movin' right along

Hello everyone!

Ella and I have moved on (well, sort of) to a new chapter in our time in New Zealand. We've moved from the west side of Napier, home of Branwyn, Brent, Bruno, and all the other B's, clear across to the east side (that's right next to the water, folks!), just south of Napier center. We're staying at a place called Hohepa which is, I believe, technically in the town of Clive.

Hohepa is a small village-type set up for people with developmental disabilities. There are tons of workshops that residents work in during the day- woodworking, silk and felt, weaving, etc- and there's also a farm, which is where we get to help out. Each day we do all sorts of high-end farming activities- weeding, transplanting, more weeding, planting, more weeding-- you get the idea. We get free food (which is excellent since our food is supplied by the farm and it is DELICIOUS!), a free place to crash each night, and we're close enough to the B's that we can still see them on weekends and they are only a local call away, though Bruno is not sophisticated enough to use the telephone. What's even cooler is that we've each been assigned (I don't really know a better word but it doesn't really feel like "assigned") to one of the residential houses where we have dinner each night, so it gives us an opportunity to get to know more people in a family-like setting.

Not a ton to report apart from the fact that we're here- I started yesterday, Ella showed up today (discrepancy in time due to Ella being temporarily ill). Everyone is really friendly, we have successfully relayed the fact that we do not know neither Michael Jackson nor Tom Petty, and we're having a blast getting covered in dirt all day. Hope wherever you are is as sunny as Napier usually is (but wasn't today- good thing, too, we need rain!)!