John, a resident from Juniper Gerdewoonem in Kununurra, is discovering the joys of learning French! When four French travellers found themselves delayed in the Kimberley during regional travel restrictions, they decided to put their skills and experience to use and join the Juniper Gerdewoonem team.

Brice, Lucie, Audrey and Robin are now much-loved members of the Gerdewoonem family and at 83, John showed particular interest in understanding their language. Only too happy to accommodate, the four have been working with the Therapy team to help build on John’s French vocabulary each day.

With no prior knowledge of French, John can now recite a whole list of phrases and is having great fun trying them out during the day. So far John can say: je t’aime (I love you), bon appetit (good appetite), oui (yes), au revoir (goodbye), ca va (how’s it going), bonjour (hello), tais-toi (be quiet). With other residents starting to say ooh la la, this Kimberley French connection is starting to catch on!