Life in Eureka

In New Zealand, we are having experience with the wild wet weather – Can not blame Aussie! Due to Cyclone DebbieIn Waikato, we received the huge amount of deluge rain fall everywhere for the last three-two days. In Waikato, it was the worstweather we ever received since 2008 and 2011. The photo above was takenoutside Hamilton City on my way to work this morning. The section was a part of the Waikato Express Motorway construction, and it called Ruakura Interchange.http://www.nzta.govt.nz/assets/projects/hamilton/hamilton-project-update-201702.pdfI slept through nights without hearing aids until I woke up to find puddles everywhere outside the fields from our windows. My partner and dogs did not manage to sleep through nights due to heavy noises on the roof. Sigh! I was the lucky person to sleep through all night because of my deafness and leaving my partner and dogs in despair with noisy. If I wear my hearing aids anytime and I can hear the vibration of the sounds and noise of noises through the roof. Without hearing aids, Deaf people can not listen to the sounds except to feel vibrations by feeling through their feet, body or hands. Today the sun finally came out and hopefully to dry out all the water everywhere especially for the farmers’ crops such as maizes. Recently there is a small town called Edgecumbe, and it is on the East Coast of the North Island. This town suffered severely, and it was under water due to a flood bank breached. Many local people who live in Edgecumbe survived the earthquake in 1987. The township population is 1,638 in 2013 according to the census in New Zealand but on the news, it said there were about 2,000 people living in Edgecumbe. Several roads were cut off in the rural areas eg Port Waikato including the highway road between Nelson, Kaikoura and Christchurch. Of course, we are not the only one to suffered the worst weather. In Colombia, an avalanche of mud and derbies washed down the village called Salgar. This mud slides killed around 50 people in Salgar and around the village.mm, I wonder what kind of winter in Waikato, we will be having.

Source: Oh what! Deluge everywhere

​Something was really unusually in Morrinsville, Waikato yesterday……We arrived to the Countdown Supermarket – grocery supermarket like the Walmart, Marks & Spencer, in Morrinsville. I noticed something was really funny and to brighten the day up as it was cloudy morning..In the car park across the road from Countdown Supermarkert car park, there was a large tractor parking in the Warehouse car park… Yep! A large tractor parked in the car park..First I saw a mobility scooter parked in the disability car park a couple years ago and I took a photo. Now it was a tractor!Of course, Morrinsville is a farming urban. “A farmer coming to town, a farmer coming to town, a farmer coming to town and finding somewhere to park in the town..”

Source: Something to brighten the day!

This month is April and where has the summer gone by…In Eureka, Waikato, we were experienced having a short summer season in the rural country of Waikato. The maize crops were not harvested due to a very long wet Spring season last year. It had been a lot of rainfalls over two and a half months during the Spring season until around December, and the summer finally came through. Many farmers planted maizes around November than September due to wet soil. BUT we did not have plenty of sunny days for another two and a half months until now. There were a lot of humid evenings when we tried to have a good sleep each night.The worst of all was a booming population of rabbits everywhere in the rural country. We receive daily visits of rabbits and their bunnies creeping into our fields and doing sunbathing each day when there was the sunshine. We were not bothered with this pest – rabbits. Most of the times, I enjoyed looking out from the kitchen window and watching this rabbits eating grasses. It reminded me of my childhood when my late grandfather took me out to do rabbits, duck and other pests shooting during the school holiday.Up the road from us, there has been the sound of ‘gun shootings’ in the farmland, and we know that the neighbours were doing rabbit shootings. Other neighbours use baits in the burrows out in the farm land where there were no cows or another kind of animals like dogs and cats. We do not use any baits or obtain a gun here because we have got dogs. Our dogs chase rabbits as it is their exercise each day. One of our ‘English’ neighbours told me off to not use our dogs to chase rabbits when they were walking with their ‘lonely’ dog. Heh – I told this neighbour that it was not their property and it was not their problem and do not bother to call the Pest Control Officer because they (Council staff) know who you are such a nuisance caller.We missed having a long hot summer this year. We have a good crop of tomatoes, and I made into tomatoes sauces. The roses were blooming over a long period of times throughout summer into autumn. I continue to prune dead head many roses until they are about to finish before or after the frost season.Sigh! Let hope we will have a good season of autumn and watching leaves falling down in our fields. A cool month to come, less rain fall and a plenty of sunshines.

Source: What! It is Autumn here in New Zealand.

Source: How rude or to gain a shock reaction from the person???

Source: How rude or to gain a shock reaction from the person???

