I started teaching in South Africa in 1998. I gained heaps of experiences working with multi cultural classes. In 2000, I met my wonderful husband, also a teacher, and we have worked alongside each other since 2002.
In 2005, we decided that we needed a change in our lives. Something more, challenging. We moved to Taiwan and taught English as a second language at a private school. We missed our family and went back to South Africa in 2008. We bought a doggy Parlour and worked for another 4 years at the same school.
We have two sons, 8 and 4 years old. As all parents, we wanted to give our kids everything and the best opportunities there might be. Knowing how the system works in Taiwan, we decided to uproot our family and moved back to Taiwan. Our kids are fluent in Mandarin Chinese and had the awesome opportunity the experience and be submerged in a another culture.
Now to further our journey, we explored the idea of moving to either Australia, Canada or New Zealand. After months of research and finding the best fit for our family, we started the process immigrating permanently to New Zealand.
My husband and oldest son will arrive on Sunday September 2nd. It's been the most challenging month of my entire life. I don't think I have ever cried so much. Without my husband and my oldest son, was heartbreaking. Setting up a new life from scratch without the support of family was daunting. But looking back this has made me stronger on so many levels. I strongly feel that my Saviour will never put something in my way that I can not handle.
I have met amazing people who have helped, supported, offered a glass of wine, hugged and wiped my tears. With that I have found my "family" in New Zealand.
Regarding my experience as a teacher, after 20 years of working in multi cultural classes and in two different countries, I thought before I started working: "I got this! I'm a good, caring teacher. What could go wrong?" Now this was an eye opener.
New curriculum, new teachers, new class, new set up, new way of teaching, freedom to do whatever. What a shock to my system.
With the knowledge of 20 years of teaching, I felt like an incompetent teacher.
My school has been awesome. there is no lack of support, freedom to find myself in this new system. I looked at myself in thousands of new ways. Exploring what can I do to better myself in this new, weird and scary environment. Slowly I gained confidence to be me and the rest will follow. With the help of my wonderful team and my mentor, our deputy principal I can say with confidence: "I can do this!"
When my husband and son arrive, everything will fall into place.......
