Christmas 2013 Update

Hi everyone,

It’s Christmas!! We are having an awesome time in Taupo with both of our families at the moment. It’s our first Christmas in New Zealand since 2009 so we are pretty excited about it all. Here is a very brief update on what has been happening in our lives over the last year.

INDONESIA

We spent the last international school year (Aug 2012 – June 2013) in Surabaya, Indonesia. It was a complete contrast to our previous two years in Nigeria. Our neighbourhood was rather wealthy, and we lived in a huge apartment complex called Waterplace Apartments, so called due to the numerous swimming pools, spas, lazy river, toddler pools, mini water-slides, fountains, etc. It was really lovely and we spent so much time outside in the playground or splashing around the place. We lived right across the road from a big mall, so we were really living a very western lifestyle. The roads were cobbled and very wide and the gardens that lined them were well-manicured with full-time gardeners. It was a short walk to Caleb’s school which shared space with the Sheraton Family Club. We spent our weekends hanging out with various friends and spent a lot of time at the Club pools.

Caleb had a good year at the school, he initiated a Citizenship Award where students had to complete physical activity, learn a new skill, outdoor education and community service. Similar to the Duke of Edinburgh Award, but for younger students. He took the students on an international trip to Malaysia for an Outward Bound Course. The students were so challenged, cooking and cleaning up after themselves, camping outside, lighting fires, etc. Keep in mind that this was a first for almost every single student and all of them, bar one, has their own nanny, maid, cook, and while one parent complained about her daughter being a ‘slave’, all the other parents were so incredibly grateful and could not express their gratitude enough for the incredible experience that their children had.

Caleb also coached and led an interschool soccer team that was a first among the schools and was a fantastic way to build relationships. He also played on a social netball team, and while Rebecca was away in New Zealand used all his spare time to take advantage of the cheap green fees and took up golf.

We built relationships with a local orphanage down the road, and Rebecca taught Caleb’s students how to run English lessons for them, so every week the privileged rich kids had loads of fun with a whole heap of orphans – laughing, playing games, teaching songs and doing craft activities. Two highlights for Rebecca: when two of Caleb’s students were celebrating their birthdays and instead of bringing in cake, snacks and drinks to school, they decided they wanted to have their birthday party at the orphanage. So awesome. Secondly, the students used ‘Movember’ as a fundraising opportunity to put together awesome Christmas presents in brand new backpacks which they then distributed to the kids at the orphanage. The joy on the kids faces was just so beautiful. My heart swelled (and broke at the same time) when I went in to see the babies, and one of the smallest babies had a brand new little stuffed toy in their otherwise barren room. Unfortunately, despite all my pleadings to Caleb, I was not able to bring home an Indonesian baby. But, that wasn’t his fault. The adoption laws are so incredibly strict in Indonesia for foreigners. I think it is a clampdown to stop trafficking.

Rebecca also spent a lot of time at another orphanage where she taught English at the community preschool. Neriah absolutely loved hanging out with the other kids, who just adored her. Rebecca also spent a lot of time attending the expat mom’s playgroup, and taking Neriah along to baby-singing. One of the other causes which she liked to support was ‘Cleft Care’, an organisation committed to helping families who have a child with a cleft palate. The families would have to commit to ensuring the child was medically fit before they would receive surgery, so they would undergo health and nutrition information, as many of the children would simply not be healthy enough to make it through recovery when Cleft Care first discovered them. Thanks to the gorgeous Auckland Calvert girls for inviting me along to one of their clothes auctions – we used that idea to raise a whole heap of money for Cleft Care, and I hope it is something they will continue to use in the future as a fundraiser.

While in Indonesia we managed to do a couple of trips, one to Jogyakarta and the other to Bali (Caleb went a few times actually), but we were rather limited due to the fact that baby no. 2 was due half way through our year, so I had to spend 4 months in NZ.

LEVI

Yay for babies! Headed home from Indonesia with Neriah just before New Years 2013, to begin the final preparations for the new baby. Caleb stayed in Indonesia until February 16^th, when I picked him up from the airport at 7pm. He only had 2 weeks leave, so we took a huge risk booking him a flight a day after Levi’s due date. Well, what do you know but we woke up on the morning of the 17^th and there were my contractions. Went to church and left just before the service ended, deciding that we had to get Neriah back to Nana’s house and get up to the hospital because contractions were starting to come thick and fast! Had a lovely water birth and Levi was born at about 2pm.