As a deaf teacher aide, ESOL tutor, NZSL tutor in me, something bought me attention in the ESOL classroom this month.How can any refugee students understand our native language – English if they come from Spain, Afghanistan, Columbia or China? The answer is difficult to grasp to understand our English speaking language even written language than sign language.Any ESOL teachers expect every refugee students to learn to listen the sounding out in English such in a conversation first. The ESOL teacher will write down the starter word, e.g., apple, the book on the white board and repeat saying the phrase.In the classroom, I noticed some of the hearing refugee students are struggling to learn to hear the sound of any words by looking at the sentence. Not all of them were able to find the word correctly after three weeks. They are still working on finding the word by saying out loud. Then they were told to write a word such as ‘apple’ without looking at the dictionary book. I looked up the survey result from many ESOL resources and the average result were 45% failed in listening and learning while 25% failed to read and write but they understood any words.mm, as a deaf ESOL signer/tutor/teacher aide with three languages – English, New Zealand Sign Language and English Signed language.I assist and supporting one Deaf refugee citizenship person in the same classroom as above. I use three languages, and lip read the ESOL teacher while this teacher is teaching all the students in the same room. It sounds an awfully lot of work for me to do than this ESOL teacher. However, this ESOL teacher uses less minimise of signs to this deaf student and less writing in the book. Impossible! Impossible!This ESOL teacher does not understand in our Deaf Sign Language and Deaf Culture. I gave a few excellent resources about Deaf people in the ESOL school, sign language and teaching methods with an ESOL Deaf student to this person and the director of the centre. There is a lot of works in the Literacy and Numeracy area from the Ministry of Education for Adult people including Deaf, Learning disabilities and refugee people in ESOL and Literacy courses in NZ.How the history of the first Deaf Education School established in New Zealand?Back in the 1860s, there was no Deaf school in New Zealand, and there were many families who have d/Deaf children here. The parents sent their Deaf child to England, Australia even to the USA where there were Deaf Schools. It was not very cheap to send their Deaf child to school by ship, and it was a very long way from home. In the early census record in New Zealand, it showed the year in 1878.”Deaf and Dumb.—The total number returned was 92; 25 of whom were stated to be “dumb,” but deafness from birth being a cause of dumbness, it is presumed that, in using the word “dumb,” deaf and dumb persons were referred to 58 of the total number were between 5 and 20 years of age, and 31 were upwards of 20 years of age.”https://www3.stats.govt.nz/historic_publications/1878-census/1878-results-census.html#idsect1_1_1927The first Deaf School established in Sumner, Christchurch, New Zealand in 1880. BUT there was a first teacher of the Deaf, and it was Miss Dorcas Mitchell of UK via Australia. She taught forty-two deaf children including eight of the Bradley Deaf children prior to 1877 and received no government assistance. Sadly Miss Dorcas Mitchell was not chosen to work for the Deaf Education as a Director by the Government and the Member of the Parliment chosen Gerit van Asch from England via The Netherlands. There were two different methods of teaching Deaf children in the early days – one was sign language by D. Mitchell while the second was oralist method by Gerit van Asch. However, during 1880, there was an international conference Education of the Deaf, in Milan there were many deaf educators including hearing educators. It was called ‘The Milan Conference’, and that was the time many educators banned sign language from being taught in the classroom. Many hearing educators believed oral education was better than signed language even they did not include a small number of Deaf educators during the voting system in Milan conference. But there were three Deaf directors of Europe, and they preferred to the used oral method.The sign language returned from time to time in 1910 to 1970s but not in the classrooms. Until the first sign language introduced to the Ministry of Education was a Total Communication (TC)- full English grammar including facial expression, body gestures, listening, speech, lip reading and finger spellings in the 1980s. That was an awfully lot of signs and the work to lip read, to write down even to learn to read for any Deaf person like me. Today we have many options of sign languages such as TC, NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language) and International Sign languages which are borrowed signs from ASL (America Sign Language), Auslan, British Signs. There is one more sign which we do not use

Source: ahhhhh! What wrong with our own NZSL in ESOL teaching?

https://youtu.be/RXUfO66PA6wA poem which I signed in NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language)The Gracefulness of a butterflyHow gentle,and fragile they seem.Gently flutteringon a calm summers day,Floating like,a dream.But sadly,there time is over,Hardly before,it’s began.So enjoy your special moments,Like a butteflyin the sun.John Reid wrote this poem. 2012, 10 Janaury

