Tetris!

Windy day
Climbing on the cliffs
The wind was in my eyes.



It's Tonga Moments:

- I was teaching night school, in the middle of a good class, when all the sudden there was a commotion outside. The kids jumped up to look out the window, said something in Tongan I didn't quite catch, then every last one of them took off out the door, leaving me standing at the chalkboard mid-sentence. "Well," I thought "THAT'S never happened before." I follow the kids outside, and find them all chasing after a cow which had wandered into the schoolyard. After a ten-minute intense cow-hunt, the cow was back across the street where she belonged, and the kids came back to the classroom and resumed their work.

- I've been working on a story writing unit with my class 5/6, and last week I was reading them beginnings of stories and having them write their own endings. The stories I got said a lot about Tongan culture:
- One story was about Duke, a dog who got in trouble for digging up the neighbors garden and the town. I had three kids write that at the end of the story Duke was killed, cooked in an umu (underground oven) and eaten.
-Another story was about Froggy, whose mother was trying to teach him how to swim. Two kids wrote that Froggy just couldn't figure out how to swim, so his Mom took him home and beat him.

-Whenever I cook I tend to have leftovers because it's tough to cook for one person, and occasionally I will give my leftovers to the Class 5/6 kids who have come early to poako (night school). Usually they really enjoy whatever I give them (french toast, pasta, curry, etc.). Well, this night there had been tofu at one of the chinese falekaloas (shops) which is rare, so I bought some and made a stir fry with some veggies, eggplant, and seasoning I got from ramen noodle packets. It was pretty tasty. I took the leftovers out to the kids and they dug in eagerly. Then they got these strange looks on their faces. I asked if they liked it. "Yes, yes, delicious- here you go we don't want anymore, we're very full." Haha, they have NEVER handed my back a plate with food still on it. So tofu is a no-go here. Oh well.

Like I mentioned above, I have been working on story-writing with class 5/6. This has been difficult for everyone involved, because creativity is not something that is practiced or even really accepted in Tongan schools. Unfortunately story-writing is a big part of their exam at the end of the year. The first story they turned into me was a story they wrote about a picture I had cut out of a magazine. Each student had a different picture to write about. We had been working on story writing together for about a week at this point. I have nine students in this class now, and I got nine papers that started "It's was a beautiful day and it blew from the West." I looked at the papers and scratched my head, then asked them who had told them all to write that. Well, their teacher had of course. After reading through the stories I realized they all ended the exact same way as well: "That day he learned an important lesson." Doesn't matter if the story was about a girl, or that she really didn't learn anything at all, every story ended that way. It was especially frustrating because I couldn't exactly tell them NOT to do that without undermining their teacher.

One of my main frustrations with education here in Tonga is that the kids aren't EVER expected to think for themselves, to be creative, to find a solution to a problem. All "learning" here is rote memorization, chanting in unison, and copying off a blackboard. When I ask them to come up with a unique answer they STARE at me as if I'm from another planet. All their lives they have been given the answers and expected to copy them into their notebooks and memorize them, and believe me, they are REALLY good at memorizing. When it comes to writing a story from their imagination, they are lost. It's like pulling teeth. They are sure there is a right and a wrong answer, and sure that they have the wrong answer. It doesn't help that they are used to teachers hitting them if they get the wrong answer. It makes me want to pull my hair out, but we're working on it, although this unit is taking far longer than I had planned.

I feel like I've actually been making a lot of progress with the kids, especially in class 3/4. Unfortunately the class 3/4 teacher hasn't been helping much. When you ask any kid in tonga how they are doing, they will invariably switch on their robot voice and say, "I am fine thank you how are you." It drives me crazy, so one of the first things I did with my students was to teach them different words to describe how they are doing. Now every morning we sit in a circle and I ask the students how they are, and I hear 19 different responses, it's great. At first they just stared at me. Well, last week the class 3/4 teacher came in and decided to join our discussion circle and proceeded to ridicule the kids if they said something wrong. You could see them regressing back into wanting to say "I am fine thank you how are you." It was frustrating. Later that week I did an art project with them and she went around taking kids projects and saying, "Ugly, ugly, REALLY ugly." I just wanted to send her far faraway.

