Auckland New Zealand

Talofa from Auckland New Zealand:

After a 3.5 hour flight from Salt Lake to LA and then a four hour lay-over and then a 13 hour flight to Auckland, we were ready to do anything but sit.  The plane was a new 777.  Nice plane but not for thirteen hours.  We checked on what it would be to upgrade from economy, just an extra $2700 each.   Needless to say we rode in the back with the rest of the peasants.  They served us breakfast at 3:00am our time to get us ready for Kiwi (New Zealand) time.  It was a long night of twisting and turning and walking to keep the leg cramps away.  We wore our special socks so that we didn’t develop blood clots in our legs. 

We were meet at the airport by the Ronnenkamps ( South Pacific Regional Office International Teacher Education Program (ITEP) Coordinators) and they took us to our hotel for some much needed rest.  It was a very nice hotel in a suburb of Auckland.  The traffic was terrible, as they don’t put much money in their infrastructure.  It took almost and hour to get from the airport to our hotel.  We showered, and went to bed.  We went out to dinner with the Ronnenkamps at 5:00 and then back to bed.

The next two days were spent in the Regional Office Learning about ITEP and what our role would be.  We will be teaching the teachers BYU Hawaii courses so that they can get a Teaching Certificate.  One fly in the ointment is that the Samoan Government is giving out a Teaching Certificate (TC) to anyone that pays $160 Tala (Samoan money).  There is no classwork etc. required.  We can’t say we wont recognize that TC because then we would be saying that the government system is not good.  It is a very political situation.  What we are now saying is that if a teacher wants an ITEP TC, which requires 30 credits of class work, they will get a 5% raise in salary.  The teachers at Viola make about three times what the government schools pay.  Some teachers don’t care about a 5% raise.  It will be interesting to see what happens. 

Every morning we ate at the hotel (great food) and were fed lunch and dinner at local restaurants.  One afternoon we were given some free time and we wandered down to the ocean. 

Beach in Auckland

Another beach in Auckland  Remember this is a volcanic island still.

We were given a tour of some of their beaches but the weather was bad as this is winter for them.  It was rainy and overcast just like at home.  People were complaining about being cold, but we weren’t.  Have to get up at 3:00 to catch our flight to Samoa.  We can’t wait to finally get to our destination.

 

Love and miss you all,   

                   Elder and Sister Budgett