Rangitikei

My friend Lionel and I have noticed that a lot of things in NZ are named Rangitikei. For example, we live off Rangitikei Street, and there is one in most cities we've visited. There is also a Rangitikei district, as well as a Rangitikei River. Anyway, I thought I would look it up, and see why it is such a common name.

"Rangi" means "sky/heaven" in Māori, while tikei means "extend/stretch out". The land of the Rangitikei district is deeply important to the Māori, as explained here:

"Māori maintain a deeply spiritual connection with the land of the Rangitikei district, which is enriched by the Māori culture of four distinct tribal collectives. The distant headwaters and hinterlands of the Rangitikei River form the homelands of the confederated hapu of Mokai Patea, in pre-European times the lower Rangitikei River carried canoe traffic, and an important Māori walking track followed the river valley. Marae (meeting places) throughout the region remain the cultural focal points for continuation of Māori customs and language."
http://rangitikei.com/legacy

I believe that many streets/places in NZ are named Rangitikei because it is such an important part of Māori heritage, especially because it is a central place for four tribes. There has been conflict between tribes throughout their history, so it is wonderful for a place, or a word, to have positive associations for multiple tribes.

I am still working on learning Māori. I am finding less time to watch the online videos now that I am working, but I am learning a lot more child-related words and songs at work, so that's lovely. I will post an update on what I am learning soon.

Traditional Illness

Well, as many of you probably know, children are little germ-bags. I mean that in the most loving way, but they spread germs faster than anything else I know of. What this means, for those of us who work with them, is that; 1) we build up rather fantastic immune systems; and 2) we usually get sick within the first month of starting in a new classroom, with it's new and exciting strains of childhood illnesses. Well, week #3 of permanent work in NZ, and I am home, sick and miserable. I can't be surprised, given that I was thrown up on last week and had diarrhea spurt out of a nappy (diaper) onto me this week, but I was crossing my fingers that the endless sanitary measures I'd taken would be enough. I guess, with enough exposure, it's bound to happen, no matter how sanitary you are. Fortunately, it hit me on a Thursday afternoon, so I only missed half of yesterday and all of today, and I'm certain that I will be fine by Monday.

The worst part, and the part that I can't blame on my germy children, is that I can't sleep! It started on Tuesday night, (remember, I was so tired from work, swimming, and balcony tennis), and has continued through the week. It takes me hours to fall asleep, and then I wake up about every half hour, and it takes me a good 15 minutes to get back to sleep each time, leaving, as you can imagine, not much time for sleep, and even less for actual rest. So I have just gotten more and more tired, until I guess my body, even with it's lovely ECE-bolstered immune system, just could not keep up. Yuck. I did have a rather heavenly nap late this morning, which was the first good sleep I'd gotten in ages, and I am optimistic for tonight.

In the meantime, I can't say that a day of reading was completely unwelcome, although I wish my body hadn't been so miserable as to pry my mind's attention away from the book from time to time. I have dealt with my usual guilt about not being at work on a school day pretty well, and my boss and coworkers have been very kind and supportive, which feels good.

I know that this is a very boring post, but it's all I'm up for today. Anyway, my life is quite lovely, but also very quiet and non-blogworthy lately, so it's just as well.

Crazy Table Tennis

Everything continues to go well here. My job is engaging and challenging, and I feel good about my contribution there and the relationships I'm building. J is working evening shifts this week, so I haven't seen him (awake) since Sunday, and won't until Saturday, but we're coping. Today is usually my day off, but they needed help in the infant/toddler room, so I spent most of the day there, which was an interesting change of pace. It was the hottest day yet this summer, I believe, at 28C (82F). Although that doesn't sound that impressive, with the dripping humidity, it is a force to be reckoned with. We are reckoning with it through a lot of really wonderful water play, including sprinklers.

After work, Anna and I had a French excursion to second-hand stores, and had a lovely time speaking French and trying on clothes, which we didn't buy. It's nice to shop with someone who loves the process, but doesn't feel the need to buy anything - just like me.

Then, we went back and met up with Ollie, and the three of us went swimming in their little pool in the garden. Though it was a hot day, the water was mostly in the shade, and rather cold, so I still got a bit chilly.

After swimming, we played table tennis (I call it ping pong, but everyone here thinks that's funny). We played on the kitchen table, with a net strapped to it, which was fun. But then when the ball accidentally rolled out the door and off the balcony, a new game was born: balcony tennis.

