Tuesday, 15 March 2022

Kahu Nearly Moves Out

I settle into the teaching year. It's slow as always with the spectre of Covid hanging over us. We go through establishment routines and I get used to having a form class which is an extra level of responsibility and more work. I'm not used to the rush and aware it's going to get worse. Hopefully bonding with these kids will enable me to get through the next five years of being their school mum.

Meanwhile Kahu moves into James's place. Gone. It's not so bad the second time. I have a beautiful house to live in rather than the falling apart, musty smelling, drafty home I had when he left for Arkansas in August 2019. But I'm rattling around. It's too big for one person so I start taking pictures to make an ad on Marketplace and Trade Me for flatmates. If I'm getting one I may as well have two. I need to finish the house and, as Kahu has reminded me on more than one occasion, buy my own car.

Greg comes round to hang up more stuff, on Valentine's Day I get a chewing gum wrapper folded into a tiny heart, Wednesday is bowls, I'm getting better, and in between it all, I go to the beach.

Covid stats for 12th February- not runaway yet

454 new community cases
8 new cases identified at the border
27 cases in hospital
24,820 total tests in the last 24 hours

14 Feb 2021

What you need to know: Auckland moves to alert level 3, rest of New Zealand to level 2

11:06 pm on 14 February 2021

From 11.59pm Sunday 14 February, Auckland will move to alert level 3 and the rest of New Zealand will move to level 2 for three days until midnight Wednesday 17 February.

The move was announced by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern tonight after three members of a family living in the South Auckland suburb of Papatoetoe tested positive for Covid-19.

They are the country's first cases of community transmission since late January when a returned traveller in Northland tested positive after leaving quarantine.

Ardern said the alert change came out of an abundance of caution and would be reviewed every 24 hours.

"Three days should give us enough time to gather further information, undertake large scale testing and establish if there has been wider community transmission," Ardern said.

"I think it is an example of how tricky Covid-19 has always been."

She said it was a "good, timely reminder too, to everyone, please turn on the Bluetooth function and keep scanning."

17th February

As numbers begin to soar into four-digit territory for Covid-19, Pasifika make up about half the current cases.

Community leaders are pushing hard to get enough resources out to families to help with self-isolation.

Friday, 25 February 2022

Teaching in Covid

I get to the end of the second school week and am ready to get out of town. It's Waitangi weekend but it's Covid so people are scaling down their parties. Tru and Pete always have one at Scargill Domain in Greta Valley. There's a small Convergence gathering at Akaroa. I opt for live music and throw tent and overnight gear in the car on Fri then drive. Mask free. It's wet and mizzly at Scargill so I pitch the tent while I still have the mojo. Then take my food indoors. There's only Tru, Pete, Margot, Steve and one other. We share food and Amana rocks up. We start talking about people no longer with us and the ladies door opens. Hmm, I've seen this before. Amana gets a shiver up her arm. I know they're with us. There've been so many people involved with this festival over the years. Some have passed on. Tonight there are 7.

I read in bed listening to the rain on the tent wondering about Covid raining on peoples' lives. And spreading at last through Aotearoa, though not down here yet. Not really. I wind down the beach road to Motunau. There's a muddy river outlet with lots of big birds and it takes a while to find the beach. I walk down a track in the still of misty rain then submerge in welcoming sea water. A beautiful spot tucked under cliffs. I gaze up and Te Rauparaha comes to mind, bloody butcher from Kapiti. I feel him and his warriors at this beach on their murderous rampage to subdue tribes they have no reason to hate. Utu.

When I return breakfast is served....classic English. I decide to stay another night. We're a party of 30, drinking, smoking, celebrating life. How wonderful it is. The music is live, varied and good. I stumble to bed when I'm ready. Next morning I leave before anyone is up. I swim at Leithfield where a dead body washed up last week. The waves crash close onshore; it's an endurance test to stay standing. I won't be coming back to this beach. I tidy up in a hurry, I've got guests. We potluck and catch up, discussing inventing a Waitangi dessert. Iconic...I'll give it some thought. NZ needs one.

I visit Suzannah to get some peaches. They're pouring off the trees and juicily amazing. Momentous event of the week, we move Kahu's dresser...thank God for Bertie who can tie things on trailers.

8 Feb 2022

Anti-vaccine mandate protest convoy arrives at Parliament

4:18 pm on 8 February 2022

Hundreds of protesters against Covid-19 vaccine mandates who have travelled to Parliament in a vehicle convoy will not be able to stay on the grounds overnight.

A large crowd of protesters have congregated on the lawn of Parliament since this morning.

Two convoys, made up of hundreds of cars, trucks, campervans and other vehicles, had been travelling from across the country since Sunday.

RNZ understands some protesters want to remain on the grounds until tomorrow.

However, it is against Parliament's rules to have structures or protests on the grounds overnight.

Vehicles blocked one street next to Parliament grounds, and some parked on footpaths near Parliament. Protesters diverted some local traffic that got stuck.

Molesworth Street was completely inaccessible and traffic was heavy on the north side of Lambton Quay.

Protesters carrying flags and signs saying their rights were being breached began to gather early today, and a crowd had grown hundreds by late morning.

Music was being played on loud speakers and gazebos and water tents set up as crowds settled onto Parliament grounds.

They are demanding an end to all mandates and Covid-19 restrictions, and what they see is media censorship of their views.

Locals were advised to avoid the area.

Thursday, 17 February 2022

Re-establishing Routines

No way to describe first week back at school. Usually I feel rested and ready, this year I don't. It feels like we have come from our farewell do, had a long weekend, then arrived back in the school car park. And this year, due to Covid, we don't do the jumbo meet up in the staff room. It's a different vibe altogether and I'm not that happy to be back. But needs must. The beach is my anchor.

Kahu is ready and waiting to leave home but doesn't. I keep putting feelers out but I'm ok to see his not so cheery face at the end of the day. Life with me can't be that bad. We're both ready to move on but it's the same slow process as leaving Chris's. It's a wrench for him and he takes his time. Poor baby....not.

I meet my form class on the first day. They are so varied and quiet. First week routines kick in: up and out the door, looking for e-mails which tell me what to do, struggling in my head to imagine how I'm going to do everything I'm mandated to do, sore point, but taking things one day at a time. How else when systems are so complicated.

I spend the week in my room alternating between working with my class and trying to organise for my English classes. I know enough to wing it but know enough to know that won't be enough. Covid is here and our learning time could get hijacked at any point. I have paper resources downstairs, in the cupboard of my old classroom and in my present classroom. It's a massive organisational task as I have to make sure I have enough electronic resources too.

My peer support leaders are naively enthusiastic and dutiful. They take lots of sessions and one of them goes down the fun route, ditching the listed games for the throwing plastic bottles so they land upright challenge. The kids love it and he draws another class in. I try to learn names, finding I remember faces first, only they're from the cheek bones up.

At home, Anjie helps me find places to hang a few things, strawberries and cherry tomatoes continue to ripen. And somewhere else, Covid stretches its tentacles.