Source: A Butterfly Poem in NZSL

A baby born – one family kept one secret about their first child from their extended families and friends even workmates. During their baby scan, the nurse found out their pre-baby is not developing into a physical body. This family referral to me via to another organisation from their local specialist and GP last year.Last year, I received a new from this family, and they have a baby born late October – a healthy baby to the young family. The only people knew their secret, were their parents, two bosses and a couple of close friends.This family with a young baby – I called them, Charlie and Debbie as the parent and Alexandra as the baby. This family are the refugee from the Middle East. These names are fictional for this blog. They were grateful to listen to my experience with the friends I went to school, and I am working with one male who is over sixty-five years old.Alexandra was born with cerebral palsy and deaf. She is young and the specialist does not know if she will walk or have the speech to talk… Alexandra’s legs, spine and left side of her arm and hand are not perfect forms. She will continue to do physio regularly at home and the clinic. Charlie and Debbie are involved with one-three support groups this year. They want their daughter to become independent in the family. Charlie and Debbie hope to have some financial support for Alexandra because they are refugee recently in New Zealand. If they were in their homeland and they will suffer hardship financially support, and no helps in medical needs for many children with disabilities. Yes it is true and it is about giving empathy to other people who have not come across with disabled child in the family or friend. Today we have the new technology, parent support groups, equipment for children with special needs and resources of the support groups.Three of the stories, during my primary school at Hamilton West School and Hamilton Deaf Club/Hamilton Deaf Christian Fellowship. At Hamilton West School, we have a young girl called Ankica (fictional) with us. Today she is over fifty years old and doing well. We keep in touch most of the time.Ankica’s family came from Croatia in the early years and they lived in the Northland, New Zealand where there were many places to work as gum diggers. The Dalmatian families lived there in the Northland.Ankica born with cerebral palsy and deaf and nothing will stop her from doing any activities. Today she is still independent and uses advice from us wherever she wants to use, change the plan or to buy something.Her first language is English than New Zealand Sign Language or Total Communication Language. The Total Communication is a made up with Australian Sign Language, English Signed and oral during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Yes, Ankica is deaf and uses one-two hearing aids during the day but she does not sign much. Her life around at home and out in the community, she goes out in the wheelchair either manually or electric power wheelchair. Ankica is a self-employed at home and she used to work at the Workshop with other disabilities adult. Today she is a gardener, doing needleworks for business and outing with her favourite dog. Here is a photo of Ankica and her best friends – Timoti and Steve (fictional) and they helped her around at school even to follow her. The second person – an older man who his parents came from Poland via Germany after the war to New Zealand. His name was Jacek and he born cerebral palsy, speech impaired, limit in literacy and deaf. I visit and assist him every week or every fortnight for his needs. What he has was his left side of his body (leg and hand). Jacek does not use a wheelchair and a pair of hearing aids, and he walks around with his walking stick. His speech is difficult to understand at first, but we know what he was talking about from time to time. Jacek is working five days a week for the same company over forty-six years. The staff of the company looks after him and work together as an equal workplace. Recently the boss emailed me, and we discussed over the new technology which was computer digitalise calculators equipment for parts like nuts, bolts, screw caps – nothing big or small. I visited his boss and Jacek, and we sat down and talked together over the new technology if Jacek can do it or not. The company put Jacek on trial with the new technology and guess what! It was successful for Jacek to overcome the barrier by using the

Source: A secret from the family

A Christmas is just around the corner for people who loves Christmas while other people who don’t celebrate Christmas.Waking up in the morning and preparing breakfast when looking out in the fields of flowers are blooming in time for summer in Waikato. Wondering what kind of news bring us today or tomorrow!In Syria – the city of AleppoThere is a never ending of peace for them and the most recent attack, was the chemical weapons attacking many people including many disabled people and children. They have nowhere to run or to hide somewhere in the underground buildings or the churches until the rescue teams come. Today they are trying to flee away from the war because there is no hope, no peace, no foods even medical supplies and the list so on. Syrian’s lives never been the same as in the past and the children may never see a kite flying in the sky, playing football or watching television. There are approximately 105,000 Deaf people in Syria (dated Dec 12th, 2016) and no one has got the actual figures of Deaf people or disabled people including children today. Because all the records have been lost or burned during the wars. I know there are more than 105,000 Deaf people including children and it could be 1 millions or even more than 1 millions people and children with disabilities. I have no idea if Institute for deaf and mute people (Aleppo / Halab) is there or gone in Aleppo. What about the school for the Deaf in Damascus, Homs and Lattakia?Syrian Deaf people sign in Levantine Arabic Sign Language which knows as Syro-Palestinian Sign Language. It is a combined of Jordon, Palestine, Syria and Lebanon. In Syrian refugee camp, there is a Center for Hope in Za’atari Camp and this Center for Hope runs by the Holy Land Institute for the Deaf. But it is not just for the Deaf people and children, there is a Za’atari Disability Center, with support from Episcopal Relief & Development. Looking at the verses which I alway remember this song from the Bible “Ecclesiastes 3” (New International Verison) during the church service and poetry. “A time to be born, a time to die,a time to plant and a time to uproot,a time to kill and a time to heal,a time to tear down and a time to build,a time to weep and a time to laugh,a time to mourn and a time to dance,a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,a time to search and a time to give up,a time to keep and a time to throw away,a time to tear and a time to mend,a time to be silent and a time to speak,a time to love and a time to hate,a time for war and a time for peace. There is a song which sang by The Byrds and the lyric ‘Turn!, Turn!, Turn!’ It can be found on the websites even YouTube. This verse reminds me closer to Christmas time – the Birth of Jesus Christ and to share the good news with family and friends. Not just Christmas presents like toys and technology games/phone/mobile. The cities around Syria never be the same as in the past because it is all gone and into rubble buildings everywhere. There are many bitters and anger coming out from many Syrian people.Is there hope and peace for many Syrian people and children including people/children with disabilities?