I started out down at the bottom, and then we switched places a couple times. The goal was to hit the ball back and forth as many times as possible without it touching anything other than our paddles more than once in between hits. 

With many acrobatics and impressive leaps from both on and off the balcony, we got up to 15 consecutive hits. It was very hot and sweaty, but also so fun and hilarious!

Also, notice the beautiful house next door. That is their landlord's house, and it is stunning!

After a day of caring for babies outside in the heat, followed by shopping, swimming, and balcony tennis, I am totally exhausted, and am going to bed very early tonight!

BBQ Evening

Anna and Ollie invited us over for a BBQ this evening, and we were blessed with absolutely perfect weather! About 22C (71F), just a very slight breeze, and a beautiful blue sky. And, miraculously, it did not get too cold after the sun went down, which is so uncommon here.

We were 15 minutes late arriving, which I started to stress about, but then remembered that in NZ time, that meant that we were about 20 minutes early. There were a total of seven guests at the party (not counting us), and they arrived between 10 minutes and 2.5 hours after the invitation had said the BBQ started. Actually, the person who was 10 minutes "late" is actually not a Kiwi - the first Kiwis to arrive were Harry and Jonny, who came an hour after the announced start time. I had a bit of a problem with this at first, but now that I know how it works, I can just plan for it, and it's fine. People are, of course, relatively on time for work and other official things, but plans with friends do not seem to run on any clock that I've seen.

Anyway, the BBQ was lots of fun. We just sat and chatted and enjoyed the lovely evening and delicious food. Harry and Jonny say that they usually sit outside every night in the summer, but this summer has been very cold and windy compared to how they usually are, so they've missed it. I am hoping that we still get some of that kind of weather before fall, but we'll see. At least we had tonight. And I really shouldn't be complaining, since the range of "bad weather" is still within very comfortable limits. It's only the wind that is genuinely hard to deal with, and it's been a bit better this week.

We are so lucky to have such wonderful friends, and to be able to spend such nice time with them. I think that Kiwis are very good at relaxing and enjoying time together, without feeling rushed to something else or to do something special. Tonight was a perfect example of this, and J and I both came home feeling contented and happy.

This was right after we first got there - Ollie and Huansi spontaneously raised their hands, and no one told J - oops!

Finally remembered to get a nice(ish) picture of the four of us!

J ended up doing a lot of the BBQing, which was a treat for him, since we haven't had our own BBQ in years, and he used to really enjoying cooking outside when he was at university.

In other news, after a truly wonderful week of day shifts, during which J and I got to spend our evenings together and had such a fantastic time... J is back to evening/night shifts next week. One week of evenings (4:00pm to 2:00am), then a week of nights (8:00pm to 5:00am), then back to a week of evenings. As you can imagine, with me working 9:00am to 5:30pm, the total overlap of waking hours at home on evening shifts is... zero. For nights, we get an hour or two in the evening, but it's just J getting ready for work. It makes me very thankful for all the time we had together this week, and glad that we know that we can get through this and will get time together eventually.

  

Manawatu Gorge Walk Pictures

These pictures are quite belated, as we actually went on this walk almost a month ago, I think. But it took a while to get my pictures, Anna's pictures, and Harry's pictures all in the same place, and it seemed like all the good ones were on their cameras. It's nice to get pictures with both J and I in them, but it doesn't happen very often.

This is actually at the end of the 3.5 hour walk that we did, but the sign is a nice introduction, and it's the only picture with all 4 of us in it. We actually hiked almost the entire gorge, from the parking lot right outside the town at one end, to the bridge that takes you to the town at the other end. In addition to being 10 kilometres long, this track was up and down the side of the gorge, meaning a lot of climbing. Also, as you will see later, there were lots of lookouts, which were 10-15 minutes off the actual trail. Let's just say we were tired at the end. Tired and happy.

We found this delightful tree that was completely hollow, and a very reasonable tent size. In fact, it had rained that morning, and inside that tree was the only dry place I saw. I would definitely shelter there if the weather turned bad!

This was one of the lookouts. That's Anna in the bottom right, and Harry a bit further away.

Here's me and Anna at the lookout. J decided that he didn't want to climb down the multitude of stairs, just to see the view and then climb back up. I thought that that was okay for him, but of course I headed down, and then deeply regretted it when I looked back up those stairs. But I made it eventually.

This is a fallen silver tree fern trunk (I think). You can see where each individual branch attached, which I think is so neat! It looks like ornamental tiles, or pottery.

