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Wednesday, June 04, 2003

Hello from the Back of Bourke, Aussie slang for "middle of bloody nowhere, mate". I'm here doing a Well Kids Health Check which takes a school full of primary school kids and checks eyes, ears, skin, blood, growth, urine, vaccination and teeth. It's the first time something like this has been attempted on such a a scale and it's a bit of a trial run. We are doing it at a small Catholic school with predominantly Aboriginal kids. My role is as the Vampire Lady taking blood - I bled 30 kids today and frankly, I'm exhausted. Not really from the kids or their parents - they have been lovely - but from the constant pressure to get it first time, and also the constant sniping from the nurse who is helping me who favours soto voce (?sp) comments as I'm trying to get the vein.

Despite the comfortable accommodation and all expenses paid meals I'll be glad to get out of here, back to the privacy of my own place in BH (Sydney or NZ would be better) and away from the company of the 40 -something year old catty women that I am currently expected to socialise with. (this is a good place to bitch about it, since I can't talk to anyone at the moment - Bourke also has no mobile phone access). I am trying to avoid gossip trips with them to pubs or cafes, and have found a nice spot by the Darling River, though yesterday they sprung me at my spot!. Though Bourke is not a good place to be too solitary, esp after dark. I'm also a bit wary of being hard to contact - after what happened with Casey I am no longer so blase about being uncontactable for days at a time and get very nervous with phone calls in the middle of the night when I'm not on call. Hurray. Only one more day to go, then I can get back to my gym classes, my internet, my painting and my music.

Piokiwi 6:27 pm

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