Staff Day at Ohana International School

Thursday 12th February 2015 Today was our Staff Day at Ohana International School. It was an amazing day of learning, reflecting, supporting, playing, having fun, bonding and feasting.

The day started off with a welcome from Shelley and Darren and them sharing their Show and Tell with everyone. Shelley's was all about family and friendship and her home and family in Sydney. She shared with us their ritual around always putting a sign on the door when people returned from their holidays and for guests who came to stay. She read to us a beautiful limerick that Mikayla, wrote for her.....she is Mikayla's other mother.

Darren then shared with us his experience of working at English Camps to help children learn English. It started off with limited numbers of children and as it grew in popularity, the numbers increased. In fact, he was on TV recently in a video that was promoting learning English in Japan in preparation for the Olympics.

Part of the day was spent sitting with Shelley and Darren and discussing and evaluating ourselves and where we feel we need to do more work and where we feel we have succeeded. They were both extremely supportive and appreciative of all that we do and we are so lucky to have such kind, caring Directors at Ohana. While we were having our evaluations done individually, we broke into groups and worked on planning for Summer School and Christina, Maryna and Jen worked on Office projects and the structuring of roles.

Maki showed us her beautiful jewellery that she makes herself and we are already thinking about future projects with her. Sayaka is a Lacrosse player and coach and she showed us how to play and now we are feeling a little pressured to do exercises and sport. She said that Lacrosse is a sport that developed from the indigenous people of North America, as early as 1100AD. She brought along a Lacrosse stick and lacrosse ball. It was fantastic to learn more about our colleagues and their interests. Nanako chan, read us a poem written by a famous Japanese poet called Kenji Miyazawa, who actually was part of her husband, David's inspiration for the title of his book "Strong in the Rain". Miyazawa was the son of a wealthy family during feudal times in Japan and he really wanted to be a farmer. However, because of his wealth, people never really gave him the chance to be who he really wanted to be. He died really young and only after the earthquake and tsunami of 2011 did he become famous for his beautiful writings and poetry.

Hisami spoke about head stands in Yoga and how beneficial they are to us. She then proceeded to do a head stand, and do different positions with her legs and feet. This is something else that we think will be good for all of us as it helps circulation, breathing and is excellent for headaches.

Liezel read us a poem in Tagalog which was all about teachers and how they are seen as "guru's" in the Philippines. Unfortunately they are not paid well there, but they work incredibly hard, filled with passion for their profession and the desire to teach and give to others.

Sharee shared a beautiful story about how love can be shared, using candles. It was a beautiful way of reassuring a child when a baby is soon to be born, how a mum and dads love never changes. The light from the candle always stays the same, there is more than enough to share with everyone.

Goh sang a Diana Ross song with John accompanying her on the guitar. The song was all about being grateful and appreciative of one another and how much working at Ohana International School means to her. Many of us were able to join in as we knew the words and we sang along together.

Keeping in the vain of music and singing, Jen shared with us some things about the Philippines, especially since it is International Month at our school. She showed pictures of a "karaoke" machine which apparently was first patented in the Philippines. Everyone in the Philippines loves singing so it is no surprise that the invention came from there. We saw pictures of a jeepney which is the local and most commonly used taxi, a special box that people from the Philippines travel with, called a balikbayan. She said that you can always notice people at the airport from the Philippines as they have these boxes together with suitcases.

Maryna shared with us photographs of the deepest subway in the world which comes from Kiev, Ukraine. It is 105metres deep and when you are on the escalator, you can reach the platform in 5 minutes. The interior of the subway is really beautiful with chandeliers, tunnels and exquisite old architectural features. She also showed us a famous musical instrument called "trembita". It is a 4m long horn which was used to send messages from village to village, and it is made from one piece of wood, preferably from a branch that has fallen down after being struck by lightening. Apparently the sound is better.

Christina told us that Cuba and the Philippines have some similarities as nations; both of them were Spanish colonies and then they were both occupied by the USA. Bacardi rum is from Cuba but is now made in Puerto rico; Ernest Hemingway wrote “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and  “the Old Man and the Sea” while he lived in Cuba; the worlds’ smallest hummingbird and smallest frog are found in Cuba; Christmas did not become an official holiday in Cuba until 1997.

Ayaka did a demonstration on how to put a "yukata" on and it looked so easy. She showed us all the techniques on how to wrap it around you, how to lift it up if it is too long, how to wrap the obi and other fabrics on etc. Then she sang a beautiful Japanese song to us.

John was the lucky last, serenading us with a song called Kaleidoscope. It was a soothing beautiful song and he has a beautiful singing voice. He spoke about how lucky he is to work at Ohana with all the staff representing the colours in the Kaleidoscope.

We had fabulous catered food throughout the day from muffins to cake, drinks, salad, sandwiches and more. We played a team building game using paper cups and rubber bands and string and then we revisited the hoop which we were not successful with when we had our team building weekend at Kwaguchiko last year. It looks so easy but is one of the hardest things to do. We also received a gift of a pen with our names engraved on them which was a beautiful touch and ending to a wonderful day.

A huge thank you to Jen for organising everything and for taking into account so many details so that the day ran smoothly. From looking at the feedback from staff, it was a truly fantastic, successful day. Everyone is looking forward to the next one.