Kia Ora First Day of School

I'm a bit behind, but Thursday, January 5 was the first day of classes in New Zealand. We have all of our classes in a local church building located around Lincoln Road. It was a very long day because we are all still getting over jet lag and sitting in a chair for about 7 hours, but it is still exciting to be in New Zealand and learning.  We learned so much about the Maori culture that was pretty interesting. We learned some Maori words. Here are some that we learned:

• Kia Ora - Welcome
• Kumara - Sweet potatoes
• Kapai - Very good/good work
• Tangi - Funeral
• Maraie - Place where the family gathers for the funeral
• Kai - Food/eat
• Whanou - Extended family 
• Tamariki - Come here children

These are just some of the words that we learned and that come up often, especially in the schools. We need to make sure that we learn these not only to use them ourselves, but also to know what people are talking about.

We also learned about a Powhini (wh makes the "f" sound). A Powhini is a traditional Maori welcoming ceremony. These ceremonies include speeches, exchanging of gifts, songs, and many other traditions. When we begin teaching in the schools we will be apart of a Powhini. We learned a song that we will be required to sing after we have been officially welcomed into the country. 

Here is the song: 

Te Aroha

Te Whakapono

Me Te Rangimarie

Tatou, Tatou, E 

Translated:

Love

Faith

Peace

To everyone

Here is a link to a video of the song. This version is a bit more upbeat than how we are singing it but this will help you get the gist of what it's like. 

This is a video of us practicing our song. The recording isn't that great but that's okay. Enjoy! 

After we sing our song we will go up to each leader of the group and greet them through a hongi. This is what a hongi looks like: 

What you do is you put your foreheads and noses together and literally share each others breath. We are supposed to do this without giggling, which is going to be a struggle, seeing as we are in each others personal space and is a tad awkward.