In other news, I met up with a couple of couch surfers ( an online organization connecting travelers worldwide) last week and we went for a hike to Fangatave beach. One of my neighbors, Tevita came along because he wanted to go fishing. We were lucky for a beautiful day, and when we got to the beach, Tevita and I went out in the ocean and had a kai tahi, which basically means you go out and pick up anything alive out of the sea and eat it all raw. Mostly shellfish. The couchsurfers were pretty good about trying everything, and most people find if they just TRY it, they usually like it. Once you get past the texture most of it is pretty good and considered a delicacy here. Fangatave is a beach that not many Tongans get out to, so everything is plentiful and ripe for the picking. While we were out picking stuff off rocks, the whales swam by. We heard them at first, their spouts, then we saw them. They were playing maybe 200 yards off the coast, and we stood there and watched them for ten or fifteen minutes before they moved on. That was pretty neat. We were hoping to see them from the cliffs above the beach, but we had no such luck.

I also went to the cliffs on the Southern end of the island last week, which was a place I hadn't yet been. One of the PCV's had a birthday last week, and she decided she wanted to go to Lakufa'anga for her birthday, so after school Friday we all got together and headed down there. It was beautiful, there were wild horses on the cliffs and we were able to climb down a little and do some exploring as well which was fun.

So last week I broke down and bought a new cell phone from the bookshop on the island. "Did my cell phone break?" you ask? Well, no. Truth be told...I bought it for the games. It has Tetris! I know, it sounds silly, but really, since buying it my quality of life has improved, and that's what's important. I chose not to bring a computer, personal DVD player, or really much at all for that matter with me to Tonga. My iPod speakers just broke, my shortwave radio is busted, and I was finding myself sitting around after night school, just waiting for 9 o'clock to roll around so I could go to bed. The dishes were done, I had pretty much planned for school through the end of the school year, I've read all my books a few times over. I filled an entire journal. So I bought this cell phone, it cost me $30, and I think it will be well worth the investment.

The library project has been stalled for the past month or so, the grant we are applying for was put on hold because money hadn't been allocated to the fund yet, but I just got news today that the money came through and they are accepting applications! Our application has been completed, but not without a little frustration of course. I am working with the class 5/6 teacher on this library project, and he had agreed to get letters of support from the town officer, the head of the PTA, and a few other key people. A few days later he came to me with all of the completed letters. I was very impressed with the speediness with which he was able to get the letters. I read the first one. It was great! It had everything in it we needed to say and it was even in English so we didn't have to translate. I looked at the second one. Wait a second...it was the same letter, word for word, but signed by a different person. As were the rest of the letters. "Tu'amelie, " I said "who wrote this letter?" He said that he had written the letter and just gone around and gotten signatures. "Um...I can't send these in." I told him. He didn't understand. I tried to explain that the letters of support should actually be written by the town officer, the ministry of education, the principal, and the PTA. I told him our application would be far stronger that way, and that it was all right to help them with the letter, but not to send in the same letter from all these different people. He didn't understand, he thought I was being too particular (which I certainly can be sometimes), but he finally agreed to get seperate letters from everyone. A few weeks later I got all the letters, and they were all at least different. I found out later that the letter from the ministry of education was actually written by a teacher at another school who likes to try to practice her English, but I let it go. The application will be sent off tomorrow, and we're hoping to hear back within the next month or so about whether we will get funding or not.

I had a great night last week. Well, by Tonga standards anyway. I woke up (fully clothed, knew where I was)...and found that I had caught TWO rats in one night in my kitchen. Doesn't get much better than that (here). I did a rat dance.

Tragedy in Tonga

As many of you have already heard, a ferry traveling to Vava'u capsized and sank last week. Last I heard, 96 people are still missing, assumed dead. There were no Peace Corps Volunteers on the boat, nor was there anyone I knew personally, however Tongans have so many relatives and are so interconnected that everone seems to have known or been related to someone on the boat. It's very tragic, but somehow I feel like no one is very surprised by it. I have heard many things, including that this is not the first, or even the second boat to go down in that area. It was reported that the boat was not deemed seaworthy by safety officials, but put into use anyway. It was also reported that the King left for a vacation the day after it happened and has not yet released a statement about it. I know that Tongans are very upset with the King and the government and the way this is being handled and the fact that it happened in the first place. It is illegal to speak or print publicly anything criticizing the King or the government, and it is something that is just never done, but since this has happened, I have heard a lot of negative things coming from Tongans which is interesting. Anyway, just a little insight as to how Tongans are handling the situation here. Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