Levi. He is my gorgeous strawberry-blonde cutie pie. He has not been the easiest of babies, but he definitely hasn’t been as bad as some. We have been blessed not to have babies that suffer from horrible things like reflux or colic.  He is usually quite cheerful and he is starting to show a great sense of humour. Neriah seems to get the most laughs out of him! He is quite possessive of the items he has in his grasp and he lets you know that he is not happy with you should you be brave enough to wrestle them out of his grip.

He is 10 months old now, and after 2.5 months of commando crawling is finally starting to crawl properly on his knees. He is a master spinner, and before he began commando crawling, he discovered that he could get closer to an object by doing a full 360. He is also pulling up on anything and everything and is definitely at the age where nothing is safe.

Rebecca also thinks he has a first word ‘up’ but any attempts to get Levi say it in front of Caleb have proved futile.  He is very expressive and is using baby sign to ensure that his milk is constantly available. He loves music and dancing.

MOVING BACK TO NEW ZEALAND

We decided that now was the best time for Caleb to further his education, so despite the loveliness of Indonesia, we returned home to Whakatane, where we are currently living in Rebecca’s gorgeous beach house where we wake up to ocean views. It is heaven.

Caleb is currently completing his Masters of Educational Leadership. We hope this will give Caleb the opportunity to progress further in his career in international schools. He will be finished by June 2014, so we are looking at returning overseas then.

We LOVE Whakatane. By far it has to be the friendliest place we have ever moved to. We have found a fantastic church, which is full with all kinds of wonderful people, including a whole heap of young families like us. Rebecca is loving the mum’s coffee group and bible study and finally having some women to connect with. Caleb is loving being able to head out surfing again.

We live close to the beach and our neighbourhood is lovely and slow and quiet. There are horses everywhere, and we even have some hens who are laying well.

Neriah has begun attending the local daycare two mornings a week, and it is a lovely stroll along the coastal road and through a reserve to get there. We certainly have missed being able to do these kinds of things!

NERIAH

Neriah turned 2 in August and we had a lovely little morning tea with a lot of our new friends in Whakatane. Neriah is talking A LOT, and we are managing to understand most of it. It took her 8 months to finally refer to Levi as ‘Levi’ rather than ‘baby’. She adores her brother and gives him little kisses at the most beautiful times.

Neriah loves helping Rebecca bake in the kitchen, and we have made her her own toy kitchen, and she spends a lot of time in there making ‘hummus’ and all sorts of yummy treats. She also enjoys having tea parties, riding her rocking horse and most of all, jumping on the neighbours ‘bump bump’ (trampoline), kicking soccer balls and swimming.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

We just recently returned from Papua New Guinea to visit Caleb’s mum, Valerie, and his family over at Kapuna, a remote jungle hospital in the swampy delta region. The last time we were there was in 2009 just before we got married, so it was awesome to go back again. We headed over in November for about a month for the purpose of helping to build some new classrooms for the school there. For those who don’t know, getting to Kapuna is such a mission! Our flight plan looked something like this: Auckland to Brisbane to Port Moresby, overnight there, small single engine plane, followed by a four hour motorised canoe trip.  We were lucky to do the whole trip in 2 days. Sometimes it can take 3 or even 4 days to do it due to all the coordination of internal travel.

Neriah and Levi got to spend lots of time getting to know Grandma (Valerie) and ‘Big Nana’ (Caleb’s Grandma) and also the rest of the swamp family. It took a week or so before they began to feel comfortable with village life, and they especially loved their 6:30am walks with Grandma and Uncle Colin and Aunty Barb (and WE especially loved it).  Neriah’s favourite thing to do at Kapuna was to swim in ‘Neriah’s Swimming Pool’, which used to be Shiana’s swimming pool, and is actually a half a water tank.

We also loved to walk through the hospital walking and talking and playing and praying with the various families and children. Neriah showed a particular interest in patients with head wounds, while Levi enjoyed the attention of the students and nurses.

Caleb spent most of his days with the two builders that also accompanied us, erecting a two-storey building, sweating in the heat and drinking green coconuts. The guys did such an amazing job, and after 2.5 weeks of hard labour this was the result:

Rebecca also spent some time helping to develop lesson plans and teaching games to some people from SIL who have begun a literacy program with the neighbouring village. Education standards in PNG are terrible with an incredibly low literacy rate, and these people are committed to helping to raise the standards using a new tool called Uniskript.

All in all, we are great, healthy, happy and loving life in small town NZ.

Love lots,

Caleb, Rebecca, Neriah and Levi.