06/06/2021
The last 3 years, my work involved delivering courses in rural, remote locations in the New England region of NSW, Australia. My classrooms were filled with 'students' ranging in age from 16-87. My work included: Teaching IT courses to help farmers learn computer skills so they could apply for aid due to drought and fires, teaching IT to seniors, and Diversity to organisations hiring Indigenous, Seniors, Females, and disabled staff. We all learned from each other as we struggled with internet issues (as the entire town of Barraba often lost coverage). The people in these regions were all so friendly. Each day I would hear stories of the amazing things they had to overcome to make it to class...ie... "venomous snake was in the house, miss", "my husband dropped his phone down the well, so I had to lower him down with the tractor", "We had to drag 9 dead cows away to bury this morning", "The entire town (which is one block long) is out of internet", "We were up all night protecting our house from the fires"... and many more explanations that sometimes had us all shedding tears. The drought, then the fires, basically wiped out all the farmers stock and crops. The fires robbed some farmers even more. But when Covid hit, the daily life of rural remote country people didn't really change because they already live the isolated lifestyle. What it did effect was the income lost from the many tourist who pass through. But country people are tough survivors. Thank you to all of you who made this one of the best teaching experience I've ever had.