….the twins First birthday Party on Dec 23rd last year was the last time I saw one of my best friends in the whole entire world before she left for 12 months with her lovely family, on a life changing adventurous journey….they packed up their quite comfortable life on the Sunny Central Coast to live in a remote indigenous community in the Northern Territory for a year……which brings me to my excitement as I get to see her a few days after Christmas! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! What better person to have for todays Super Mum that “B” herself…..enjoy!

“Belinda Carroll” ….. aka “B”

B and her sons

Tell us a little bit about you and your family?

My name is Belinda and I live with 3 amazing Scorpios. My husband Steve and my 2 beautiful boys,  Archer and Oliver. I am currently working as a teachers aid, but being a mum is my most satisfying job. I have a passion for cooking and am in the process of working my way through COTC for kids (although none of my family members have allergies, we still enjoy and benefit from healthy eating).

B and hubby Steve on their Kimberley Trip

“Family”

What one ingredient can you not live without and why?

I am obsessed with fresh herbs. I put them into everything!! They can change an ordinary dish into something really delicious.

If you had half an hour to cook dinner and realized you didn’t have anything planned, what would you cook?

I have a thing for cous cous at the moment. It only takes 5 minutes to cook. I chop up cherry tomatoes, grated carrot, diced cucumber, shallots and of course fresh herbs!! Sometimes I throw in a tin of salmon or tuna as well. Quick, healthy and yummy!! If you need to eat Gluten Free you could do this with Quinoa instead of cous cous. 

What is once piece of advice you can pass on to other busy mums?

SLOW DOWN!!!!!!! We all know that mums are great at multi tasking, but sometimes we are so busy doing everything at once that we forget to enjoy the present moment.

Having fun and relaxing with her boys!

If you could have dinner with any 3 people in the world, who would it be and why?

Oprah- because she has been and seen just about everything and everyone, and would make interesting conversation.

Russell Brand-because he is really funny and often very inappropriate! Perfect to liven up a dinner party!!

And of course the super mum of all super mums, Collette White- This amazing, talented friend of mine for 15 years, would need to be there to share it with me.

The last time I saw B, a year ago!

Almost a year ago you packed up your family of 4 from the Central Coast of NSW and moved to a remote Community in the Northern Territory for a 12 month adventure. I have had the pleasure of regularly hearing all about it and I am certain my readers would love to hear all about it too! Would you tell us all about it?

A lady came into my work one day and we started talking about her story of teaching in a remote indigenous community. It sparked something inside of me to do the same. I really wanted to experience something different for our family, especially our two boys. They have a very comfortable life and want for nothing. I didn’t want them growing up thinking this was how everyone lives. I wanted to broaden their ideas (ours too!) and learn about another culture. I went straight home to my husband and asked him what he thought. As he is a teacher in a secondary school and loves his job and life on the coast, I wasn’t sure what he would say. To my surprise, he loved the idea, so we began to research communities in the Northern Territory.

We accepted a teaching position in a community called Gunbalanya. Gubalanya has a population of around 1000 and is located in West Arnhem Land, 250 km north east of Darwin.  Our adventure begins!!

“B” ….. on an adventure of a lifetime!

After renting our house out and lots of “are we doing the right thing?”  We headed off in the trusty 4wd that we had bought for this purpose. The road trip itself was an adventure and the boys loved it. 8 days later, we arrived in Jabiru. Jabiru is a town in Kakadu National Park that has the closest airstrip to Gunbalanya. As it was the wet season when we arrived (January), we had to get a 6 seater plane over to Gunbalanya . The roads are completely inaccessible for the first 4 to 5 months of the year due to the flood plains and swollen river systems. So once we were flown in to the community, we were isolated there till May. That was a pretty daunting idea because if we didn’t like it ,there was no way out.