Source: A Time to plant and a time to uproot..

Last night there was a final work Christmas dinner including ‘Thank you’ for working with Crosslight Trust, Hamilton, New Zealand. I was one of the staff members used to work for Crosslight Trust over seven years. My job role was a Community Support Worker/Tutor in Literacy/Numeracy/NZSL (New Zealand Sign Language) for the Deaf, Hearing Impaired and DeafBlind. But I am still working until the 22nd of December 2016 under Crosslight Trust. Let me explain what this business do and how does this business helps in the community….The Crosslight Trust established in 1988 and it was known as Barnabas Community House. They provided a full range of services, programmes and practical assistance to the community of Frankton and Dinsdale, West Hamilton area. Then came in 1998, we have had an Op Shop which was a second-hand shop for many low-income people and counselling. Finally the last of the services and assistance to the community were Cafe (Creative Activities for Elderly) and my work as Community Support Worker for the Deaf, Hearing Impaired and DeafBlind. Our service provided many food parcels, supporting and assisting many people who were on the income benefits by the Government.Sadly, this work place forced to closed down due to insufficient of funding by the Government and other organisations. Because our soon to be ex-workplace was under the Non-Profit Organisations. The only services, programmes and practical assistances – Op Shop, counselling and my work were shutting down, and leaving food parcels bank to another organisation under the Catholic Service and Cafe to another church – West Hamilton Community. It was a bit of blow for me because my work with the Deaf, Hearing Impaired and Deafblind is lost in the community and leaving them to the organisations such as Deaf Aotearoa, Blind Foundation and Hearing Association in Hamilton. These organisations do not have the same kind of services which I provide assisting, supporting in literacy/numeracy even teaching NZSL in workplaces. Each persons, I support and assisting them were not very happy but they will have to put up with the Deaf Aotearoa service which limited to their needs etc. It is a barrier and there are gaps between one organisation to another organisation.This morning I was looking back to the past when I started in 2008 and the people who I worked with and supported them. There were so many funny sides, most embarrassed things that they have done wrong, travelling out to the prison to teach one Deaf man for his literacy and the list so on.. One chap who is over severy-two came into my office and he showed me his ‘burnt’ hearing aids. I could not laugh in front of him and I asked him how he does do this. His replied was simple logic – put in the microwave to dry out the damp and wetness before going out to a Black & White Tie dinner. His hearing aids got damp and wet due to the shower while he was walking around the park and he realised that he was running late for dinner. He put his hearing aid in the microwave while he had a shower. I asked him if his audiologist explained the golden rule about putting the hearing aid in a safe place for drying out. What he replied was NO. The next problem was his insurance company refused to pay him for the replaced hearing aid and I emailed his insurance company if they were aware of the cost of hearing aids. The Insurance company replied was less than NZ$400.00 and I replied to them saying it was over NZ$1,000. It seemed logic that most of the staff at the Insurance Company have no idea on the cost of our disabilities equipment. We sorted out with his Insurance Company and this chap got a replaced hearing aid along with a bright Yellow stick-note “DO NOT PLACE HEARING AID IN THE MICROWAVE”. This Insurance Company staff have learnt about us – People with disabilities including Deaf, Hearing Impaired and DeafBlind. They changed and updated the policy through the Head Office based in Australia. Another memory was the trip to the prison once a week; I went through the barrier of gates and staff checked me. One day I waited and waited by the special way of testing at the gates where there were video cameras around and finally got in. Why? When I was at the barrier gate, and there was a guy doing ride on mower which was so loud. The staff realised what the problem was and I spoke to the top security officer to discuss over this accessible for me as a dea

Source: Dealing with losing my job