Ribea | Maurewa
“I was born in South Africa; Cape Town, South Africa and I am a born again Christian, as we call it.
I am religious, and I am serving God with my all, and I think God just brought me to New Zealand for a reason, because He has His purpose and plans with our lives. I came to the New Zealand industry with my husband. He got a job here, and I relocated to New Zealand with him and my little daughter, and I think the whole move to New Zealand was something different that, something I haven’t seen in my own country; something beautiful the way in which the Government looks after their people, the way in which the people are, the happiness, the friendliness, that calm feeling. That was what I received, and yeah I didn’t come from a background that was like that, so that was something beautiful for me.
The last time I felt grateful was my moment I recently moved to Auckland and the way I was invited when I got out of the airport with a whole New Zealand community, with everyone who came on the flight. Everyone was just of that friendliness around them, and it pleased me and it was something beautiful; something I haven’t seen, because I’ve travelled the world and it was something I haven’t seen before, and it was something that just struck me at that moment. So, I was thankful just to be invited into a country so beautiful with people being so open and friendly, and that was good for me. So that was a thankful moment for me.
Currently in South Africa, the crime rate is very high, and it’s totally different as to what New Zealanders experience with crime, because we don’t call this crime, these things, small things that happens around. We don’t see it, the crime in South Africa; children are being kidnapped, people are murdered every day, there’s funerals every weekend in South Africa. Those are small things that I don’t see happening in New Zealand, which is good, which tells me that the Government is doing something good here, and the people are obeying the law, and the soul structure of the police in which they do things, the people has that fear for the police, whereas where I come from, people just ignore any rules. They just go past the rules, but I believe, and I pray there’s hope for South Africa, and I pray that with prayers and everything going out for South Africa, we will get to that part, a first world country that we always wished to be. So yeah, that’s the difference between South Africa and New Zealand, for me.
I recently just finished a contract in a Māori organisation – Kaupapa Māori organisation, and when I started there, they welcomed me with a pōwhiri, and that was also something beautiful, just to start a job in a company and you’re being welcomed in such a beautiful way, which was amazing for me, the whole company, the environment. There’s just something about the New Zealand people that I admire, and that the Bible talks about, and I’m just glad to be able to have that experience in New Zealand.
I don’t know how long I‘m going to be here, but I think I just came for a purpose, and I just came and I saw beautiful things. The whole environment of New Zealand, the whole religion, the whole way in which they do things, I admire that, which is something beautiful. I started in the company, they welcomed me beautifully, and when I finished with the company, they had a goodbye session for me, and it was something amazing. It’s beautiful. It’s a character that I haven’t seen over the world. I’ve been to UK, I’ve been travelling to Dubai, and this is something different. This is something beautiful and I’m just grateful for that, and I will say it over and over again, because it’s something to be grateful for, because you don’t see it around; the world, and I admire that.”
