Arriving in New Zealand...

The First Settlers:

Māui and the Big Fish is about a young sibling determined to prove himself to his elder brothers. From reading this Māori Myth I have learned that Māui is a very determined person. Māui, although he was often told that he wasn't good enough, persevered finding new and clever ways to complete whatever he set his mind to. He is also very clever, in this story he comes up with a cunning plan and outsmarts his older brothers. I would use cheeky to describe Māui. In this story, he is not afraid to do his own thing. In other Māori Myths, such as 'How Māui Slowed the Sun', Māui shows similar personality traits to the ones shown in the aforementioned myth.

Setting Sail:

Dear Bobby Makenu,

We have been sailing for several days now and I am becoming rather bored. I have played all the games we brought with us and now I have nothing left to do. Mum told me I should write a letter if I was really that bored, so I decided to write to you.

Our journey so far has been peaceful. There was one night when it rain but besides that, the weather has been good. I miss you. Yesterday we saw dolphins, I wish you could have seen them they had such shiny skin. One came up to the waka, I named it Silk because of how soft and smooth her skin felt. I'm pretty sure it was a she, there were two smaller dolphins swimming with her. I named them Star and Bobby, after you and me because they stayed together the whole time like best friends do. There haven't been many other animals, Mum says the water is too deep to see any of the fish. I have seen birds though. They were black and white and made a horrible screeching noise. I think I will call them seabirds because they flew over the sea far from land.

I love to look at the sky when it is nighttime. I can see all the stars I tried to count them but there are so many. They shine off the water and you can see all the stars twice. My Mum says I was named Whetū after them because she thinks I am as beautiful as the stars.

I am nervous about arriving, what if there are already people there? They might not be nice. I am also very excited. There will be new places to see and explore. I will find a good tree and I will build a fort in it for when you arrive on the next waka.

See you Soon,

Whetū Makenu

P.S. You are my favorite sister xoxo

10Br NCEA speech on PBL

This is the speech I gave to the year 10's at the close of PBL.

Hello, my name is Amy and today I am going to talk to you about my group’s PBL project.

On Sunday, the day before PBL began, I was stuck as to what topic I should choose. I sat down at church for the evening service and listened to the sermon, it was about finding God’s purpose in your life and fulfilling his plan. After the sermon, there was a period of quiet time for us to think and pray, at this time I prayed asking God what he wanted me to do for PBL. A few moments of quiet and I had an idea. My topic was going to be about helping kids with cancer.

I decided that I wanted to visit children with cancer in hospital to read stories to them. I wrote my idea down and smiled. The next day I came to school and shared my plan with a group of friends. During the first period of PBL, we split into groups and I joined a group with Mercedes and Hannah-Mae. We named our group The Wish Makers.

On the first week, we completed the activities from checkpoints one to five. On Monday, the second week, we called the hospital and I manned the phone. I talked to one of the nurses in the pediatric ward and told her that we wanted to read Christmas stories to the children—she gave us permission to come the next day. We arrived the next day a little before 10 and found our way to wards 21 and 22 where the children were staying. The nurse I talked to on the phone showed us to the waiting area. After an hour-and-a-half wait, we met the head nurse of the ward. She sat down with us and explained that we could not see the children that day but we might be able to come back another time. She gave us the email address for someone from the Christchurch District Health Board.

We emailed the CDHB asking what steps we needed to take if we wanted to spend time with the kids. About three days later we received a reply. Their email informed us that we would need police checks before visiting the children. After looking into this we discovered that police checks were out of the question due to age restrictions. It is safe to say this action plan didn’t work very well. We set up a “Give A Little” page sending funds straight to the Child Cancer Foundation before we started our project again.

At the start of the third week, we merged with another group who were doing a related project and hit a similar roadblock. As one large group, we made over 40 dreamcatchers. We also collected about three boxes of stuffed toys and a large number of cans. During a four-hour car wash, we washed five cars, raising $50. All of this was donated to the Ronald McDonald House. It took a lot of time to plan the car wash, and we are thankful for our supportive parents and teachers who made it happen. The event worked, and even though we didn’t raise as much as we had intended to, we still have helped a little and that is all we could have hoped for.

Half of the group visited the Ronald McDonald House to deliver these gifts as well as Handmade Christmas cards. Although we were not allowed to visit the children, our actions still went well and we achieved our goal. At the close of PBL, Hannah-Mae and I presented our work and actions. We explained our project and showed a video compilation of the car wash. Haylee created a video using the photographs Bella and Letecia took during this event.

PBL has been hard and very stressful. There have been ups and downs and often we wanted to give up and cry, but we persevered. We are proud of our resilience. Helping improve the lives of these children has brought us joy. We worked extremely hard the first week and just as hard the second, but after so much disappointment our efforts lessened. After a while, we could no longer see the point. How could we help when everything we planned and attempted got shot down? However, looking at what we have achieved, we can see how all these little things contribute to a bigger picture.

If you want to help the Child Cancer Foundation you can donate through our Give A Little Page, helping fund crucial research needed to find a cure. Share the link around and raise awareness about this cause. Donate old clothes and toys in Child Cancer Foundation collection bins. If you want to know more about our project you can visit my school blog.

Even though the effects we had on the lives of those children were small, we still succeeded. We realize, now PBL is over, that you can change things for the better with just one small act of kindness. “It takes a lot to change the world, but one small act of kindness can change someone’s whole world.”