Rainy Days and Mondays...

Just in case you thought it was all fun in the sun over here in Rarotonga, it isn't!  Sometimes it's fun in the rain!  These photos are taken at our house after a day of heavy rain.  Thankfully the ground drains very quickly.  I did start to get worried when the septic tank got pongy and the toilet backed up.  But all was well in the end - if you excuse the pun!

Just enjoyed Easter Weekend.  A very special service on Sunday at St Josephs!  It was packed, standing room only in fact but we were graciously given seats in the second peer from the front - was was unsettling given George and Emily's previous behaviour at church.  But they were great and the lady behind us kindly kept fanning Emily for us to keep her cool.  The singing was awesome!

The in-laws arrived 1.00am Saturday morning and were greeted with torrential rain on our drive back from the airport.  It has since fined up and they are now enjoying the beautiful Raro weather.  It was actually cool this morning and I need to wear a second layer on the scooter as I rode to work. 

Spoke with a close and long time friend, David Huxford, on Monday via Skype.  He now lives in Rio De Janiero in Brazil.  Amazing what technology can do these days (does that make me sound old?!).  It was great catching up.  We compared tales of how hot it is in both places.  All the while back in NZ the bad weather is hitting hard and winter is on its way.

Noticed on the latest New Zealand Education Gazette:

PRINCIPAL ALERT AND BORAD ALERT

In print 26 Apr 2011
The Ministry newsletter keeping principals and board members up to date PRINCIPAL ALERT MITA additional payment of $1,000 a year The recently promulgated Primary Teachers’ Collective Agreement (PTCA) provides for …

I always find it amusing to find errors in educational literature - not that we shouldn't expect it!  We are but human after all... (some may beg to differ).  Anyway, I'm just wondering if Borad is any relation to Borat?!  Now that would make education a whole lot more interesting!

It's a small world after all...

Just had some visitors from NZQA visiting and at our introductions the woman, Coralie, said "Oh, I know some Fiebig's, I used to go to school with a couple"  Turned out to be Phil and Geoff at Wainui College.  I had to quickly dissassociate myself from their past sins!  (I'm well capable of conducting my own!).  Small world.

Here's my darling little boy wearing Daddies helmet and raring to go biking!  Like father like son!

An email circulating around work at the moment is offering staff the opportunity to attend a seminar on Time Management.  Now seriously, in a country that operates on Island Time a seminar on Time Management is a dead duck in my books!  I mean, the only good such a session could do in Raro is provide advice on how to fill the time we have rather than how to try to find more!  My wife would no doubt disagree but I feel the facilitator of this seminar hasn't done her market research!   It's a bit like Gordon Ramsay going to India to do a seminar on how to cook curry!  Needless to say I won't be attending - I simply don't have the time!

It was confirmed today that the Teaching & Learning Advisory Team, of which I am one, will be visiting Aitutaki in week 2 of Term 2 for a week of providing professional development to the schools there.  If you don't already know Aitutaki has long been considered one of the most beautiful places on earth - the lagoon is spectacular - apparently.  I can't wait to find out!  While my days will be busy I'm sure I'll find time to enjoy the surroundings.  Wantch this space for photos.  Only wish I could take Janine but the costs are prohibitive at this stage.  But definately before we leave. 

Incidentally, Janine woke last night, or rather woke me by punching me hard in the arm and crying out about things crawling on the bed.  Of course I awoke and consoled her after such a horrible dream!  To which she replied "You brought me to this horrible place!"  Seems wife hasn't sorted out her irrational fear of centipedes?!  Or perhaps the bad dream was just a ruse...!

Janine's come down with a cold.  As she said, "How can I possibly get a cold in a place like this?"  I suggested that in Rarotonga they may call them "hots"?!
I've managed to resist the bugs until now but felt myself getting a sore throat and runny nose so went to the pharmacy by work.  I bought some night & day cold capsules and the pharmacist gave me $4 off the price because they had expired in January!  I still happily bought them for $15.00.  I noted they were loaded with psuedoephedrine but no one took my name or number!   

Noted on the bottom of our power bill;
"FEES (VAT Excl.): Reconnections $130.00. Special Readings $10.00. Meter Reader chased by Dogs $20.00."  They don't actually say whose dogs and with the number of strays around that could be a worry - and quite expensive!  I don't know why they don't add "Bitten by centipedes. $50.00"?!


