baby lambs. term break. ipod. work. ethnicity/race.

Oh what a happy day to go out to a sheep farm and hold baby lambs. We initially greeted in the paddock with a mother sheep who had a dead baby lamb with only the head hanging out of her lady parts. The farmer had to extract the dead baby, and then pulled out the live one, much to the relief of the girls. We learned a lot about sheep, and our consensus is that we like the black ones the best--maybe because they are less common? But any cute cuddly one, without lots of poo hanging from it's behinder is great.
Three girls are still begging for a pet lamb, but they do require feeding three-four times per day, and we are not home that much.

Until now...as today is the first day of term 3 break. Yep, those Kiwi students and guests go to school for 10 weeks, then get 2 weeks off. Summer break starts December 10- and they start their new school year on February 2nd. Girls are going horseback riding on Monday. Some place where they get to be for 4 hours, caring for their "own" horse/pony and riding, etc.  We are laying low for term break, as we are saving our tourist/vacation activities for when Aunt Kelley, big brother Matthew and his partner Katie join us for a visit. Come on October and November!

On Monday, at 0900 I am off-call for 7 whole days. I have been on for the past month, and am ready to not shoulder the responsibility for a few days. Although, I am going in to meet with the plumber and discuss the installation of our new birth tub!!!!!!!!

IPOD~
Did I mention how much I love having my little nano??? Last year traveling to Pakistan without one, I swore I would never travel without some way to drown out the noise...now I need it for something to entertain myself while I log miles doing homevisits. I am not a AM station-kind-of-gal, and this is one of my survivor techniques. Plus my work car happens to drive very loudly. Anyway, I thought about how I must look heading out to visits. After dropping my kids off at school, I carefully put in my earbuds and pull down my sunglasses, rev up my engine and take off!

Speaking of sun protection...some of these Kiwis would do well to wear sunglasses and sunscreen. Some people look older than their years due to the sun damage which is so quickly received here, in this ozone-missing part of the world.

Medication NZ-style~

I prescribed some zofran for a patient who was incapacitated with morning sickness. I personally stopped into the pharmacy to make sure this country stocks it. {[You can only get your medicine Mon-Friday here!] The closest pharmacy is 40 minutes away.} Okay, so they do stock it, but can only give her 10 days worth. Fine, she needs it. I spoke with her a couple of days later and she was elated that it worked. However, she told me it cost her $50 NZD. As I started to apologize she told me, no she would gladly have paid twice that to feel better. Jeesh. When they said it was in-stock, I thought it was another one of the $3 co-pay meds. Wouldn't it be nice if the midwife knew these things? Oh lordy, the things I am learning, while flying by the seat of my pantaloons.

Maori Cultural Safety and Treaty of Waitangi Workshop~

I attended my required course to be a full-fledged registered member of NZ midwifery. I found it very interesting, because I love learning about other cultures. What I thought was that if we just substituted American Indian or African-American, it was very, very similar. Poorer health, less-educated, etc. All the problems that stemmed from colonisation I learned. It was interesting when someone asked--when does it stop? When will it even out? When will the NZ/Europeans stop being blamed for causing all the problems?  The instructor kept saying he would like to be out of job, teaching Maori culture safety in the next few years. I mentioned that then the Kiwis might need other culture safety since they are relying on a constant stream of immigrants to prop up their country--especially in health care and farming. [I also thought to myself--those racist brats in Tuatapere who continue to mock my Chinese daughters need a little culture safety training.]
Maori language tip: W's are pronounced like F's. Our instructor kept using a long word that looked like whuckawuckamunga. But of course it came out with a different pronunciation. ;-)

More ethnicity~

A fair number of my patients are direct immigrants from: Germany, 2, South Africa, 1, UK, 3.  When my born and raised in South Africa patient wrote down European to describe herself--I had to say: You are from the continent of Africa, your birth country's name is AFRICA, why would you not claim to be African? Well, because I am not black. Oh, I said are you Afrikaans then? No, my great grandparents were from France. Have you ever been to France? No, have you even been to Europe? Nope. HAHAHAHAHA.

When filling out forms for NZ my choices are:
NZ/European
Other European
NZ Maori
Middle East
Samoan
Cook Is Maori
Tongan
African
Niuean
Tokelauan
Fijian
Other Pacific
South East Asian
Chinese Indian
Other Asian
Declined to state
Don't know
But since my people have not been from Europe for a very long time, and since we all descend from the mitochondrial Eve--I could call myself African with about the same inclination as I would say European. Looking at this list leaves out the whole Hispanic world doesn't it? Little musings from someone who has lots of time alone driving around the countryside of NZ.