So Long, Farewell...

How do you say goodbye to friends who have become a lot more like family? Well, it isn't easy, but it is nice to have Integration Week and Debrief Week to sort it out.

During Integration Week, students pull together everything that they've learned this semester and summarize their thoughts in one final paper. Each night we gathered together as small groups to discuss the prompts for the paper. It's a blessing to be able to spend that time together processing everything and offering up solutions to questions or concerns posed by others. 

Another highlight of Integration Week are the "betterment projects". Students each select a project to leave their New Zealand home better than they found it.

Top: Briana (Westmont) working on her mural of Mt. Fyffe.
Bottom: Becca (Gordon) and Joy (Hope) filling in their raised bed herb garden with compost.

This past semester, our Sustainable Food Coordinator Brian has been growing a pumpkin that our local newspaper has referred to as a "marvel" (http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/kaikoura/8477526/Pumpkin-a-marvel). As the article says, Brian grew the giant pumpkin for fun and to show students what can be accomplished by simply sowing a seed in the garden and giving it some good love and care! It has caused a surprising amount of hype in town, even resulting in a challenge from a local also growing a large pumpkin (http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdisplay/viewer.aspx). After the article was written, Brian decided to go ahead and see just how much the pumpkin weighed. To our delight, Brian's pumpkin reigned supreme, weighing in at a whopping 140 kg (308 lbs). Before revealing the mass of the massive fruit (or vegetable, depending on where you stand in that age-old argument), students were able to take submit a guess. We all congratulated Regan (Dordt), who was the closest to the actual weight without going over. As a prize, Brian hopes to send Regan some seeds so that he can grow his own giant pumpkin.

Step aside Donna Karan and Calvin Klein; students from CCSP have discovered the next big thing in fashion: trash. As a fun event, we hosted a trash fashion show. Students and staff were all able to strut their stuff on the runway. From Regan's Dorito bag stubbies to Allie's (Program Administrator) lovely bed sheet evening gown, we were given quite a show!

Strike a pose! Trash Fashion was a blast! Photo Credit: Joy Hartman

After lots of cleaning and packing, we gathered for our last evening together. Our tradition is to both start and end the semester with fish and chips on the beach. The Lord treated us with a gorgeous sunset and the always beautiful views offered by South Bay.

We finished off the semester the same way that we started: fish and chips on the beach. Photo Credit: Joy Hartman

After returning to the Old Convent, we began our final semester event: Celebration. Celebration is a time for everyone to gather together and exchange meaningful gifts. We received words of wisdom, poetry readings, a semester cookbook, and a number of other wonderful gifts. One special gift was given to us all by Daniel our Property Manager. He made a personalized frame for our semester photo to hang up on the wall with all of the other semester photos. It will be hanging on the wall for years to come!

Our semester photo and the personalized frame Daniel has called "A Splash of Color", representing this vibrant group.

At 1 AM, it was time to leave for the airport. The farewells to follow were surely some of the hardest we've ever had to say. Hopefully our paths will cross again someday!

To all of the students of CCSP New Zealand Spring 2013:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you;

May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you in the storm;

May he bring you home rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you;

May he bring you home rejoicing, once again, into our doors.

Fantail, Weka, Pu-Pu-Pukeko

Artwork by Rose Ellen Bohnsack

We have been blessed with another visit from Dr. Joe Sheldon to teach our Terrestrial Ecosystems course. Starting Monday morning, he invited students to come on a journey with him, not so different from Gandalf, to behold Creation and learn the names of some new "friends" like totara and matai. And that's just what we did! We all piled in the vans and headed for the West Coast. Despite heavy amounts of rain, we ventured out onto the trails to learn about NZ fauna and flora. As part of the course, students are responsible for keeping a field journal with daily reflections. Here is a little of what student Nora Kahler (Houghton) had to say about her experience on the wet West Coast:

