Pancultural

What shall we do for a Classrom then Raylene?
Jason Bell, one of our learnscope team members, left last week after contributing significantly to our project. Up to the plate steps Raylene Ferguson our new staff member in Student Services. Raylene was born and raised in Central Australia and comes with a wealth of local knowledge,. So, I'd organised a one-on-one 3 hr slot to 'induct' Ray into the learnscope hall of fame. But, after an hour attempting to dictate/record Audio Podcast Bush Tucker segments we were getting nowhere fast. People wanting her attention in Student Services, phones ringing in my demountable, unwanted light aircraft and truck noises ruining recordings on the campus lawn. I used to think Alice was a quiet sorta location for a city... We just couldn't settle, me wanting to throttle people and things and ray fluffing her lines.
Anyway I was whinging to Ray about the noise and she suggests we go to the back of the house where she grew up, I was ready to try anything. Apparently Ray and her 2 sisters used to horse ride into school and leave the horses parked at the causeway. Anyway,about 5 Km out of town on the Ross River Highway we ease round the back of a tumble-down shack [an old Commonwealth Linesmans House]and into/onto the Todd River.
Well then, things just got a whole lot simpler. Ray lit a small fire as I set up the laptop and mikes and things just kinda flowed very straightforwards and simply. Ray parking herself on a convenient log [as I burnt my fingers on the billy] Ray's off and running. No more stutters or flutters, no more misreading, and a Natural voice.
And so it was that I was privileged enough to 'hang about in the creek' with a local on a blissfully cold Alice Springs winter morning, get a shitload of work done, and drum up some passable billy tea. I wouldn't swap it for quids.