I did some actual teaching of children last week!  Great fun to be back in the class.  I was modelling a Differentiated Teaching technique for writing to a Grade 3 & 4 class (Year 3 & 4).  A really wonderful bunch of kids.  I was filmed by one of the other Advisors and we will edit the footage and record comments etc and use as a model to send to other schools.  So also had fun editing it in the 'studio' back at the office.  


I'm ashamed to say I picked the Bulls to beat the Hurricanes in our work SuperXV sweepstake.  Whilst still a Hurricanes fan I had to go with my head not my heart as there's money at stake!  I was thinking I'd be a winner either way as if they lost I'd be correct with my pick, and if they won, well - they won!  But both my head and heart tells me they're poop this year, and I don't know why that is with all those All Blacks in the backline?


And much sporting excitement on the rugby league field next to our house yesterday as our team - the Arorangi Bears - lost in the final minute and after the final whistle had gone a big brawl broke out!  They take their sport very seriously here!


Till next time,  ka kite  

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach...

Often a lot of the schools we visit put on a big morning tea for us that includes a variety of fresh fruits (mangoes, paw paw, star fruit, bananas, guava, grated coconut etc), home baking, fish and so on.  It is excellent and we have now learned to time our visits specifically around morning tea time!  Well I say morning tea but in most schools here the break at 10:00am is there big break of the day and goes for 40 odd minutes.  This is the time they do all their eating. They then have another short snack break around 1.00pm.  Remembering that they start school at 8.00am and finish around 2.00pm.  I think it's an excellent idea and would instigate such a timetable in my next school in NZ!  I also like the teeth brushing routines they implement in schools here.  I would go further and have hand washing and toilet time too, although not necessarily in that order!  Another custom here is that when offered food to take away you accept, regardless of whether you want or like the food or not.  At a wedding or other such function you will find guests piling up their doggie bags before tucking in themselves.  I guess it's a compliment to the chefs and hosts, as well as a neccessity with the food prices here!
Anyway, at this mornings morning tea, opps I mean school visit, one teacher was heard to say "Have a banana - a banana a day keeps the doctor way" to which I replied "That's because apples are so expensive here!"  Much hilarity was had by all as I tucked into another banana (and we were given a bunch to take away with us!) so I don't expect to see a doctor anytime soon.  Although, a couple of mozzy bites under my right arm are giving me grief and the roll-on deodorant stings like crazy.  Janine wonders what all the grunting and groaning is coming from the bathroom in the morning!  I dare not go without though as the heat and humidity means that sweating is a national sport here!

Noted in the front of the set of Thorndike dictionaries that a Year 8 class were using at a school I visited earlier in the week "St Michael's School, Remuera."  This is typical here with a lot of their resources coming from donations.  Where a certain sized school may get $3.5million of funding in NZ, an equivalent school here would get $150,000.  You can see the problem they have - and teacher's earn half as much here as well.  A similar situation exists with the national library here.  I joined up and had a discussion with the librarian - a woman who volunteers here time, like all library staff.  She stated that all the books in the library are from donations.  A lot of tourists leave their reading material with the library on their departure - a nice touch.

I was almost knocked off my scooter whilst riding home yesterday by a lot of over hanging tree branches dangling from the flat bed of a truck coming the other way.  I was travelling on the 'Back Road' which is much narrower than the Main Road and perhaps was going a little faster than I should've but I did have to take evasive action.  I had my ipod on listening to music so they may well have been shouting a warning at me but I didn't hear, nor do i suspect this was the case.  They certainly didn't have a white rag tied to their overhanging cargo!  They have a very 'everyman for himself" approach to road rules, which I like.  I see it as a commonsensical approach.  No helmets needed on pushbikes or motorbikes at 40km (yes for speed limit of 50km).  No seat belts needed.  Kids standing up in the back of utes.  Everyone is aware of the risks and everyone is responsible for their own safety.  Given the low levels of traffic that makes sense to me.  We use a baby seat for Milly but not George.  He sits up the front with the passenger.  I wear a motorbike helmet, when I remember, for three reasons - to help block out the road noise so I can hear my music better, help to keep the sun from my eyes as I ride into it both to and from work, and probably most importantly, so I don't end up a dribbling mess, eating through a straw and going toilet into a bag IF I should ever come off, be it my fault or not!