"It's Tonga" Moments:

- I wanted to buy milk from the agricultural farm/college across from my village, but I can never seem to catch the milk truck as it goes out in the morning. My theory is that this is because it never goes out at the same time every morning. In pre-service training we are taught to vary our routines every so often so as to be "unpredictable", and someone must also have told this to the guys at the agricultural college because they follow this advice strictly, much to my frustration. Or they just go out whenever they wake up. But my guess is the former. I digress. So I can never catch the milk truck as it goes out, so I gave my class 5/6 students a few bucks and my pot for the milk and asked THEM to try and catch the milk truck as it went out. (Tongans just seem to instinctively know these things- when the milk truck will go out, when church will start, when the boat will leave/come in-whereas I have been programmed to assume that they happen on a schedule, which I think is my downfall, I have to let go of that idea, get past that mental block.) Anyway, sure enough, my kids show up on my doorstep the next morning with a pot full of milk.
"So when did the truck go out this morning?" I ask the kids.
"It didn't, Sameu didn't wake up this morning to deliver the milk, so we just went and milked a cow." One boy said, like it was the most normal thing in the world.
"Really? Huh. Thanks. Now come wash your hands."

-I went to Tongatapu last week to see a doctor because I've been a little sick lately (fine now) and told my students that I would miss Friday because I would be in Tongatapu. Thursday evening, the entire class (8 students) showed up on my doorstep, telling me that they had decided to come have a prayer for me since I was going to Tongatapu. It was very sweet, they sang a hymn and had a group prayer for me.

-After the prayer they hung around and looked at my magazines that I had recently recieved in the mail. There were a few mountain bike magazines, an Alaska magazine, and a People magazine. One boy looking at the mountain biking magazine seemed to be deeply confused by something, so I asked him, "Lopeti, what's up?" He showed me the picture he was looking at of a guy hucking himself off a 15-ft. cliff on his mountain bike, where there was obviously a path down that didn't involve leaving the ground with the bike. He couldn't figure out why the guy didn't go around. I tried explaining that some people think it's fun to throw themselves off cliffs on their bikes, but that's a pretty tough concept to explain, and when I had finished, I could tell he still couldn't quite wrap his head around it. I like looking at situations like that, where I do something Tongans find extremely weird or don't understand or where they do something I find weird and don't understand, and thinking about what it says about our respective cultures that we come from and were raised in.

-On my way back from Tongatapu I took my usual place on top of the boat above the wheelhouse. Fifteen minutes into the three-hour boat ride it became clear that I would have to pack up and sit inside the boat. I usually sit on top for the freash air and the view, but it was extremely rough and I was soaked before we even left the protected cove of islands and made it into the open sea. So I go inside the boat and in the middle there's a whole bunch of Tongans sprawled out on mats sleeping. They are wearing black, so I assume they are either going to or coming from a funeral. That assumption was correct. In my defense, none of them looked particularly alive at any point on the trip, and I spent much of the boat ride hanging over the edge of the boat puking or sitting in my seat with head in my hands thinking about puking and not falling out of my seat. It wasn't until we made it to 'Eua and were getting off the boat and I saw a van, with all it's seats and the back hatch door removed, covered in woven mats but empty, that I realized that the (dead) body had been on the boat. And not just on the boat, but lying with the Tongans in the middle, not five feet from my seat. A large part of me is glad I didn't realize this before or during the boat ride, as that would have raised numerous concerns (mainly about how it (?) would stay in place, while I was having trouble holding onto my seat) and (if possible) more nausea.

I think have the coolest dog ever. He does this relly awesome trick and I didn't even have to teach him. I have lots of wild chickens and roosters in my yard (which is also the schoolyard). One day I was sitting in my open doorway reading a book when Tahi came up to me with something in his mouth, clearly pleased with himself. As he came closer I realized it was an egg. Fully intact. Since then he has been bringing me eggs a few times a week. He never breaks one. It sure beats silly dog tricks like rolling over!

But on a different note, Tahi ahs also been causing some headaches. Yesterday he chased and killed a neighbors chicken, which is a big faux pas around here. It could have been worse, it could have been one of their pigs (which he's gone after before, but enver killed), but still, I don't think they were pleased, not that they'd ever tell me if they were pissed off, but I could kinda tell. So Tahi bought himself a ticket to get snipped pronto, hopefully that will take care of the problem, because if not, we're in trouble...

