last night, rachel and i presented a values program for a school group of 12 & 13 year olds. the session was about trustworthiness & trust. i ran an introductory activity… then we discussed it as a group… then they preformed a skit… i talked about that… and lastly, we played a trust game.

but the best part came at the end. first, one of the teachers prodded one of the boys to thank rachel & me. their thank yous are so cute. it’s not “thank you.” no, in new zealand thank you’s sound something like this: “On behalf of the entire 4th form class at the Terrace School of Palmerston North, we would like to thank you, Rebekah and Rachel, for your time in sharing with us. Thank you for teaching us about being trustworthy, and we will try to use this lesson as we continue our time here at El Rancho.”

actually, i don’t think i’ve given that thank you justice at all. it was far longer!

anyhow, after that, all 40 of the kids sang a song TO US in maori, accompanied by guitar. and they sang well! it was really beautiful. rach & i were standing in the front of the room, and they all circled around us and sang. it was so cool! seriously, about the coolest thing that’s happened in all my time here.

UPDATE: Here’s a clip from their talent show the next night, the group performing a haka.

i have a new band to share. i’ve actually been listening to them ever since we got here; they are quite popular at el rancho, and they are called shooting stars

shooting stars is a kiwi duo that make christian music. seriously good stuff.

when you’re done listening to shooting stars, you can look at my less interesting new albums on picasa. there is nothing left to see in new zealand. we’ve done it all. so now on my days off i go to the mall and get my hair cut. haha.

i’d like to tell you a story.

one day, an international volunteer ran an evening program on her day off. she was willing to do this, and even enjoyed doing so, but looked forward to cashing in on the 2 hours she had earned off because she’d worked on her day off, especially as it had prevented her from going jogging with the other international volunteers.

so the next day, she planned all day on finishing her day a little early. at 3.15 (1 hr 45 min early), she asked the appropriate people if she might be able to finish for the day in exchange for yesterday’s working hours. they approved. she went home and called her sister and got ready to go for a jog.

15 minutes later, the other international volunteers were dismissed from their working day. (remember, they did not work yesterday — in fact, two of them were scheduled to work yesterday and finished their day at 9.30 am because there wasn’t anything to do)

now the first international volunteer is a bit disappointed because she ‘earned’ her early dismissal, but it was a gift to the others. in total, the first volunteer has worked more, and feels the others don’t deserve the gift they’ve been given.

now let me tell you another story

1″For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard. 2He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.

3“About the third hour he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5So they went.

“He went out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour and did the same thing. 6About the eleventh hour he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’

7” ‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’

8“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’

9“The workers who were hired about the eleventh hour came and each received a denarius. 10So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12‘These men who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’

13“But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’

16“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”

why is grace so hard to comprehend?

so maybe it’s not so much new zealand history as it is british history, but this was news to me.

today, november the 5th, is a public holiday – guy fawkes day.

guy fawkes day is an annual commemoration of the anniversary of the day that this fellow named guy fawkes tried to blow up parliament in britain. kiwis celebrate his failure to do so by shooting off lots of fireworks. go figure.

so i looked into it a little more, and this seems like something i should have learned in school:

in 1605, guy fawkes and some other folks stashed a bunch of gunpowder in a cellar below parliament in an attempt to blow up parliament and the king at the time.

why did they want to do this? because the catholics were being persecuted.

guy was caught and charged with treason. he was punished cruelly (look up the details if you must).

the people lit bonfires to celebrate the king’s safety. eventually, fireworks came to be a part of the celebration as well.

so today… if you were to ask a random person on the street what guy fawkes day is, they would probably say “a day off of work, a good fireworks show, and the day where you can buy fireworks at the warehouse.” Asked who Guy Fawkes was, they could probably tell you that he tried to blow up parliament. But whether we were celebrating his success or failure, they wouldn’t even know.

Really though, I guess Guy Fawkes Day isn’t all that different from Independence Day… or Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, or any number of holidays in the states… for which we couldn’t tell you about the origins, only where the best sales are and what type of food is appropriate to eat.

Oh… but the fireworks were SPECTACULAR in the wellington harbor. Thanks Guy!

elizabeth asked me to give her some words kiwis use for an english paper she is writing… so i thought it was time i shared some of my favorite words and expressions. feel free to use these in everyday conversation

• choice (adj, exclamation) – they use it like we would “cool”
• sweet as (very useful expression) – again, most similarly used in place of “cool”… but ‘as’ expressions are really common here. For example, instead of saying, “man, it’s cold as ice at paul’s place!” the kiwis would just say “it’s cold as!” interchange any adjective you want before the “as,” just don’t put a noun after it. “hot as,” “slippery as,” “funny as,” “painful as,” “nice as” etc. are all valid uses of the “as”
• ta (expr.) – shorthand for thank you. the kiwis shorten most things, have you noticed?
• jandals (n.) – flip flops or sandals. i shudder at this word, actually.
• biscuit (n.)- cookie. i refuse to use this one too. biscuits are flaky and layered and served with fried chicken. biscuits do not have sprinkles and chocolate chips on them. speaking of which…
• hundreds and thousands (n.) – as if ‘jimmies’ wasn’t bad enough, the kiwis call sprinkles ‘hundreds and thousands’
• heaps (n.) – never use ‘tons’ or ‘loads’ or ‘lots’ to describe quantity. it’s always, always ‘heaps’
• tea (n.) – this means dinner. especially confusing that the morning coffee break is called ‘morning tea’ and an afternoon snack is called ‘afternoon tea’
• pudding (n.) – pudding is not chocolately stuff made by jell-o. for some reason, ‘pudding’ refers to all sweet desserts, i.e. “there’s ice cream for pudding tonight”
• serviette (n.) – paper napkin. ‘napkin’ means something else entirely here.
• the bush (n.) – the forest/woods/marshy terrain
• the wop-wops (n.) – the middle of nowhere. ie, the sticks, the boonies, east jabip
• chips (n.) – french fries
• crisps (n.) – potato chips
• dairy (n.) – convenience store. wawa.
• lolly/lollies (n.) – candy
• judder bar (n.) – speed bump.
• smoko (n.) – coffee break. i assume it refers to taking a smoke break, but people use it here to refer to breaks that do not include smoking. i laugh every time.
• suss/suss out (v.) – to figure out/work out
• keen (adj.) – interested, eager. “are you keen to meet up later?”

so… that’s what’s different about new zealand. they say funny things. and i say them too now.