Heavenly Beverley : We've Hit The Jackpot!

On Friday morning, I picked up a young German backpacker named Madlen off the Perth bus. Madlen is our very first helper from the Helpx website. She had texted me, quite upset early in the morning, that she had become confused about the time of the bus departure from East Perth. Thus, she had arrived at the bus station at sparrow fart, only to discover there was no 6 am bus to Beverley. Shortly afterward, she sent me another text to say she had booked a seat on the 9 am bus. For a twenty-year-old who had only been in Australia for eight days, I was pretty impressed at her presence of mind, her persistence and her positive reaction to unexpected challenges.

Madlen was last off the bus. She was young and pretty with a wide smile, sensible boots and jeans, a decent sized backpack and her camera bag. I had brought the trolley from the shops to wheel her gear back, so we could walk and look at the main street. We chatted as we walked. She was from a town about the size of Beverley in the middle of Germany about two hours from Dusseldorf.

I very quickly learned that Madlen is a very determined young lady. She had worked in a variety of manual, boring jobs for a couple of years to save the money to come to Australia. She was already setting up her next hosting from the end of July, on a remote station reasonably close (in Western Australian terms) to Yalgoo. Her English was very good and she seemed very keen to just fit into our lives and our projects.

Back at Shop 2, introductions were made. Madlen was quite happy to begin work under direction straight away. We were somewhat gobsmacked at her eagerness. After a pretty rough night and early morning with little sleep, we had just assumed she would want to relax.

So, after dropping her bags and finding a painting shirt at the House that Rocks, we returned to the Forbes Building. Michael steered her into the shop and set her to work painting the front ledge "Milk White". The afternoon flew past with plenty of visitors in the East End Gallery, so I wasn't really paying attention to the renovators. When I looked, they had accomplished a tremendous amount of work. Michael was thrilled.

After we closed the Gallery for the day, I drove around Beverley with Madlen, showing her the town. She was struck by the amount of space and the open country. She was highly amused at the concept of our Tractor Pulls, held by all the revheads at the old racecourse. When we passed the Gliding Club, I asked if she would like to go up in a glider. She was almost beside herself at my suggestion, commenting that kind of activity was very expensive in Germany. All I will need to do is have a word with Sid, chief gliding instructor, and get her up, up and away on a flight.

First night, she was tired. I was not surprised after the day she'd had. She slept in on Saturday morning and only woke just before I left for the Gallery. She and Michael were still down ready to work at noon and he set her up with painting the walls of shop 2. Over the course of the afternoon, we discovered that she could paint very well and also knew how to fill cracks, which would be part of their next project in Shop 1.

Second evening with us, she was chatty and charming and we learned more about her and her family. Apart from having all the skills we were looking for, she was also a very bright young thing and wanted to study chemistry with a view to continue onto archeology. I have no doubt that if this is what she wants, she will achieve her goal.

This morning, Madlen was up before us. We were slightly embarrassed. She also admitted that her room was cold, which I knew, but hadn't realised quite how cold. I resolved to bring her the oil heater home from the Gallery. We can't have our backpacker freezing at night...she might leave!

Today, she has continued to work with a fantastic attitude. The painting is finished and the floors are thoroughly vacuumed and mopped, ready for our new tenants. We've just had lunch at the ridiculous hour of four o'clock in the afternoon and she is returning to shop 2 to clean the skirting boards.

Michael is like a pig in mud. Whilst I've been manning the Gallery, he has been able to direct Madlen and made a start on some more spiders. At quarter past four, the visitors have stopped. I will wash up today's dishes and tidy the Gallery in preparation for closing.

Shop 2 is like new, Our tenants are moving in tomorrow. And now, Michael has her assistance to be able to tackle the new cracks in Shop 1 and repaint after the repairs.

We have been sent an angel and we have her for three weeks!