just had my breakfast. it was marinated mussels made by the father of my lady host (vinegar, sugar and onions, yum...). he lives next door with his wife and relatives. ada cucu, nephew, great grandchild, and other sepupu sepapat. he put some in a bowl and gave my lady host to bring back for me. so nice kan? there are 3 houses here and they all belong to the same family. it reminds me of my kampung in kuala selangor where my grand aunties and uncles all live next door to each other. oh my lady host is maori while her husband is pakeha (which is a maori word and our malay equivalent is a mat salleh ie of caucasian ancestry). living closely together is just one example but there are many other similarities between maoris and malays i find.
like the language. if u can speak malay u can speak maori because sebutan dia sama (and also spanish or so my sister who is fluent in the language tells me). when u baca sebutan dia sebijik sebijik. the word for a maori elder is 'kamatua'. did u say 'ka-ma-tu-wa'? then thats right. tapi bahasa maori kena baca like its bahasa melayu baku lah, kalau tak nanti jadi 'ka-ma-tu-wer', macam kita biasa baca 'dua' as 'du-wer' or 'sana' as 'sa-ner'. did i tell u maori language is funny in that when its written as a 'wh' it means an 'f'? so 'whenua' which means 'land' is 'fe-nu-wa'. lots more to learn. here the signs are always in english (big) then in maori (small). we could do that in malaysia too. maori also have weaving art like our menganyam. go google 'maori weaving' and check out the pics.
my husband host works for DOC or the department of conservation. i wonder if there exists a department or ministry dedicated solely to conservation anywhere else in the world. he said it only came to be in the 80's. most of the staff were from the forestry ministry and the rest were mainly from the land mapping and surveying dept.
2 more couchsurfers will be coming to stay today. yay! more friends for me :)