This is my favourite thing that we saw - a whole little ecosystem suspended in a tree, 15 feet off the ground! It's hard to tell in the picture, but it has ground plants growing in it and everything! Don't know how it happened, but it is so neat!

(Also, I don't know why there is a line down the side of the picture, with weird lighting. It doesn't look like that in my iPhoto, but it does it when I upload it. Odd.)

The intrepid explorers! Anna and Harry are both in great shape, so J and I just did our best to keep up, but it was an adventure, and lots of fun.

(Also, J would like me to reiterate that although our hats - especially his - are rather ridiculous looking, they are charmingly appreciated in NZ.)

The path that we walked was on the left side of the gorge, and went up and down it, but tended to stay higher rather than lower - we never got very close to the road or the river.

Well, there we have it! The longest hike we've done in NZ, and a definite success! We'll see where we end up next.

By the way, in NZ they say "tramping" instead of "hiking," but I am not succeeding at getting the negative association with "tramp" out of my head, so I'm not quite using that word yet.

First Week of Work Reflections

Well, I have my first week of work under my belt. Granted, due to having Tuesdays off and Thursday being a holiday, it was not exactly a power-week, but still.

So... here is what I know. We, in the Mighty Monkeys Room at Noah's Ark, have over 40 children enrolled, many of them part time, such that we have 25 to 30 children there every day. As I have mentioned before, class sizes are much bigger here than in the US or Canada, but ratios are about the same, and there is plenty of room for all the kids, so it works pretty well. However, right now it means that I have over 40 children's names to learn, along with over 80 parents, let alone aunts, uncles, grandparents, and siblings. Yikes! I am focusing, of course, on the children's names first, and I think that I know about 35 of them, with frequent mix-ups between 4 boys who all have short, brown hair and names that start with 'L.' I have always been better with children's names than adults' names, so the rest will be harder. So far, I remember one older sister's name, because she comes in and helps me clean up at the end of the day, and I have a memory of a mum introducing herself as "Paula," but there is no face with the name, so that's not very useful. It will be an uphill battle, I know, but I'll get there.

I got to do mat times on Wednesday (my regular day for them) and Friday (because the teacher who usually does them then was gone), and they went really well. It is very different to do mat time with that many children, but it is also lots of fun. They pick up songs very quickly, and the majority of them know quite well how to behave. Of course, some of them would rather hit each other on the head and jump around during mat time, but they are the youngest ones, and they will learn. Some of them transition over from the Tiny Tigers (infant/toddler) room when they're not even 2 1/2, so a learning curve is to be expected. I am making a song book based on the songs that I teach them at mat times, so that teachers and children can use the songs otherwise. It is great to feel that I am really contributing already!

Building relationships with the children takes time, of course, but I already feel that I am getting to know them. There is a very wide variety of background, ability, language, age, and interests, which is great. Some of the children talk just like adults, while a couple of them use only one-word utterances, or mostly gestures. We have lots of Māori and other pacific islander families, as well as a Spanish family, a Canadian family, and some British families. We have a lot of families who work at the hospital nearby, and the vast majority of the families live in the neighbourhood. I think a lot of them walk or bike to Noah's Ark, which is neat.

I feel comfortable at work, which is great, and I feel that things are being done well, but also that I can contribute ideas to improve things. It is nice to be somewhere in the middle in that way, because I am able to feel productive and important, without being stressed over a bad situation. I think that that is one of the benefits of working at a new centre, and I am looking forward to growing along with the program.

Waitangi Day

Happy Waitangi Day, everyone! Today, February 6th, is a public holiday in New Zealand, celebrating the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. The treaty is named that because it was signed in Waitangi, which is a city up north of Auckland. The treaty was an agreement between Māori chiefs and the pākehā (non-Māori New Zealanders), which gave the Māori the same rights as British subjects, as well as "giving" them rights to their land. Apparently, it was only loosely followed at first, but now it is adhered to pretty well.

This is an artistic depiction of the signing of the treaty.

As for the holiday, it is not one of the public holidays when everything is absolutely required to be closed (like Christmas and New Years), but schools and many businesses close. People don't do anything special to celebrate the day, other than being happy that they don't have to go to work/school. However, in Waitangi, the Prime Minister does a ceremony, and it is an annual day for protests. Originally, these protests were against injustices done to the Māori in spite of the treaty. However, according to some of my Kiwi friends, now they protest whatever they are upset about that year, and only resort to protesting the treaty if nothing else controversial is happening. Although I have no problem with protests as a way to draw attention to important issues, it is a pity that what was intended to be New Zealand's day to celebrate this wonderful country has become a time to focus on and be frustrated about controversial issues.