"Over the course of our West Coast terrestrial ecology trip, the rain has provided a nearly incessant rhythm punctuating our days. Sometimes light and misty, other times heavy and relentless, its persistence as the backdrop to our journey remained constant. When overcast skies poured forth precipitation we were compelled to don our raingear, effectively turning the group into a multi-colored rainbow snaking its way steadily down the trail. I have come to recognize my bundled up, brightly clad, hooded classmates by the color of their rain jackets: Bri in deep purple and Rachel in bright yellow, Kelsey in light green and Colin in bold blue. The list goes on, but it seems that the variegated raingear we wear visually captures the dynamic vibrancy that forms the essence of our group. Trudging through the rain day after day, we may look drenched and bedraggled, but this sorry state passes away as we shed waterproof layers, leaving them for the drying room to work its restorative magic. This afternoon, our perseverance through the rain paid off in a visually striking reward. Upon completion of our research for the day, we walked to the road and encountered a rainbow arching across the sky just ahead. As the day progressed and we hiked further, we found not one, but two additional rainbows. This extravagant display of beauty, made possible by the rain, was a feast for the eyes and nourishment for the soul."

Everyone was able to leave the course with somewhere around 100 new "friends". After spending the week learning to identify plants and a little bit about what makes them unique, we had a field identification exam. I was impressed with the amount of information the students were able to learn in this small amount of time. Even better if you can put the names into a song, hence the title of this post! It's a special gift to be able to walk through the bush and tell a button fern from a shield fern or a kahikatea from a rimu. God gave Adam the responsibility of naming Creation, and we're still doing it today!

Our group out on the trails. Regan (Dordt) is hard at
work with his field guide identifying plants.

We were able to visit some pretty "sweet as" locations during the course. Some highlights were the pancake rocks and blowholes at Punakaiki, the lush forest of the Porari River Track, a glow worm cave, and Fox Glacier. We were also able to visit the West Coast Wildlife Center, where we could see the rarest kiwi the rowi or Okarito brown kiwi. Once they're old enough to defend themselves from nonnative predators like stoats, these kiwis will be released into the wild!

Here's our group at Fox Glacier! Photo by Colin Veerman

The second week of the course is focused on research. Each of the four groups of students were able to choose a topic to pursue over two days of field work. We had one group up in the mountains studying moss, another comparing epiphyte growth between beech forests, one group looking at how the edge effect affects bird populations, and the last comparing macroinvertebrate life between limestone and freestone streams. 

Clockwise from Top Left: Students Kate Hoffman (Messiah), Katie Kortman (Dordt),
Ruthie Sutherland (Westmont), and Colin Veerman (Bethel) working on their field-based research projects.

Again, despite the rain, everyone conducted fabulous work which was then presented to us upon our return to the Old Convent in Kaikoura. It was two weeks worth of challenging material, and I am proud to see how much everyone was able to take away from it, even to the point of applying what they'd learned in the form of research. Well done everyone!

Papermaking

Ever wanted to learn to make your own paper? It's really simple and fun to do! I can't think of a better way to make use of junk mail, anything that's gone through the paper shredder, or even laundry lint!

First, you'll need a mould and deckle. The mould is a screened frame that catches paper pulp. The deckle is a separate, unscreened frame that makes the borders of the paper pulp that get sifted through. I made ours just using some scrap wood and wire mesh screens for whitebait fishing.

Next, gather up some paper or lint! After being ripped up into small pieces, it's best to let them soak for a few hours or overnight in warm water. Then, use a blender to further break them down. After you've done that, you're ready to go!

Suspend the pulp in water in a bin large enough for the mould and deckle to fit in. Insert the mould and deckle into the water at an angle, moving forward, then upwards, catching pulp on the way out. Shake the mould and deckle gently back and forth to help the fibers interlock.

Next, it's time to transfer the paper onto a couch sheet. Felt often works well for this. We just used old fleece scarves from the local thrift shop. The ideal couch sheet will have fibers that can help pull the paper off the screen and is absorbent. Transfer your sheet by gently rocking the mould over the couch sheet. This may take a little bit of practice.

Colin (Bethel) shows his sheet of paper still on the mould. Allie (Program Administrator) transfers her sheet to the absorbent couch sheets. Katie (Dordt) sponges off any extra water.

Now it's time to get rid of any extra water. You can use an old window screen as a barrier between the sheet of paper and your sponge. Try to remove as much of the water as you can. This will help the paper dry faster.

