Friends, you are home. Back in the States, back in Canada, back in places you knew so well but which maybe now seem foreign to you. We have a couple more blog updates to give before we say goodbye to this small semester chronicle we've compiled together.
From the beginning, I think we've always known very well what the end would be like. For the students, this looks like a last week of jamming their fingertips into their keyboards and praying that an ISP project came out. For the staff, it is a time to craft opportunities to contemplate the semester creatively and uniquely.
The week really started with the end of the ISP projects. A few people from the community were invited, presentations were given on various topics, and a nice dinner was enjoyed by all following. Topics were NZ Forestry, Art and Culture, Oral Tradition and Story, and Suicide in Samoa and New Zealand. I was proud to make an appearance as a dog in Brett and Christy's presentation. I tackled and scratched Brett to death (he was a kokako). I was also proud of the students as they presented topics they'd been considering throughout their time here.
The Debrief week included a few night sessions of reflecting on the semester and preparing for the changes in the students' lives that were waiting for them in North America. We took a short night's stay a little further out west at an old schoolhouse lodge in Huia. Sara and Julie provided an opportunity for students to reflect creatively on a timeline of the semester, ran a nice slideshow, gave out student awards, and gave us a chance to play one last game of Murder in the Dark. 
Some students made their way out to Whatipu to explore and some stuck around the lodge and read books. [Thanks to Rachel and Allie for some of the pictures on this blog.]Some people slept outside on the deck and had a nice sunrise to wake up to the following morning. We spent a slow morning at the schoolhouse, packed up and headed back to Knock Na Gree for an afternoon to rest or head into the city to do some last minute sightseeing or shopping.
The following night was a time for us to reflect on some of the stories we have made for ourselves through the semester. We had a fine time with the White Weta gift exchange, which is similar to traditional White Elephant gift exchanges. Each item brought by the students was to have some words going along with it explaining its significance for that student through the semester. Books, an old cherished water bottle, collections of significant poems, jewelry, coupons for spankins, and bundles of nice photographs were exchanged throughout the night. This was a time to tell and retell stories, to voice what was significant for each of us, and to share them in the form of a gift. The third debrief session was a time for staff and students to discuss what returning to places everybody left in January means. The outlooks, world views, opinions, and thoughts of everyone on the program have undergone stress, change, and sometimes renewal. How will these changes be viewed by family and friends? How in the world is the Story of the semester going to be retold? What has been learned here?
For staff, this particular time was a highlight in our involvement with these students. Hearing students retell the impacts of this semester on their lives, the practicality of changes of lifestyle or thought they perceive in returning, and lessons they have learned this semester is full of meaning for us.
The truth of returning is that memories of the semester, the thoughts unique to it, and the small shifts in thought and character that may have occurred throughout may be elusive. Life will have its way of continuing, people will have their way of forgetting, and soon enough this experience will be distant enough to feel foreign again when it once was known as home. The debrief week was a chance to take a short look at what has happened here and to continue thinking about it. It marks neither the beginning or the end of these thoughts.
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