Feb 20-23

So, it's been a couple of busy days around here.

Tuesday, February 20

Josh and I had volunteered to help with the Takaro Readers program. This a Rotary project where about 5 Rotary members meet with selected students to help them with their reading skills. The program restarted on February, 13 since summer was over.

Josh and I had spoken with Lyndsey Chadwick the night before because her husband, Jon, started the program. Lyndsey said Jon was in the hospital so he wouldn't be there to meet us the following day.

Josh and I arrived at Takaro School on Tuesday morning and it was nothing like showing up at a school in the states. When we entered the "office" (a small front room with a desk) we didn't have to sign in or wear a name badge. The secretary told us to walk around to the library and the kids would be there soon.

As we waited in the library, the lights were off but the windows let in some light. I thought I'd wait until people showed up to turn them on. Well, once the Rotarians and kids showed up, nobody turned the lights on...I guess that's how they do it down here to conserve energy.

Speaking of the students, they were a mix of ages as this school has kids from Year 1 to Year 8. It's also a "low decile" school or what we'd call "low income" in the states. The kids were predominately barefoot or in socks...no shoes as per the Kiwi style...not because of their economic status. If kids in the states went around school barefoot or in sock feet, teachers would not have. Here it's so laid back (a good thing).

I was the only girl volunteer. Besides Josh, the other volunteers were old men. Kids come in groups of five for 20 minute reading sessions. They pick out whichever book they want to read and they pick one volunteer to listen and correct them as they read. Being the only girl volunteer, the girls I helped seemed happy that I was there.

The reading levels of the kids was so varied. Before they started reading, I'd ask what Year they were in. One of my Year 4 girls read 4 pages, immeadiately following her was another Year 4 girl who picked the same book to read and she got through 25 pages!

After three 20 minute sessions, there is a tea break. This is a literal "tea" break. All the volunteers and some teachers, administrators go to the break room and have a cup of hot tea. There are communal mugs and spoons and -coolest thing ever-hot water comes out of a spigot on the wall! Everyone makes a cup and has a seat to chat.

Since this school is low decile, they receive free fruit from the government twice a week for the teachers and students. I didn't know if I could eat one of the bananas on the table so I refrained. Josh and I talked to the Deputy Principal (Vice Principal in the states). The Deputy Principal asked what I was doing here so I said I was looking for a job and hinted that I'd like to work in education...she wasn't buying what I was selling though.

We went back to do another three sessions with our students. It was fun to volunteer and have a purpose rather than being around the house all day. Once we were back in the car, however, Josh with his "Educational Policy" background went into all the problems associated with that type of "pull out" program. How do they know what they're doing helps? Are they running any assessments? Studies show that pulling kids out of class is detremental. Blah, blah. I'm like, isn't it good to have one-on-one time with a kid and give him/her encouragement?

Later that night we took a walk around the Victoria Esplanade. We walked a different path than usual and saw something called the Fernery. This is a part of the park that has all different varities of ferns. We played at the park swings a bit and went home.

Wednesday, February 21

...nothing of note...except Josh and I finished up the powerpoint and practiced the speech we would be giving to the Rotary club the following day. Earlier in the day, I got a phone call from the Temp Agency, Palmerston North Personnel about coming in next Wednesday for a series of tests and to register with them. How are my Microsoft Word skills? Excellent. How are my Excel skills? Intermediate. It was only after I got off the phone, took an online Excel test (which I failed), did I start getting nervous.

Thursday, February 22

The day started off well enough. Josh and I were comfortable with the presentation we would be giving later that night. We took a walk around the Esplanade around 2:30. David was coming to pick us up for the Rotary meeting at 5.

As I was about to take a shower and get ready for the presentation, the phone rang. It was the HR lady at Chandler McLeod in Wellington calling to see if I had mailed in my application and received my IRD number to work the temporary job on Monday, February 26. I told her, no, I hadn't filled out the application or mailed it in because I didn't have my IRD number yet.
I thought you had to have an IRD number (tax number) to legally work in New Zealand. She said, no, you can work without one and once we get it from you we'll pay you. Well, she was obviously upset with me. I told her I'd mail in the application and call the IRD office about why my number wasn't out yet.

When I called IRD, they were closed for the evening (4:30 pm). And, I had to get ready for the Rotary presentation! Quick shower, get ready, Josh packed up all the gear (laptop), David arrived, and we were gone! I left the application at home to pick up and mail once the Rotary meeting was over. Thought it was odd that the application asks for your bank account number (to automatically pay you) but a quick Google search proved that this is standard protocal in NZ.

Onto the Rotary meeting, dinner was before the presentation. Dinner was good too! Fish and chips-yum. I learned NOT to say something is "quite good." In NZ, quite means "not really/almost" instead of "really." So everytime I was saying things are going quite well, these people thought I was saying things were almost going well! Instead, you're supposed to say you're "perfect" or "awesome." I said if you said that in the states people would think you're stuck up.

Pauline was at the meeting but most of the Rotarians were not in attendance...we joked it was because we were scheduled to speak. Speaking of speaking, I didn't know if the presentation was something Josh should do alone as the Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar or if I should present too (since I'm from Arkansas/USA too). In the end, we split the presentation into three parts. Josh did the beginning and the end and I took the middle part.

When it was time for us to present, we realized while going through the slides that they had a different version of Powerpoint so not all the pictures were displaying as they did at home. No big deal, just the way it was.

I think we did a really good job. Josh sweat a lot-the Verdict is a hot place though. The best part was getting everyone to Call the Hogs...it was AWESOME. They picked it up really fast, too. As we ended the presentation, we gave club president, Lindsey Knowles the Fayetteville club banner and then we gave David a gift bag with Razorback stuff inside for being our host counselor (Bernice was at Lake Taupo because they had a newborn grandchild a few days ago).
After the meeting, Rory (Bernice's brother-in-law) asked if I could meet with his 24 year old son about motivation because his son has been to university, dropped out, and was back again. I was like, okay we can go have coffee, I guess.

As everyone left and we went outside of the Verdict to the car with David, we stopped while David talked to another Rotarian. I told Josh, look there's Pauline standing by herself while Lindsey and Jill talk...then Josh was like, we're by ourselves too because David was talking to someone else. It's just that we have each other and are not here alone like Pauline is. We had a laugh at that.

Driving back to the house, David told Josh that he and Bernice would drive him to the Wellington Orientation for Inbound Scholars on March 10-11. David asked me if I was coming and I said no. Once back at the house, Josh and I picked up the application that needed to be mailed and went back out to the post office. No worries. I emailed an apology to the lady in Wellington, "Sorry for the delay. Blah. Blah." Heck, I made it through the Rotary presentation, I figured the job thing would work itself out.

Friday, February 23

The job thing did work itself out. I woke up around 8:30 this morning to call the IRD office. The lady I spoke to gave me my IRD number after I answered a few identification questions. Then, I emailed the IRD number to the Wellington contact. I went back to sleep.

Around 11 or so, the Wellington lady called and was like, did you send in your application and get your IRD number? I was like didn't you get my emails? No, she hadn't because they were having IT problems. Worked it out and I was set to work on Monday, Feb 26 from 5-10 pm and Tuesday, Feb 27 from 7-11 am. Everybody is happy.

I called my mom on Friday afternoon and watched some American Idol with Josh. AI here is about two weeks behind the AI at home. Note to self: be careful when looking at yahoo news or you'll see who is making it through each AI round.

Josh and I also bought Scatergories at The Warehouse so we had a game to play with each other and company if we ever have any!