TWO YEARS IN AOTEAROA

Wow! The Sillik Family has reached the two year milestone of immigrating to New Zealand.

What an adventure it has been! On the morning of August 12th 2021, we finished our overnight flight and landed in Auckland, NZ.

Micah, Makayla and Kai -

Randy and I have witnessed so much physical and emotional growth. New school and way of teaching, new friends, sports sports and lots of sports, camps, new languages, musical instruments.

Below are a list of words they came up with to describe the last 2 years:

eventful, interesting, different, adaptation, entertaining, engaging, fantastic, amazing

They express missing school when on their school breaks. Micah goes to school an hour and a half early on the weekly late start days, because he likes hanging out there with his friends. He asks to walk home with friends even when it is raining or cold.

We received residency visas earlier this year.

There has been much professional growth in the 2 years I've been here -

Due to significantly better funding, time allotment and support for Continuing Medical Education here than I received in America, I have been able to attend courses and conferences that have expanded my knowledge, amplified my surgical skills and increased my confidence in my abilities and my love for the complexity of my speciality.

I have been able to explore Melbourne and Sydney while learning and connecting with my Australian counterparts. (I will post on my Sydney trip)

By working at the busiest hospital in New Zealand, one that I have come to recognize as the giver of zebras (the rare and wacky things that we are supposed to know about but hopefully never see in our careers), my medical accumen and surgical skills have been challenged and strengthened.

Teaching residents aka registrars and medical students has been rewarding and I enjoy my patients.

I became a fellow of the professional college here, started working at other hospitals and starting tomorrow, I am going back into private practice. This time as my own boss, providing private gynaecology care.

This last 5 months have been a mix of anticipation, disappointment, frustration, anger and acceptance during the process of acquiring registration to practice medicine in Australia. I am still in the process, which hopefully should be complete in the next few weeks. That deserves a whole other blog post.

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This country has given me so much in the short time I have been here and I really hope that I have contributed as much as I have received. I doubt it though. I am now on the leadership team for a Reproductive Justice organization here in New Zealand and I am so excited to lend my voice and expertise in service.

Randy -

Very grateful that this is the first time he has felt that a country actually cared about his wellbeing. He has benefitted from the public health system and feels like he can see where our tax money goes in a much more tangible way than when living and working in the US. Initially he pushed to resume his private catering business here, and also explored going back into the full time work force, but came to the conclusion that his place as a stay at home dad was still invaluable and where he needed to be. Randy's been working on getting recertified in his computer programming and still has plans for using his culinary talents in the near future as the kids get more self sufficient.

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We have basked in the beauty of this country and our souls have been renewed by the healing power of nature. I have been able to detox from the relentless micro and macroaggressions that I had to endure in the US. We have found community in unexpected ways, finding like-minded people from all over the globe, including some from my homeland of Trinidad.

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My dear grandmother passed away recently. Since 2019 she was mainly living in Trinidad but it happened during a visit to the US, her second home. I am so thankful for modern technology that kept us so close. I was able to watch the entire funeral live and even recorded some remarks that were played at the service. I feel at peace that nothing was left unsaid between us up to the very end. What a blessing.

Two years. Ten birthdays, multiple school grade levels, vacations, excursions, hikes, two new countries visited, new friends made, immeasurable growth and peace and zero regrets.