Now you can lay another couch sheet on top of your sheet of paper, and start again! Once you have made the amount of sheets that you're interested in, let the stack dry out on a warm day or in a warm, dry spot of the house. If you separate the sheets, they won't dry evenly and will get wrinkled. If you are looking for a faster way to finish, you can iron the sheets out one by one.

Follow these steps, and it won't be long until you have your own miniature paper recycling center running in your own home!

God and Nature

Corey Beals has been with us here for two weeks teaching the course titled God and Nature. Corey and TA Caleb have taken us all around Kaikoura for some field-based learning.  The course has been, quite literally, a breath of fresh air. Hear from Bethel student Colin Veerman about what he's experienced:

"These past two weeks of God and Nature have been jam-packed with all sorts of activities. We went on some day-hikes in and around Kaikoura, visited a few local farms and cheese factory, and took a “night sky tour” (just to name a few). The first week of class was focused on our relationship with Christ and with creation and the multitude of ways we humans have distorted and ruined these relationships through our sin. However, the second week was primarily focused on how we can reconcile our relationship with Christ, as well as with our food, health, shelter, and water.

Field trips during God and Nature have given us breathtaking views of the Pacific, to an inside
look at where our food comes from during a visit to Stoney Creek's hydroponics greenhouse.

Everyone picked one of these subjects to study further and to present a project at the end of the week. Regan, Ruthie, Nora, Megan, and I all choose to be apart of the food group and our final project was to create a feast; a feast mostly made from locally grown ingredients (including our gardens). Without going into too much detail, eating locally is the most important factor to a healthy relationship with your food. Most farmers selling their produce to locals grow their food naturally - that is without the addition of toxic chemicals in the form of fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides. Buying local food decreases our dependency on oil and literally saves tons of toxins from being released into the air we breathe and water we drink. Eating locally supports the people in your community and fights against those who ship their corporations overseas - exploiting the workers and the land and striping those communities from their wealth.

At first, it was a daunting task. How on earth are we going to make a five course meal for thirty people? Intimidating as it was, we accepted the challenge and had fun doing it! It was so different from any other meal I have planned. Instead of thinking about random creative and fancy dishes, we first had to walk through the gardens and assess what was available to us. The pear trees are ripe for the picking, the pumpkin and butternut squash season is just beginning, plenty of potatoes remain the pantry from the harvest a couple weeks before, local lettuce, lemons, honey, carrots, and raw milk can be purchased from Kaikoura farmers, and a lamb was bought from some close friends (the Topps) where we all witnessed and participated in the slaughter and preparation of the lamb (which is the best alternative we could find in terms of  reconciling our relationship with our consumption of meat).

Local feast preparation!

A long story short, we had quite a feast! A lot of people think in order to eat local, you have to give up and miss out on a variety of foods. Well, I would beg to differ! We ate like kings and queens - celebrating and eating what the season has to offer. Isn’t that how we ought to eat? Ringing in the new season with the fresh, tasty, and simple fruits and produce our land has to offer? In my opinion, this is how God created food to be, and if I can prepare five courses for thirty people here in New Zealand, I know this is something I can achieve back home too."

Megan (Gordon), Ruthie (Westmont), Nora (Houghton), Regan (Dordt), and Colin (Bethel), all part of the local feast group, prepared us a fantastic five course meal!

Spinning Wool

Grab some wool and pull up a spinning wheel; it's time to spin yarn!

Courtnay, our Program Director and resident wool-spinning pro, led a homemaking session on this age-old art. It takes a bit of practice to get it right, but once you have it, you're well on your way to making your own yarn!

First we talked about carding wool. This is important for preparing the fibers to be interlocked with each other. This step involves what look like large dog brushes called hand cards. You just put some wool on, and slid the hand cards past each other, bristles facing one another, until you form a nice "beard" that can be removed.

Courtnay (Program Director) teaching us how to card wool.

Next, you take your piece of prepared wool and pull at different sections to make it into a long, loose string of wool. This is what you will feed into the spinning wheel. The rest involves learning to treadle (keeping the spinning wheel spinning using a foot pedal), and feeding the wool in at a consistent thickness. There are plenty of options for thickness and tightness of the spin which are up to the person spinning! With plenty of sheep around here producing heaps of wool, it's a great skill to know!

