I keep forgetting to post these sweet pictures of baby Faith. She was born on the leap year, February 29th, and she is the most precious little thing in the world. I love looking at her tiny and perfect features. Nisha is doing a lot better now, after losing a lot of blood in the hospital, and having a hard time getting Faith to latch and eat. She is still working on getting Faith to eat better, but Nisha seems to be recovering well!
It is interesting the differences between having a baby born here in NZ verses the States. Nisha told us that the women here must be a lot tougher or something. Days after they have their babies here, the women are out of the hospital and back to life. Nisha told us that there was a lady in her ward who had a baby and then a couple of days later was at church with the child. She also said that the hospital experience is A LOT different. In the states you are able to rest and recover, being cared for and attended to often by nurses. Here after giving birth, the baby is brought to you and there are no nurses to take it away when you need to get some sleep to recover. Pretty much you have your baby and you get on with life. That is the NZ way of having kids!
Women in New Zealand also have "no shame in their game" (as Nisha would say), when it comes to breast feeding. They will just take their top off and start feeding their baby anywhere at anytime. It doesn't matter if their are boys present, it doesn't matter if there are family members present, it doesn't matter if you are in church. . .they feed their babies with no covering! We actually saw this at the beach a while back. We were sitting there and a lady just took off her top and started feeding her baby. That's not something you see everyday back home! Nisha said it is hard for her to get used to because she still wants to cover up to breast feed, and people look at her like she's a crazy woman. haha.
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| Baby Faith |
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| Faith and Siah (he really wanted to be in the picture :)) |
As for school. . .
I never imagined just how different the school systems would be here. There is so much diversity and culture intertwined, which is EXTREMELY different than anything I have ever experienced before. To add to the diversity, I am at Ranui which is a decile 2 school. Decile 2. . .what is that? Each school in NZ is ranked by deciles, which mean economic status. The lower the decile, the lower the economic status. A decile 9 school would be very well off, with children that come from high income families and are fairly wealthy. A decile 1 and 2 school, would be a school that has very low economic status, where children will be coming to school from VERY poor families and living conditions.
My school, Ranui, is a decile 2 school with means having students who come from very poor backgrounds. The students in my class usually. . .
- wear the same two outfits every other day
- walk to school
- don't have shoes
- don't bring lunches every day
- have head lice
- come from hard backgrounds with MULTIPLE family problems
And I wonder why they look at me everyday like I am a rock star. I wonder why they rush up to me every morning and give me never-ending-hugs. I wonder why they smile, wave, and yell my name every time they see me. I wonder why they tell me everyday they are so sad that I am leaving them.
I'm from America. Somewhere they can only think about seeing or going to in their wildest dreams. A lot of the kids in my class, and school, have next to nothing. And it always amazes me at how happy, smiley, and beautiful these children are. They really have all touched my heart and I honestly love them all so much. I don't know HOW IN THE WORLD I am going to leave them next week. I don't even want to think about it!!!
My favorite part about teaching at Ranui is the morning schedule that we follow each day. Every morning when the bell rings, the kids come inside and wait for the roll to be called. During the first week, Mrs. Tararo would call out the greeting for where the individual child was from and then their name. So for instance, Ryan is Maori so she would say, "Kia Ora Ryan". Then Ryan would respond, "Kia Ora". I loved listening to her say all of the different island greetings and hearing the children respond in their specific greeting.
After the first couple of weeks she wanted me to take over the roll calling. She told me that I didn't have to do all the different culture greetings (probably because she knew I would butcher them haha). So every morning since that second week I have called roll by saying. . ."Kia Ora Amon", kia ora; "Kia Ora Alexia", kia ora. . .etc. . .I love it :).
**My favorite part is when sweet little Dyllin always says kia ora before I've even called his name, because he knows it's his turn and he knows I will always smile and laugh. I don't know why, but it just makes me laugh each time. I love these little kids!!
Here are the greetings for the different cultures in my class that my teacher would call out each morning.
Greetings:
- Samoan—"Talofa Lava"
- Maori—"Kia Ora"
- Cook Islands—"Kia Orana"
- Tongan—"Malo le lei"
- Hawaiian—"Aloha"
- Burundi—"Yambu"
- Australian—"G'day"
- Tuvaluan—"Talofa"
After the roll is called the students stand up for their Karakia. This is a Maori prayer. They put their arms down in front of their body, bow their heads, and start the Karakia every day. It is interesting how much God is referred to in the prayer at school.
(The picture isn't very clear....but the translation says:
Dear Heavenly Father
Look after us and care for us
Guide us
In all the work that we do
on this day
Amen)
Then my FAVORITE part of the whole day is when we sing E te Ariki. It is their prayer waiata --"song". I don't know what it is about hearing these kids sing, but it is one of the sweetest things I have ever heard. I LOVE hearing them sing! (and I love this waiata)
E te Ariki
E te Ariki
Whakarongo mai ra
Kia matou ra
Me inoi atu nei
Manaaki tia mai ra
Toku reo e tangi nei
Awhina tia mai ra
E te Ariki
(English Translation:
Oh Lord, Listen to us
Oh Lord, Look at us
This is us, Your children, We believe, In You
The Father The Son and the Holy Spirit)
Because Mrs. Tararo is big into music, dancing, and singing, we usually end the day with some type of musical aspect. We either sing, dance, or do both! I already talked about the Haere Hiko song we learned, sang, and danced at the assembly. But we also sing raps about different cultures languages, songs about how we each are "special", and we also sometimes end the day by doing my hip-hop dance (my class's personal favorite). My students have gotten pretty good at my dance haha....they love hip-hop.....well really they love anything American.
I love this rap that my students sing about different cultures languages. It's awesome.
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| I love when they sing the NZ national anthem |
First—knock on the door 3 times
Second—go right up to her and say "excuse me"
Third—wait for her to acknowledge and accept the greeting
Fourth—deliver the message and then leave politely
Now when I say expectation, I mean that LITERALLY. She literally expects ANYONE coming into the classroom to follow those four steps exactly. We have had a number of students come from different classes to deliver papers, fliers, and notices, who have not followed these four guidelines. BOY WERE THEY IN TROUBLE. She not only yells at them in front of all our class, but she makes them sit in the corner of her classroom to think about what they have done.
It is very interesting to see the confusion on these students faces who were only told by their teacher to deliver a flyer or paper to Mrs. Tararo. But they can't argue, so they go sit in the corner of the room and are usually forgotten about until the bell rings. I always wonder what their real teacher thinks happens to them. . .?
It is funny to see the reaction on my students faces though when this happens. A lot of them now have taken the initiative to warn students before they come in. The other day this boy was coming in to drop off a notice and as he was stepping inside, one of the boys in my class whispered, "whoaaa go back, back, knock 3 times LOUDLY, then say excuse me, and then come in." So the boy backed up, did that, and then walked to Mrs. Tararo, and said excuse me. She didn't send him to a corner because he followed the four step expectation :).
I found this on the INSIDE of Mrs. Tararo's door yesterday. . .I literally laughed out loud. She actually does have it in writing, it would just probably help more if it was on the OUTSIDE of the door! :) I love Mrs. Tararo, I honestly honestly do!
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