[selchie]

Have you considered volunteering at a local school? It could be a way of getting known. ...Two summers ago I met a violin maker at the local Wood Fair, and found that he taught at the elementary school up the street from our house. I had long thought about volunteering, but hadn't done it. In the fall, I started helping in his class a couple of hours a week. He kept saying that it was too bad I didn't want to spend more time at it, because I could apply for a position as a teaching assistant of some sort.

Thank you so much for writing of your troubles, and putting them in a perspective that can be so useful to many of us here. In so many ways NZ seems like home, but there are those little differences that can be so frustrating and even discouraging until one finds the key.

Best of luck - to you and the schools who could use someone like you.