It's also humorous to see the things people carry on their scooters.  Gas bottles, weed eaters, spare tyres, their groceries, boogie boards.  I want to build a trailer I can tow behind the scooter but I fear anything I attach it to may come off when I pull away, given that my scooter appears to be currently held together by plastic ties and best intentions!  I guess that's a fourth reason to wear a helmet - that one day I may see either of my tyre's roll off into the sunset as I tumble down the road after them!

Attended my first of eight Cook Island Maori lessons after work this afternoon at the University of The South Pacific.  The lessons started at 5.00pm and as we finish work at 4.00pm a colleague and I went for a swim in the harbour beforehand.  Very refreshing and some beautiful fish to be seen but the pull of the tide was quite strong.  Think I'll look into doing a dive course.  Anyway, as to the Maori lessons - I can now sing 'Head, shoulders, knees, and toes' in Maori, or 'Kuta, pakuivi, turi, manga vaevae' as it's now known!

Until later, ka kite akaou

Ol' Time Rock n Roll

The old addage that good music lasts the test of time is never more illustrated than hearing Josh walking around the house singing "You say goodbye, and I say hello - hello, hello, I don't know why you say goodbye..." and "Come together, right now, over me" among others.  Even if he sometimes gets the lyrics wrong it's interesting, and pleasing, to hear him sing Beatles songs.  This new fad has come about because of the movie Across The Universe.  Well worth seeing, and great to see Bono playing a wonderful cameo in it.  Wanting to encourage this we bought him the Beatles Greatest Hits 19something to 19somethingelse.  Long may it continue as I dispair at the new garbage he still does listen to from time to time - "Baby, baby, baby etc" - give me strength!  And with that I hereby acknowledge and confirm my membership of the 'Old Fuddy Duddy's Club'

Janine recieved her first pay yesterday - and what a very pleasent suprise!  As much as I don't like it, money is an issue as I took a significant pay cut to come here and the cost of living can be, if you are unwise, more than NZ.  Certainly the utilities are more costly.  The minimum wage here is $5 an hour and they don't tip so there's no supplement.  We were expecting the worst, hoping to obviously cover the resultant daycare required and perhaps have enough to step up to the next Broadband level of 3gb per month for $99 rather than the $59 a month for 1.5gb which we are currently on.  We blew that within half a month with a couple of Skype video calls and Janine uploading photos to the interweb!  I've since taught her how to reduce the size of the photos!  But it was actualy much more than expected so we're delighted that we'll now be able to afford food!

Just been part of a three day Principals conference where I facilitated 3 presentations, 2 of which were in three rotations each (6 in total) so I was hoarse by the end of Thursday, added to the fact I wasn't feeling too well anyway - still aren't.  Bali Hague, the deputy CEO of NZQA was the key note speaker.  He was excellent.  The conference was held at the Crown Resort in Rarotonga so it was nice to work in an air conditioned environment for three days!

I've noticed that my Westpac debit card has my name spelt as Bredon and my Cook Island drivers license has my date of birth as 1965.  Some things get lost in translation I guess.  You just accept those things here.  I've been told that when dealing with service staff who are typing our personal details ask to see the screen as they type as things do actually get lost in translation - like Chinese whispers...or Rarotongan whispers!

I have to say that with all the drama that is going on in the world it is comforting to be so far away and isolated!  All we have to be wary of is tornado's, typhon's, floods etc.  Certainly not radiation poisoning...that we know of.  Although I'm just watching the coverage on TV and seeing the devastation 10km inland in Japan.  We aren't even 1 km from the beach but I have been told that the land formation of Rarotonga is such that a tsunami wouldn't build up pressure through the gradual rise of the sea bed to land.  Rather, Rarotonga has a huge drop off all around the island, as well as the reef that circulates the island.  Fingers crossed that's sufficient.  We did have the harbour drain out noticably though.

My thoughts and prayers are with all those in Japan and of course Christchurch.

