Another full day

My day started out with a visit to a local tutor who is offering an Australian-based program similar a Sylvan Learning Center. What was really neat was to see how she had set up the program in an annex to her house.  After lunch, I headed off to REAP (Rural Education Activities Program) where I learned about the literacy programs that are offered in New Zealand.  What was most amazing was that learners only have access to between 25 and 100 hours of education in TOTAL!  Much different from Alberta where learners can access an unlimited amount of ESL education and thirty months of free literacy and upgrading education.  The highlight of the day was visiting a community house where members of the Samoan community had come together for an English conversation class once a week.  Because there were too many students to fit in the small house (12), the husband of one of the women had been hired to add insulation to the large shed in the backyard so that the classes could be offered there.

I was lucky enough to meet with the instructor and three of the women from the class who came in just to meet me.  It was powerful to hear the women speak about how they were too shy to talk to people outside of their community before coming to the class and now they have the confidence to talk to Kiwis, go to the doctor and explain what it wrong, fill out the census forms, talk to their children's teachers, and discipline their children who speak English better than they do.  They also talked about how one of the most important things for them to learn was how to "read" the weather symbols so that they could predict the weather that day.  They also said that they were able to take this information home and teach their husbands how to read the weather forecasts.

The center offers a really interesting computer program where students receive 25 hours of computer instruction.  At the beginning of the course, they sign a contract saying that they will teach what they have learned to their family and friends.  They are then given a second-hand computer at the end of the course and are subsidized for the first year of internet access.  This course is often a door-opener for the learners and they sign up for other courses after they finish that one.

The day ended with a wonderful dinner at a meeting of one hundred Rotarains where we gave another speech and met many interesting people.  Tomorrow we are off to Otaki.  Thank you Carterton Rotary for an amazing time.