Back In New Zealand

Back In New Zealand

11^th February 2007
After 168 days in Africa, I'm finally back in good ol' New Zealand.

While here, I will be staying at my parents' house in the little suburb of Weymouth in Manukau City.

So what I am doing in New Zealand? Well, if last time is any indication I will be:

Watching rugby and cricket till my eyes bleed
Stumbling from my bed to the couch to watch said sports
Eating
Eating some more
Getting fat

Hmmm. Sounds good in theory, but can be a little dull and unhealthy - both mentally and physically.

So, what will I do different?

Well, that depends on how my time with WINZ (Work and Income New Zealand) goes. WINZ, among other things, helps people get a job and provides them with assistance when they don't have a job. i.e. the unemployment benefit or the Dole as it is colloquially known as in New Zealand. Last time I was in New Zealand, I tried to get the unemployment benefit, but failed miserably due to stoopid bureaucratic reasons.

This time, things should go a bit smoother. For one thing, I am now officially in debt (both a "yay" and "boo" here for credit cards) and am pretty much prepared to do any type of job. I often talked about "moving boxes" as a job when I was in Uganda. Will be interesting to see what type of job I end up. Not many IT developers with 10 years of experience in a high profile position end up moving boxes.

What about after New Zealand? Well, I get sick of repeating this, so here it is:

Spend two months here in New Zealand
Travel to the Philippines and spend a month there
While there I will attend the graduation ceremony of Pulao Elementary School (where I used to teach) and have a general catchup with all my friends over there. I will also check out Romblon, the new area with the volunteer program I was involved in is now based.
Heading off to South Korea
...where I will be working for one year in a paid teaching position. I've organised this through i-2-i, an organisation that will place you in paid teaching position in a foreign country for a fee. A requirement is that you have completed TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) course, which I am currently doing online via the i-2-i site.

While in South Korea, I will be provided with a free fully furnished apartment and they will reimburse me up to 500 pounds in airfares. By my calculations, this makes the total reimbursement package something like $NZ 60,000 per year. This money will be used to: Pay off debts, buy a spiffy digital SLR camera, a sexy new laptop and fund my next stop...
Return to the the Philippines for something like two years
The majority of the money saved in South Korea will be used to fund my stay in the Philippines. While there I'll team up with the old crew in the Philippines and get my teeth stuck into some long term projects. Should be fun. Can't wait.
Return to New Zealand
Where I'll be in exactly the same position I am now. Broke and unemployed.

So, that's my plan and that's where I am.

Due to various reasons (getting malaria not being the least of them), I've gotten a little behind on things I want to write about here (such as tear gas attacks on the guest house, a third trip to Kitgum...), so I'll be catching up on those while I have a bit of time of my hands.

Do you like the work that I am doing?

Wanna help in a real and tangible way?

Then visit GrassRootsUganda.com and purchase some crafts made by Ugandan ladies. 100% of the profits are returned to the ladies

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(c) 2005, 2006 and 2007 Malcolm Trevena.
All the stuff on this site is written by me, Malcolm Trevena. Feel free to link to this page. Heck, you can even copy stuff from here if you want. Just make sure you sight me as a reference.