They are us: Lavina Botha finds a new home in New Zealand

Adam Botha and wife Lavina Botha when they moved into their new family home built by Habitat for Humanity. Photo / File

Lavina Botha, her husband, and their three children, moved to Hawke's Bay from Zimbabwe in 2002. They tell Blair Voorend about the ups and downs as part of our They Are Us series.

How did you learn about New Zealand, and what did you hear about it?

My husband's brother had already moved out here a few years before we decided to move and he was working out here as a mechanical engineer, which is what my husband does and he talked so much and it seemed perfect.

Why did you decide to come to New Zealand?

Zimbabwe was becoming politically unsteady and was becoming really unsafe for us. In 2008, when we were living in New Zealand, I sent my brother money back to him in Zimbabwe and he was cashing it in to the bank when he was murdered. He was only 20 when he died. It felt like in the end people saw life like a candle, it could be blown away in an instant and no one cared. That is why we wanted to come to New Zealand to get away from that.

What's been the biggest challenge?

To be honest, the biggest thing we struggled to deal with was how trustworthy Kiwis are. I remember we had just got to Hawke's Bay and we needed a car so my husband and I went to a car dealership to buy a car and we had a look around and liked the look of one and the salesman said 'why don't you take it for a spin?'. We just looked at each other and thought it was crazy taking a car for a drive that you don't even own or paid anything for, but that's just how you guys do things which took a while for me to understand.

Lavina Botha, her husband, and their three children, moved to Hawke's Bay from Zimbabwe in 2002.

What's been the biggest benefit?

I remember working at Wattie's on the factory floor when we first got here and many times you would see the floor manager come down and talk to the employees and chat with them and most of the time he was a white man, but he would go around and talk to everyone. I saw him talking to this Māori guy and was asking about his weekend and talking about catching up for a beer after work. That was foreign to me - that Kiwis don't see colour but a friend or companion instead.

Tell us about your culture?

For me New Zealand is a culture of trust but in Zimbabwe it's a culture of honour. For someone from New Zealand to go to Zimbabwe you would be treated like a king because we are a culture that honours our guests and those things that are more important. Like when I go to church, I'm Christian by the way; we always dress in nice clothes and our best outfits as if we were going to a wedding or something. That's because of our honour and respect our culture has for something that is much greater anything.

Has the March 15 terror attack changed anything for you in NZ?

I have definitely seen a change because for every foreigner who came to New Zealand they would be greeted with so much kindness and compassion and after this happened from what I saw people were even more kind and generous which is a little sad to have something like this to bring it out. But it's still good to see Kiwis' kindness is still easy to see even after such a terrible thing that happened.