I, however, had a lovely Waitangi Day. I slept in, did some reading, went to Anna and Ollie's for a swim and some chit-chat, then managed the hotel for Kirsten in the evening. (Kirsten manages the hotel when the owners are away, but sometimes she needs to leave the office when she's in charge, and so I have been trained to take her place sometimes. It makes me feel rather important.)

I am going to go to sleep fairly early tonight, in preparation for my third day of work tomorrow. I am excited to go back. Obviously, I am just starting to get to know the children and form positive relationships, but it is a great feeling to know that I am staying this time, so we will get to know each other very well over time.

First Day of Work

Well, after an entirely sleepless night of anticipation, followed by an unexpectedly grumping time getting ready to go, I started my new job!! Just as I expected, my first day was a bit overwhelming, chock full of names I didn't remember and rules I didn't know, and absolutely wonderful. I had a lovely time with the children, was warmly greeted by parents and teachers, and just enjoyed being where I am meant to be: in an early childhood classroom. Yay!

Fortunately, I had prepared for what I knew would be a sleepless night by getting a very good night's sleep the night before. I never sleep before big things, like trips, first days, performances, etc. However, I usually worry a lot about missing sleep, and I think that it is the stress, rather than the lack of sleep, that usually gets to me. This time, however, I firmly reminded myself that missing one night of sleep is not the end of the world, and that I would sleep fine the next night. I was, for maybe the first time ever, able to lay in bed for 8 1/2 hours, not sleeping, and just relax in the knowledge that I was warm and comfortable, and that everything would be fine.

Unfortunately, I had a rather large blunder when my alarm went off (when I was lying awake in bed) and I actually had to get up and tackle the day, but that is never a pleasant part of my routine anyway. I was over it by the time I got to work, and I just launched into my day.

At Noah's Ark, like at most centres I've visited in Wanganui, the children can be inside or outside all day, and can move between the two as they choose. As for teachers, there is a rotating schedule, with one teacher staying inside, one teacher staying outside, one teacher moving between the two as needed, as well as doing toileting routines with the children as needed. I will fulfill each of those roles at least one day a week. I also get to do two mat (group) times every Wednesday. The teachers were very excited to find out that I know lots of children's songs, especially since I am bound to know different ones than they do. They said that the children there adore songs (which most kids that age do), so they want me to teach them all a song a week, at one of my mat times! I love being the song person!

We had a staff meeting after work, which was nice to have right after my first day, because I got to ask all of my questions, as well as just get an even better sense of how things work. The children are particularly interested in water play, story telling/writing, and airplanes right now, so those will be very fun themes to build on throughout the month of February.

I don't work on Tuesdays, and this week Thursday is a public holiday (Waitangi Day, which I will write more about later), so I am only working Monday, Wednesday, Friday. I like to think that the universe planned it that way to ease me into things. That being said, I am quite excited after my first day, and can't wait to go back again on Wednesday!

I love having a job!

Chinese New Year

Happy Chinese New Year, everyone! I can't remember if I told you, but our good friend Harry is from Hong Kong. He and Jonathon decided to have a big Chinese New Year party, and we were lucky enough to be invited!

To prepare for said party, J and I made origami horses. This year is the year of the horse, so we thought it would be fun to make some. Here they are next to the beautiful flowers that Harry and Jonathon got.

These are just a few of the many beautiful decorations that greeted us as we arrived. As you can see, yellow/gold and red are the Chinese New Year colours.

Harry and Jonathon made steamed dumplings, which were delicious. Harry had to explain to us all how they worked and how to eat them, which was fun.

Harry made nian gao, which is Chinese New Year cake. He told us that traditionally, only his grandmother makes it, for the whole family. But he said that he missed her (and the cake) so much that he decided to make it himself. He did a wonderful job. First, he made this glutinous cake, which is very dense. 

Then he got it out of the pan (no small task, considering how sticky it is), and cut it into pieces.

Then he put the pieces in a pan with olive oil and lightly fried them.

He flipped them over, with chopsticks, of course.

And then he dipped them in egg, much like we do with French toast.

When they were done, they looked like this - outside pretty similar to French toast, but with sweet, dense, kind of gooey centres. Very delicious!

And here we all are out front, enjoying the warm, lovely evening. It was a wonderful party.

Happy New Year!!