It is a lovely autumn morning.
The sun is shining.
The birds in KÅwhai park are twittering.
There is music playing on Today FM.
You can hardly tell that the children at Kia Kaha primary school are being greenhouse gassed.
It is not just happening at Kia Kaha Primary School.
It is happening to all the children in the world.
It is funny what grownups will put up with.
Especially when you think about some of the things they get really angry about, like why does my kid need to learn Maori?
In Room 13 at Kia Kaha Primary School everyone is writing stories.
It can be about anything that happened this summer.
Tash is writing about breaking her arm.
Zac is writing about breaking his brotherās arm.
Kiara wants to write about what happened to their house.
But she keeps looking out the window.
Ms Barry says,
Are you stuck Kiara?
Kiara says,
I don't know where to start Miss.
Thereās too much.
Ms Barry says,
Well letās just make a list first.
What are some of the things that happened?
Kiara says,
Well thereās waking up at 3am
And thereās Mum and Dad shouting
And thereās getting out of bed and stepping into water
And thereās watching the water get higher and higher
And there's Dad saying we gotta get out of here
And thereās all of us going down the drive
and thereās water up to my neck
and thereās Dad lifting me onto my shoulders
Kiara stops talking and looks at Ms Barry
Ms Barry says,
It was frightening wasnāt it?
Kiara nods.
Ms Barry says,
Well, maybe first you write out those bits you just told me,
and then we can talk about what comes next.
Kiara smiles.
Abi says,
Miss, Iām writing about the flood too,
but I donāt know if itās okay to say bad things about someone.
Ms Barry says,
Whatās the story about, Abi?
Abi says,
Well, when it flooded we were okay,
but the house behind us up the hill had this, like, huge slip.
And their water tank came almost all the way to the back of our house.
And Mumās worried itās going to, like, wipe us out.
Ms Barry says,
Has the neighbour emptied out the tank?
Would that help?
Abi says,
Thatās what we thought,
but he says heās not doing anything until the insurance people have looked at it.
But they're too busy to come.
And so Mum said to him,
Can't you be reasonable, Damien?
Ms Barry says,
And what did Damien say?
Abi says,
Iāve written it down the way you said to do,
so where itās a swear word, it just says āwordā
Shall I read it out?
Ms Barry says,
Sure
Abi says,
Get off my wording back you moaning word,
Iāve got enough wording problems without some mad vegan word
telling me what to do with my wording water tank
for wordās sake.
Amelia says,
Miss, I've written about how we lost everything in the flood
and we don't have any insurance,
and how a whole lot of people have been dropping in with clothes and food and chairs and things,
even though my Dad's always getting into arguments with, like, just everybody.
And I was going to write about how when things get bad,
people can be really nice.
But now Iām wondering if a lot of people are actually like Damien?
Caleb says,
My Nan says there are going to be way more of these storms,
and we wonāt be able to cope,
and sheās worried for us kids.
Is that right Miss?
Ms Barry says,
Well, yes.
If we keep it up with the greenhouse gases,
there will be more and more storms like the ones we had this summer.
And storms like that cause an incredible amount of damage that can cost an incredible amount to repair.
And the more you spend on fixing the damage they do,
the less you have to spend on things like encouraging people to use cars less,
which is one of the big ways to fix the problem.
Tane says,
Are you worried for us, Miss?
Ms Barry says,
I do know this: itās still not too late.
It just needs enough of us being prepared to do things in new ways.
And when we build 30 billion dollar tunnels,
we need to be making them for trains and bikes and not more cars.
Zac says,
My Dad says no wording word is going to take his wording ute off him, Miss.
Ms Barry says,
I hope he changes his mind, Zac.