Joy (Hope) and Colin (Bethel) try spinning some yarn with the help of Courtnay.

A Hobbit Holiday

During the past week, our students set off to explore what New Zealand has to offer. How did Janine Coelho (Messiah) choose to spend her term break? Here's her account of the adventure:

"Spring Break was a great time for all of us to scatter across New Zealand and drink in its beauty. I don’t know how much we all rested since most of us came back with colds, but we sure had some excellent adventures. I departed with Kate Hoffman [Messiah], whose father and sister had come over from America to visit and explore. After receiving a shower of hugs and goodbyes from our fellow students, we were off. It was bittersweet pulling out of the Old Convent driveway, ready to go on adventures but sad to temporarily leave the people we’ve grown so accustomed to living with.

Kate and I, the major nerds of the Convent, had our trip strategically planned to hit three fantasy film locations; two from the “Lord of the Rings” and one from the Chronicles of Narnia. The four of us piled into the rental car and set out to/ across New Zealand’s North Island by way of the Picton Ferry. We shared laughs, life stories, and stresses over maps and schedules. It wasn’t long before I felt like I was a part of the family. We drove the long way to Turangi, and headed out at the break of dawn to summit Mount Tongariro, aka Mount Doom from the “Lord of the Rings.” It wasn’t the easiest track but the sense of accomplishment was huge at the end. 

Janine (Messiah) at Tongariro National Park.

A couple of days later, our nerdy hearts almost exploded with joy when we went to Mata Mata and stepped foot onto the Hobbiton movie set from the “Lord of the Rings.” We definitely had a lot of fun running from on hobbit hole to the next, seeing Bilbo’s house at Bag End, and finally ending up at the Green Dragon which was converted into a functioning pub and restaurant. 

Just a look at Janine and Kate's (Messiah) fantasy-filled trip.

A day later we ended up at Cathedral Cove, which was featured in the second Narnia movie: Prince Caspian. My breath was taken away as I turned the corner and gazed through the majestic tunnel on the beach. That sight was unaltered from the movie and it was easy to see why; Cathedral Cove was by far one of the most beautiful beaches I have ever seen in my life. The teal water with its massive boulders beckoned Kate and I to come running in and wade for over an hour. It was paradise and a gift to our sight. We ended the trip with a flight to Christchurch, saying goodbye to Kate’s family and a bus ride back to the Old convent, ready to see our friends and share stories of our adventures after our week away."

“We cannot unpeach the peach"

Susan

Rejecting all geometry

Abandoning arrogance to stand in awe

Wild is God, the gardener

Overcoming the absurdity of wilderness

Bowing often to creation

In discernment and humility

The Lord God walking in the cool of the evening

A five-year-old in love with chooks

A woman watching the wings of a moth enflamed in a candle

A child clad in shorts and a t-shirt and high topped sneakers

A man learning the licorice smell of pine stump

The place where we learn this love,

If we learn it at all,

Shimmers behind every new place we inhabit

Looking through a new lens

To take time, sit on the porch

To walk, fish, and catch lightning bugs

A chance to count the chickens before they hatch

Insouciance

We cannot unpeach the peach

My wonder in the face of it is bottomless

This is a found poem that I produced via sayings of Susan and readings that embodied our week with her. Some of the authors that this found poem is produced out of are Barbara Kingsolver, Robert Clark, Annie Dillard, Michael Pollan, Wendell Berry, Wallace Kaufmann, Louis Owens, Scott Russell Sanders, Andrew Hudgins, Denise Levertov, and Mary Oliver. This poem encompasses many of the passions that Susan stirred in me as well as several others during class.

We learned during our week with Susan, about the concept of evil in the face and presence of God. We read a poem about God being the gardener, carefully choosing and plucking plants from the garden for the greater wellbeing of its growth, just as He does with us. He overcomes the absurdity of this earth in its present state.  The fourth stanza embraces the topic lines of various essays and poems that we read. Additionally, I learned the importance of taking away the calibrated meter on the camera lens glued to my face, and seeing things by merely being in their presence. Susan repeatedly mentioned the apprehension we were feeling towards Spring Break the following week, challenging us to live insouciantly (care-free) and to acknowledge several ways of experiencing.