Wild Kingdom

I've just noticed that crawling beneath my office desk was a little crab, or maybe a not so little crab.  I guess the term is relative to the amount of pain that it could impart by nipping a toe!  I'm seriously reconsidering changing my jandals for shoes!  The last thing I need is yet another creature biting at my feet while I work!  You will notice in the photo I already have a mosquito coil under there as I get eaten alive when I forget to spray on repellant, which wears off mid afternoon anyway.  Still on things animalistic, a colleague called out across the office this morning if anyone knew how to set a mouse trap?  Always one to add to my 'mancard', especially as I failed to stop a leak in a bathroom pipe last night, I volunteered (it was still early in the morning and not many others had arrived at work to volunteer!).  Well this wasn't a mouse trap, it was more a horse trap!  "Well, it's more of a rat" she said - no kidding!  This trap was like a solid steel guillotine like thing, with spikes at one end and a seriously strong spring mechanism at the other, like a catapult.  So, worrying that it might go off on me and impale a finger, I set it rather gingerly.  I suggested peanut butter would be the best bait, assuming there wasn't a t-bone steak in the fridge, but the best that could be got was some taro.  Do rats like taro?  Well I guess Rarotongan ones do.  So we are all now eagerly awaiting an ear shattering twang and the anguished cries from a decapitated rat!  Will my 'mancard' extend to disposing of the body??  I'm still to chicken to pick up a geckho!  Until that point what I envisage happening is some huge survival of the fittest battle between rat and crab - can you imagne the scence, and sound!  It would be cartoonesque.  Now all we need is a giant centipede to enter the scene for a three-way!  Sounds like a Chinese kung-fu programme!
So what else is happening...

Well, the kids have started daycare and seem to be enjoying it.  Sooo much different from NZ but that's too be expected.  I'm absolutely loving the time I get to play with the kids, go for a swim etc after work.  We finish at 4.00 and no one hangs around past 4.01!  So I'm home by 4.30pm.  Janine and I settle down eventually to watch New Zealand's TV1 news at 8.30pm and then maybe catch an episode of Breaking Bad.  Where does the time go, and where did we get it from in NZ?!

Just returned from a walk at lunchtime in the midday sun - only mad dogs and Englishmen indeed!  Inlcude Kiwi expats in that lot.  And there are a lot of maddogs here.  I was accosted by one while scootering to work this morning.  I went to kick it but then remebered that I had open toed jandals on and should it get hold of me I'd probably be dragged off the scooter and mawled to pieces!  Best to outrun it, which on my scooter could be a close run thing!  Actually, my $500 is still running like clockwork - a clunky, spluttering clock whose speedo doesn't work - but still gets me from A to B!

Tomorrow night we have a Ministry and Teachers quiz night at the golf club and my team of six - aptly named Dazed & Confused - will provail!  The prizes are really good - a series of flash printers - which all teams have agreed to donate to an outter island school should they be successful.  Somewhat like Celebrity Who Wants To Be A Millionaire...without the celebrities, nor the millions.

Incidentally, here is the transcript from 'email rounders' this afternoon in relation to the quiz night;

"For those preparing for tomorrow night…………….

Quiz questions

1. If you bumped a ginglymus, which part of your body might you have bruised?
2. The Mesozoic era is better known as ‘The Age of the Dinosaurs’ and is made up of three periods. Triassic is the first – what are the second and third?
3. What does the unit ‘candela’ describe?
4. What is the group of muscles surrounding an eye’s pupil called?
5. The weed Salvinia molesta is a problem for which ecosystem – a) deserts, b) wheat crops, c) waterways.

Please make sure all answers to number 1 are repeatable in public

My Answer:
If this is the level of difficulty of tomorrows questions I might just perch myself at the bar and knock my ‘ginglymus’ against the wall!

A reply:
Answer No. 2, the Jusassic Period and the Cretacious Period (do we get penalised for wrong spelling?) :(
And no...we didn't google it!

  
My Reply:
Ah yes ‘Cretacious Park’ that was the sequel wasn’t it?


I think those outer schools better start fundraising if they want a new printer!!

I've also just registered for a 5-a-side football side that will play after work.  Let's pray for cooler weather!  We are called "The Sons of Pitches", very clever I thought!  I've heard they play rough...

But for now I must sign off or this will become a book!

Ka Kite

Brendon

Papa'a Time!

