Our Church

We're Catholic. Our church in Alice is Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, called "Olsh." It is a fairly new building and quite beautiful of red sandstone and tile. The kneelers are 2 by 4's. NO cushions.


Mass here is far more optional than what I am used to. The priests seem to still have the missionary attitude to be just grateful when people do come rather than being demanding at all.

That's Bernie. She got into a few pics. Nice lady, helps run Vinny's (St. Vincent DePaul Soc.)



Dress is really casual, too. A baptism might be find the parents and godparents in jeans and boots or flip-flops. Notable and stunning exceptions are the African ladies. Man! I wish I could dress like an African. The Indian women are stunners too.


I believe priests were first sent here in the early 1900's to tell the Aboriginals about Catholicism along with the Lutherans and Uniting Church and Baptists, but the Lutherans seem to have been the first and best at it.


There are many Indian, Filipino, African and Pacific Islander members of our church and town. Most have tight communities, except the Americans for some reason.

Pope John Paul II came once.


Early religious set up schools and when public schooling came along, there were already so many religious schools teaching kids, the government decided it was just easier to fund them along with the state schools.
So, a Catholic, Lutheran or other Christian school will get hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding from the government right along with the public schools.

Bet you've never seen an Aboriginal Madonna and Child before.

Just Some Cultural Bits

At aqua aerobics at 9:30 this morning, there were 2 middle-age blokes sitting in lawn chairs poolside, in their akubra hats and stubbies (short shorts), drinking beer and enjoying the show. That's Aussie.

This past weekend, there was an AFL footy game in town (national teams). No boxed wine nor fortified wines were allowed to be sold all weekend in hopes of keeping the crime and fights down.
Guess it worked. There was only 1 arrest out of 4500 people. 15 litres of alcohol dumped out and only 20 or so taken into protective custody.

The culture of the Aboriginal people restricts whom they can marry, touch, even talk to, by their "skin name" which is kind of like a family line. That is, someone can be the right skin for you or the wrong skin. Some young people do not follow these rules any more, some do.

There is no Australian equivalent of Kool-Aid.

I've had about 4 RBT's Random Breath Tests in the past year either taking Thomas to school or on the way home: 8-9 a.m.

Everything is closed on Good Friday.