February
Trip Start
May 12, 2006
1
22
Trip End
Ongoing
Auckland, New Zealand,
New Zealand
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Ray and I went to New Zealand on Dec
500 sheep in the road
. 26th. Sarah had arrived 2 days earlier and met us at the airport. We rented a campervan and explored both islands for 12 days. Had a lot of fun. NZ looks a lot like the Pacific Northwest. Traffic was almost nonexistent outside of Auckland even though it was the height of the tourist season. Roads are narrow and there are many one-lane bridges. We almost always stayed on the correct side of the road. Usually just screwed up first thing in the morning. Had beautiful weather almost the whole time. Sarah thought it was warm, coming from the Chicago winter, while we thought it was a bit cool. Ray had to buy a coat. We saw Mount Doom (from Lord of the Rings), seal colonies, a reenactment of Maori village life and interaction with white settlers, sheep herds in the road, steam boats, waterfalls, caves, lots of used book stores and a hat shop that made Ray and Sarah very happy. I got to see more that just the inside of a hospital and we made it home healthy. I have to say though, New Zealand seemed incredibly expensive even compared to America. Back to Samoa and the rainy season. This year it really is raining, only one mostly dry day out of every 5 or 6 days. Really hard rains too but the good thing about living on an old volcano is that the drainage is excellent. Most of the water is gone in an hour or so except in the low-lying areas of Apia. All the clouds really keep the temperature comfortable too
A Maori
. Work is still pretty slow as all the women are busy weaving mats for the Fa'amati. See last years Fa'amati entry to learn more about this. School started this week but won't really be up and running for another couple of weeks.I worked with my friend Tulipe to write and submit a proposal to the EU asking for money to build a chicken coop for her family. Should hear next week if we were accepted. Also got money in December for the local handicapped school to fix up the classrooms and make a kitchen. Now, finally, people are coming to talk to me about projects and funding proposals. I guess I will be able to stay somewhat busy with that until we finish our service. Ray is talking with the new principal at the Marist school who wants to have evening community education classes. Brother Christopher is going to require that each teacher at the school offer a class to the community, computers, sewing, mechanics etc. He will even work with Ray to offer a general home maintenance and repair class at the public secondary school where Ray has been working with the design Technology students. Brother Christopher says he can help Ray buy materials for the class and help direct students there. Ray has found a man in the village that is a diesel mechanic for the power company. He wants to co-teach with Ray and maybe continue the class after we leave.
The count down has definitely started. We are going to request a close of service date of June 30. It will have to be approved by Washington but we can keep or fingers crossed. I have started looking for work and networking. Probably will want to be in the US for a while before looking overseas again. Ray has now reached the magic age of 65 and likes to point out that he is retired now. Time for his investment in the Jan Ott retirement plan to kick in. Hope all who read this are doing well and hope that we will see you many of you later in the year.