Beach cleanup/ tourists/ whales

Feasting after the cleanup
The boys taking a rest with some coconuts
Some of the group

Pasa and Heather weaving baskets to collect trash
Paea digging a "burn hole" for the trash we collected
Taniela, Tevita and I collecting rubbish
Making the umu
From camping last month



It's Tonga Moments:
- My neighbor Tevita (25 yr. old male) came by yesterday with lipstick on. Bright red lipstick. It was applied sloppily.
I looked at him confused, and asked, "Um...Tevita, are you wearing lipstick?"
"yes" He replied.
"Um....why?"
"Because my lips are dry."
"But....lipstick is for girls"
"I know, but my lips were dry" He said this as though I was crazy to be disturbed by him wearing lipstick. I made him wipe off the lipstick and gave him some chapstick.

-I went to buy a tray of eggs from the agricultural college last week for the first time (usually I just buy them a few at a time from the falekaloas) and the guy gave it to me for $2 off AND took out all the small ones and replaces them with big ones. I could look through the screen window and see the hundreds of chickens in their coops, and it's kind of a nice feeling to know exactly where your food comes from. Most of the time, sometimes it's better not to know. But I mean it is nice to know that the food hasn't been fortified or preserved or artificially colored. Anyway.

I think I mentioned in my last post about camping on the beach then spending the next morning trying to clean it up, but not being able to finish the job because there was too much trash and it started raining. Well, last week we ended up organizing a bunch of the Tongan youth from our villages to come out and help us, which ended up being a huge success. We talked about it at tea Wednesday, and decided to try to pull something together for Friday. Putting something together two days in advance is very Faka-Tonga (like Tonga; Tonga-esque). So we each went back to our villages and gathered as many youth as we could to come out with us. I gotta say, my village really pulled through; there were 9 people from my village and like five from all the other villages combined! We bought food to cook in an umu (underground oven) on the beach, then set off on our way.

One of the really cool things about the day was that none of the Tongans had ever been to this beach and it is one of the most beautiful places on the island. They just didn't know about it. The hike is a lot of fun, you walk along a cliff overlooking the ocean, then you have to climb down the cliff to the beach, and it was especially fun because we were trying to do it carrying shovels and food. Also, on the hike, the a few of the boys disappeared into the bush for a few minutes and came out carrying a few huge kape (root crop- not sure if there is an English translation) which we lugged down the cliff and cooked up in the umu.

One we made it to the beach we talked quickly about what the plan was then set off. Most of us walked up and down the beach, hauling the rubbish to a central location to be burned. Some wove baskets out of palm fronds to carry trash in, and a few worked on digging the umu (underground oven) and preparing the food. We worked hard for about two and a half hours, then it was time to play. I had brought a frisbee and football which we were tossing around on the beach. Then Ashley and I came up with the bright idea to teach them American football, which quickly turned into wrestlemania as soon as the ball was snapped. We didn't get far teaching them football, but yy the time we decided to go open up the umu and eat, my stomach hurt from laughing so much.

By the time the food was done, everyone was pretty well worn out. The food out of the umu was delicious, everyone chowed down, then it was time to head home. It was a really successful day, and everyone had a great time. We're hoping to do it again about once a month at different beaches on the island.

The next week, Jason- a business volunteer on the island, had a project with the tourism industry on 'Eua which all the Peace Corps attended as support to him. Basically all the guest houses on the island (2.5 really) worked together to do a cultural day for the tourists who were staying in their guest houses where they get to help prepare a Tongan feast and participate in everything Faka-Tonga. The tourists were able to participate in a traditional kava ceremony, learn how to weave baskets from palm fronds, husk coconuts, make coconut cream from the coconuts, and prepare a Tongan feast from start to finish. And by start, I mean, we rode out there in the back of a pickup truck with a live pig, which ended up being cooked over the spit. That was a little traumatic for some of the tourists I think. One actually commented, "Well, at least you know it's fresh!" Which I though was a really good attitude. But it was a fun and successful day overall, Jason's been doing some really awesome work with the tourism industry here in 'Eua, so it was a great day for him.