The principal of the school met us on the airstrip and we piled our bags and ourselves into the back of the troopy. She took us on the grand tour of the community (which took about 7 minutes!) and I remember thinking “oh my god, what have we done”. We had left the real world behind and I felt like we were in a poverty stricken 3^rd world country. It was a real shock.

Stone Country Festival

Stone Country Festival

Stone Country Festival

We settled in to our very basic house we would call home for the next 12 months, and started school 2 days later. My husband had a middle years boys class (12-15 years olds).The other teachers said that it was the toughest class in the school. These boys had hardly been to school, spoke minimal English, several of their parents were in jail and some boys didn’t have parents at all. About half of the boys in the class smoke gunja (marijuana) on a daily basis, often given to them by family members. Most boys are a victim of domestic violence, usually alcohol infused violence.

The community is 100% indigenous and Kunwinkgu is their language, so you can imagine how different it was for our 7 and 4 year old starting school there. They were the two new “white kids” that wore shoes!! They settled in well though. Kids really are resilient little beings. In no time, our boys had ditched the shoes and were climbing and swinging out of trees with the local kids.

I also worked at the school, as an assistant teacher. I had never done anything like that before .I found it challenging but very rewarding.

B in Cobourg

We settled in to our new life pretty easily. There were definite challenges such as, having to walk to the only shop to get our food( as we didn’t have our car yet). When it is 39 degrees and camp dogs are chasing you, it is not a pleasant experience!! The lack of fresh produce has been another down side. The shop is fairly limited and really expensive, ( I paid $6.80 for a small shrivelled iceberg lettuce!) For the first 4 months we had our food flown in from Darwin. Another expensive exercise .I have learnt from this experience to never take fresh food for granted. Although, it did teach me to be more resourceful and inventive with cooking, ( I didn’t have much choice!!)

Steve catching dinner!

Learning about the indigenous culture has been one of the highlights. This community still hunts and gathers their traditional foods. After been adopted into a local family and given a skin name, we had the opportunity to go turtle hunting on the floodplains, ( turtles are a favourite food of the Kunwingku people).We spent many a weekend fishing for Barramund, (sometimes we even caught one!!) and tried wild buffalo, magpie goose, wild pig and file snake. We also were taken out looking for bush foods such as native plums and berries. The most interesting food was grinding up green ants to make a tea to drink when you have a sore throat. It actually tasted kind of citrus flavoured.

 I love the way the people of Gunbalanya lead such a slow paced and simple life. A typical day on the weekend would be hunting all day out bush and then coming home to cook their kill on a fire in their yard. The whole family is there and they sit around telling stories .There is no rushing, no watches, no traffic, no after school activities. We have taken on board a lot from these people, and will continue when we come home to simplify our lives and slow down and enjoy the moment.

Gunbalanya

Our kids have definitely benefited as well from the lifestyle. They came to the territory with a small box of toys between them. Watching them learn to make their own fun, climb trees, catch cane toads ,get dirty, throw spears, build cubby’s from junk found lying around has been invaluable to their life .It has really taught them to use their imagination and step out of their comfort zone. There has been no need for fancy, expensive toys and in fact my eldest one does not want to leave and go back home.

There are so many stories to tell, but obviously too many to write now. I will finish by saying that this has been the most challenging, rewarding, heartbraking, frustrating ,interesting but  undoubtably the best thing we as a family have ever done. Leaping out of our comfort zone has not only challenged us to the core on many occasions, but taught us more than we could have ever imagined.

Wow! What a story! Could you pack up your family and do this?! I don’t know if I could be so brave!!!!!!
I hope you have enjoyed hearing this story and perhaps it may inspire you to reach out and follow that dream you have been thinking about??

Here are a few more photos of their journey…

Stunning!

On their way home, back to the Coast, look what they saw!

Litchfield NT

Wishing you all a beautiful, safe, fun, healthy (well as much as you can!) and blessed Christmas! Sending a lot of love from my home to yours as we celebrate the most important Birthday of all!

Take Care of You,

Collette x

Super Mum "Belinda Carroll"