Chanel's Side of the story .....
Today was a lovely day, until all the hairs on the back of my neck rose. We were getting ready to start performing our performances before the Mayor gets here with all his guests. He was visiting us because there will be a new Early Childhood Education centre getting built in the front of our school, Glenbrae School. My friend, Hannah was performing a Samoan dance, the boys from my class were performing a Tongan dance. When the Mayor arrives with all the other guests, us girls and boys will welcome him with the haka and Karena and Noellen will welcome them with the karaga. It was so traditional and New Zealand like. After all the nerve-wracking moments, we walked and silently sat inside the hall waiting for the ceremony to start. During the ceremony, we were singing, laughing, clapping. Len Brown, Nick Smith and Matua Jim made some speeches and talked to us about what has been happening around Glen Innes. There has been people moving from houses to houses and some people aren’t liking it, but it’s okay.
Hannah's side of the story .....
After all the laughs and joking around, the whole school walked to the front of the school, getting ready to dig into the ground for the building of the centre, next year. We all sang Te Aroha once more and then took photos. Some people were fangirling, I could tell. We photobomb some of the photos, which were funny. Later on, we went to the scout hall, which was getting repaired and is going to more beautiful than before. We did the karakia to bless it and wish that everything will go well. We also went down to Taniwha Street to see the new buildings that are getting built. It was funny because Nick Smith was inside the digger and he dug a huge hole into the ground. We stood there with protesters making everyone mad, especially me. I just wanted to …………. nothing. When it was time to leave, our teacher signalled us to start walking back to school.
Everyone had fun on that day, we all wished it never ended. But, it was a Thursday and Thursdays always end …...
Hannah
ReplyDeleteThats a very good post about a quite sensitive topic. I really like how you covered the different perspectives of the arguments and wrote about all the things that you saw and heard about. I also like how you wrote about it and didn't affect your day, I don't know that all the adults that I know would be able to write a report like this. Great that you shared it so soon after it happened.
I used to work in the area so I know some of the places that you were writing about. I don't live in the area anymore, I live a long, long way away but it was great to read about some of the old places that I knew so well. Thank you.
Mr Webb and Room One, Auroa Primary School, Taranaki.
mrwebbauroa.blogspot.com
Thank you, Mrs Webb. And thank you to Room One in Auroa Primary !
DeleteHannah, I like how you and Chanel have told your different parts of the morning events. You've touched on some of the bigger issues involved with the redevelopment project, namely the people who have been affected by the house moving and the protesters. You are right they did make it difficult to enjoy our special moment, I was mad too, but you did the right thing to ignore it.
ReplyDeleteMrs Parker
Thank you, Mrs Parker
Delete