Start from Family*

A Reflection

I have been here in Auckland for seven weeks  but it still takes a long time for me to think what I want to write in this journal. Talking about something to celebrate my self in this journal, I would say thanks abundantly to my self for working and thinking so hard in learning everything here. 

Honestly, I was not that confident to mingle with everyone here due to my introvert personality but seven weeks are gone with joyful and interesting experiences with all INSPIRASI 2019 whanau. Apart from learning about my special interest, I found another thing that very important to learn from my host family. It is about how parents relationship with their children. I love the way Stephen and Charissa care about Ezra and River. What they do towards Ezra and River inversely with what most parents in my hometown do to teach their children. There are three things that make me amazed with Stephen and Charissa’s family.

After we had our last dinner, full of my tears 

(A day before flight back to Indonesia)

                   

First, I never heard Stephen or Charissa said no to Ezra when he asked for something or do something unnecessary. They will ask Ezra nicely about what he wants and teach him how to ask with a better way. Stephen and Charissa will be proud and appreciate every little progress that Ezra and River do. For example, yesterday Ezra cried because he wanted to do typing on Stephen’s laptop and without say No, he made a new word document and let Ezra typing. After do the typing, Stephen said “good job Ezra, you’ve done a better typing than before” then he saved that document. It was not the first document of Ezra, there were other documents before. Furthermore, when Ezra or River cry, they will say sorry and try to make them calm with love instead of yell to or beat them like what mostly experienced by children in my hometown (include me when I was a child. But I do not want to blame my parents who make me become an introvert with the way they raised me. I want to say thank for them to give me that experience so I can learn what is the good one. I can say “we know what is good from the bad one or vice versa – all is well”). Then, I come to believe that when parents let the children try something new without give them “NO” and give them appreciation would build their self-confident since they were a child. It would also make them to be creative, feel free to give their opinion and being an open person.

Second, Ezra has a lot of books and Stephen or Charissa love to read them for him. I think almost all of parents in this country do the same thing. I could say this because when we did some visit to Stephen and Charissa’s Friends, they have books for their kids. I guess this is why people in this country are very literate. They have been taught and introduced to literacy culture since they were a kid. One day, Stephen and Charissa took me to a public library near their house and I shocked when I found some kids books like “Eco Steam The Food We Eat”, “50 Simple Things Kids Can Do To Save The Earth”, “Our World In Crisis – Global Pollution” and “The Story Of Civil Rights”. Even in the last page of book “The Story of Civil Rights” there is a part which provide some tips for the kids to be an activist. Another intriguing thing was Ezra’s favourite book; The Lorax by Dr. Seus. This book tell a story of the lorax, who stand for the trees against once-ler, who cut down the trees to produce valuable things to sell. This book made me admire Dr. Seus who create a brilliant fairy tale to teach the kids about how our natural resources being exploited by capitalism system and resulted a devastated environment. The Lorax represents the environmental activist and once-ler represents  capitalist.

 

Books for kids I found at Public Library Nearby

Third, Stephen and Charisa always take Ezra and River to the farm, to see the animals or walk into the bush to see Piwakawa-kawa (a native bird and Ezra’s favourite bird). While Living with them, we always spent our time to visit some beautiful beaches then let Ezra and River play with the sand and water. We even had Ezra and Rivers’s first camp. I saw this as a way of Stephen and Charisa to engage their kids with the nature. By introduce them with natural environment since they were a kid, I am sure that Ezra and River will grow as young people who love the environment.

Visited Muriwai Beach which has Gannet Colony

 Another thing to learn: the most effective way to build awareness towards environmental and social issues is started from the family. Once again, I believe that parents have important role for this.

When writing this journal, I proud that I could learn those things. Thanks for Stephen and Charissa. Perhaps this could be a perfect approach for me if I wanted to build an environmental awareness of young people in my hometown. I am thinking to build up a cooperation with church to give a parenting education for the couple before their wedding (hahahaha this might be a ridiculous idea that I have been thinking about). However, at least I already know how to be a good parent when I marry to someone and having a family with high awareness about environmental and social issues.       

My Lovely Family

(At One Tree Hill)

   Hobsonville, 11 August 2019     

*ini adalah tulisan refeleksi saya pada minggu ke-7 berada di Auckland tahun 2019 lalu. Bahasa Ingrisnya tidak mau diperbaiki, biar nanti bisa bandingkan kemampuan menulis in english suatu hari nanti. Yang sakit kepala baca tulisan ini, mohon maaf ya. Ini juga masih belajar. Bahasa Indonesianya akan disegerakan dan mungkin akan lebih panjang lagi dari ini. Saya mungkin akan mengkaji bagaimana peran pendidikan keluarga bagi kesadaran anak muda terhadap isu lingkungan.

:D