Today at 1.51pm we are to hold 2 minutes silence in memory of those who have lost their lives in Christchurch.  Our thoughts and prayers are with all involved.


I've learned recently the new terminology of 'Papa'a Time'.  Papa'a being the Cook Island Maori equivalent of Pakeha (white person).  You've all no doubt heard of island time, where time is a rather fluid concept, well papa'a time is a terminology used when 5 minutes MEANS 5 minutes.  Having conducted a recent 2 day workshop I wondered why, after breaking for, what I thought was, a 15 minute morning tea break the participants started drifting back in after about 20 minutes.  I was subtely told that I needed to specifiy that breaks were on Papa'a time.  So when I indicated 30 minutes for lunch, I meant 30 minutes!

Mind you, and the reason they needed longer for morning tea is that the other oddity here is that the big meal of the day is had mid morning, not noonish.  I was initially flabergasted when the locals would tuck into huge meals mid morning and said to myself that it's no wonder there is an obesity problem here.  But apparently that's the norm.  I do note that I certainly haven't been able to face a big breakfast waking in mid 20 degree heat, by come 10ish I'm starving!

Janine, a colleague Matt, and I competed in a mini triathalon on the weekend.  It was a 200m swim, 8 km, cycle, and 2kn run - which sounds easy...doesn't it?!  That's what I thought when we registered and thus I hadn't done any training.  What I wasn't counting on was the heat at 2.00pm (race time) and how much older I am now than when I last did one!  We also had to use my mountain bike which was like using a tractor in a drag race!  The swim was ok, the cycle was tough, see previous, and the run was awful!  Getting off the bike my legs felt like jelly and just would not work!  And the heat was just oppressive and there were no water stations on the way.  But we finished and now both Janine and I are keen to continue training and do something similar again.  We both know we can do better!  Janine has already agreed to do  the 400m leg of a ladies tri in two weeks!.

Janine started work today.  She is employed as a 'Reading Recovery' teacher at Te Uki Ou School 8.00 - 12.00 five days a week.  The school is a private, fee paying school so is tidy and very well resourced in comparison to others on the island.  It's a great foot in the door and we both hope it leads to a permanent teaching job.  But conversely of course we had to send George and Emily off to daycare this morning and that was so sad.  It's not their first time obviously but it is still traumatic for mum & dad - they didn't seem to mind too much!  George will soon be running the place - or at least running amuck!

The red ants here are ferocious!  They really do hurt when they bite and if food crumbs aren't immediately cleaned up they materialise out of nowhere in a flash!  I was out visiting schools a few weeks back and at one Early Child Centre I saw a cockroach, obviously deceased, being transported whole by an army of ants.  Quite a sight to behold!  it reminded me of Gullivers Travels.  As any good educationalist would do they called over the kids to witness it - they were fascinated.

We don't get alot of cockroaches at home as the geckhos and chickens keep them at bay.  We've been told to encourage the wild chickens as they eat the huge centipedes that can do real damage if they bite you.  Thus the multitude of chickens we have visit us are the best fed on all the island!  We even put up with the cockadoodle dooing in the early hours of the morning. 

We have discovered the joys of taro leaves.  Janine, as always, has enquired into their preperation and cooking and experimented with great success!  As we have learnt if they aren't cooked properly they can make your throat itchy, thus we must boil them twice.  So why bother?  Because they delicious, cheap and full of a range of vitamins and other stuff that's so good for you.  Incidentally, we've been researching the various fruits and veges and coconuts are 75% saturated fat!  More exercise required!  Anyway, every Saturday at the markets Janine inquires of all the stall holders how to prepare their various wares - breadfruit, jackfruit, taro leaves etc.  Once they know you're a local they're very forthcoming of advice.  One woman told Janine to bring a pad and pen next week and take notes!

She's even taken to buying material and making clothing and other items (valances for the beds, plastic bag holders, car seat covers etc) that she's seen around the markets.  Soon she'll be opening her own stall!  She's so clever - it's no wonder I love you so much!  Incidentally, the car seat covers are a must, what with the beach and rain and all and the kids allowed to be free-range within the car.  We still keep Emily in a car seat though. 

I now have to swat for a quiz night this Friday.  I wonder if general knowledge is universal...

'Til later  kia manuia