“We cannot unpeach the peach” is a quote by Dillard, simply meaning that we cannot forget what we’ve learned in certain instances, and Susan is a chief representation of that quote. We all thoroughly enjoyed her approach to teaching, reception of her students, and joyful individuality. 

-Post written by Joy Hartman, Hope College

Photos from our night of "Inhabiting the Text". Students each chose a passage from
their readings to bring to life.

Fun With Flax

Tui drinking nectar from a flax flower.

 Flax is just one of the many amazing plants you can find here in New Zealand. Known as harakeke among Maori, flax is an important plant to human and animal life alike. Flax provides shelter and food to a number of animals including birds, bats, geckos, snails, and insects. Some insects go through their entire lifecycle on this plant alone! The Maori understood that they needed to treat the plant properly in order to keep it alive and subsequently support the surrounding ecosystem. This proverb shows their conservation-mindedness:

Hutia te rito o te harakeke, Kei whea te komako e ko?

If the heart of harakeke was removed, where will the bellbird sing?

The Maori view the harakeke as a family unit,
 with the child at the center.

When gathering flax for a project, only the outer layers are removed. This keeps the plant alive and allows it to regenerate over time. If the center, or heart, was removed, the plant would die and would no longer be able to be used by anyone. In this way, the flax bush was seen as a family. The outer layers are symbolic of the "outer" or older members of the family. The inner leaves represent the parents while the center symbolizes the child. The rest of the "family" shelters and nurtures the child at the center. When cutting the outer leaves, make sure to cut at a downward angle so that water won't pool inside and cause the plant to rot.

Maori usually say a karakia, or prayer, when harvesting leaves from the harakeke. In this prayer, thanks is first given for the plant. The harvester also prays that no harm may come to the plant or whoever will work with the material or finished product.

Flax makes strong fiber to work with. It is traditionally used for making whariki (mats), kets, paraerae (sandals). The stringy fibers are used for making kakahu (cloaks), rope, fishing line, and nets. The nectar was used as a sweetener and the dried flower stalks lashed together as mokihi (rafts). Lastly, the pia (gum) and boiled roots were used for medicinal purposes. Additionally, the "gel" that oozes from a cut leaf has similar properties to that of Aloe vera. Truly a useful plant! 

For homemaking this past week, our friend Ailsa came over to teach us about flax and how to work with it. She took us out to the yard to each cut our own leaf to work with. After we all chose and harvested the leaves, we sat out on the deck and began our project. Working with flax is tapu, or sacred. Because of this, where and how you weave it is important. It shouldn't be done at a table where you normally eat because that causes a mixing of different parts of life. For this reason you also shouldn't eat while weaving. And wash your hands after finishing because it contains the compound anthraquinone, a known laxative. Weaving should be done in a quiet, focused atmosphere. It is also custom that your first creation should be given away. 

Ailsa taught us all the ins and outs of weaving with flax.

Once we were all educated about the versatile harakeke plant and its value, we began our first weaving project. We would be weaving the flax into a flower design. First, you rip the leaf blade into long strips. You can pinch out the midrib as it is very tough and harder to work with. It can also be useful later on to add support. The inner strips should be thinner because they are tougher than the outer ones.  Once this is completed, you're ready to weave! It's over, under, over, under, always starting from the same side (left or right, just choose before beginning and stay consistent). Keep everything tight for a clean look.  Once you get to the last free strip, you'll be changing direction (follow the photos in row 2). As you continue, it will begin to form a spiral shape (row 3). Every flower will look different based on the individual's technique. Mine turned out to be very square, but others were round. Once you are nearing the end of your pieces, take one strip and split it in half. Wrap it around the others in opposite directions and tie it off. From there, you can separate the strips into fine threads and cut them to the desired length. You can also attach shells or other items to personalize it further. Have fun with it!

Steps in weaving a flower out of flax.

All of the girls did a wonderful job. They were natural-born weavers! We are hoping to have Ailsa back with us again to learn to weave baskets.