Manaakitanga is the heart of everything we do at Play to Learn. We look after our tamariki, whaanau and each other. We have celebrated Matariki annually, and the best way we know how is through kai – it brings us together, living our kaupapa -whakawhaanaungatanga.
Ngaa kaiako have always shared a special whaanau kai for Matariki, and we relay the stories of this special kai with ngaa tamariki. Over the years, I have made star cookies, boil up, chop suey and last year, we had a haangi.
This year I wanted to share a very special kai close to my heart, “Nana Molly’s Trifle”.
I talked about Nana Molly with ngaa tamariki and shared the stories of how kind and gentle she was. Everyone loved our Nana Molly. She had the biggest heart, gave so much of herself and was the best cook. Every Christmas, we would have Nana Molly’s trifle (on special occasions too, like our birthdays). When I was a young girl, Nana Molly taught me how to make her special trifle. I was really fortunate to grow up with my nana Molly, and we saw her every day. We would take her away on holiday with us. Sometimes if we were going on a day trip to Whanganui and Nana Molly wasn’t coming with us, my mum made sure we would go and see Nana Molly before our day trip. Nana Molly would always bless us with a karakia before our trip. She would pack us a huge lunch to take with us. Nana Molly would cry when we left for the day, and then she would cry when we returned back to her home and safe. I mentioned to ngā tamariki; she just loved us so much, and they were always tears of happiness. I also talked about whenever anyone went to Nana Molly’s house, she would always make the manuhiri/ whānau something to eat and serve them the kai, but she never ate with anyone. Nana Molly would always wait until everyone had something to eat and eat some kai afterwards. Our Nana Molly always gave to others and always looking after everyone, her manaakitanga was wonderful, and our whānau have very fond memories of her.
Arohanui Juanita xxxxx