The next day I ended up doing the same thing all over again (preparing a Tongan feast) because my neightbors were having the faifekau (pastor) from the main village on the island over for dinner, so I helped them roast the pig and make 'ota ika (raw fish dish) and lu all day. And then the pastor didn't come, so we got to eat it too! Two days in a row of roasted pig is pretty lucky.

Whale season has officially begun! Whales have been spotted off the coast for the past week or so, and although I haven't seen them yet, I hear that soon they will be hard to miss. In fact, they say that I will be able to see them from the front steps of my house, which I'm pretty excited about. They come to Tonga every year to breed and they swim and play right off the shore.

School is coming along, we're getting close to the class 6 exam, which is a pretty big deal here, so class 5/6 has been working really hard, coming to school in the morning before school starts and in the evening after they eat dinner. Way too much if you ask me, but they don't complain. There are only seven students in class 5/6, and five of them will be moving on to high school next year which will be sad because they're a lot of fun. But then again, I'll see them every day after school I'm sure. Class 3/4 is my biggest class, and the class that I had a little trouble with at the beginning, and I have to say that now I look forward to seeing them every day; it is my favorite class to teach. They are superstars and are learning so quickly.

OH! I successfully made cottage cheese a few weeks ago, which was very exciting. I live across from the agricultural college (Lots of cows) and am able to get raw milk, which is really good for making cheese (which is unavailable on the island). I'm looking forward to trying other cheeses and yogurt once I can get into the main island and buy some yogurt to start it with.

Overall, life is good here, haven't had any rat issues lately, I think because it has been so cold (for Tonga- it's relative). I have no doubt that they will be back, and when they come I will be ready to stage an attack of epic proportions. I have had provisions sent, and while I don't want to give away all my secrets here, I'll just say that rats will be introduced to the power of electrcity and booby traps throughout my house. Muahahaha.

"Everyone needs a fakaleiti"- Krystal

Tahi looking guilty (above)
A cave on the beach (below)
Ahhhh
On the cliffs above the beach
We brought a pot to cook mussles and/or snails in

The group on the cliffs
Katie, me, Ashley
This one's from the hurricane actually, it flooded the yeard of the guesthouse we were staying at, but we had fun with it
In a cave


It's Tonga Moments of the Week:

-I attended an HIV/AIDS workshop that was held in my village. Because my village is so small, the workshop was just held in someone's living room. In the middle of the condom demonstration, I look up to see one of my class six boys sitting in the doorway, watching the whole thing. There are two more of my students (classes 2/3) looking in through the window. No one else seems bothered by this, and they sit in and watch the entire thing.

-I was sitting in my house with my neighbor Elizabeth last week and I asked her what she had done the day before. She told me that she had made tuitui with her Mom, Lupe. Not sure what that was, I asked. She ran next door and came back with a lumpy, paste-y mass and handed it to me. She instructed me to rub it all over my face. I was skeptical, but it smelled really good, so I figured why not? As I was rubbing it on my face (it felt great!) I asked her how she had made it. Again she ran next door, and this time returned with some roots and leaves. She peeled on of the roots and stuck it in her mouth, along with a few of the leaves. "oh, neat!" I thought, "it's edible too!" I went to taste some of the root, but Elizabeth stopped me with an alarmed look on her face. "Watch" she instructed. She finished chewing thoroughly, then spat the mashed up root and leaf into her hand and began to rub it on her face. My stomach sank, I couldn't breathe for a second. I looked at the lump in my hand, "Did you chew this?" I asked. "No!" she replied. I let out a sigh of relief. It was premature. "Lupe did!" I just started laughing, because what else can you do? Elizabeth joined in, but she didn't seem to understand what was funny, she was just being polite. After Elizabeth left, I washed my face. It did smell really good.

It's been a busy month here in Tonga; although the last two weeks have been school break, things haven't seemed to slow down at all. A couple of friends, Katie and Chad, came down from Vava'u (the northernmost island group in Tonga) and stayed with me a few days. While they were here we tried to stay on out feet as much as possible. We went hiking in the rain forest one day, then the next two days we went camping at my favorite beach, Fangatave. As it turns out, they are excellent cooks, so I got to eat really well for a couple days! One night we made veggie pasta, and another night we made fish tacos.

Camping was a lot of fun, in addition to Katie and Chad, there was a couchsurfer here from New York, a scuba dive instructor from Japan, another PCV from Ha'apai, and Ashley, Jason, and I. When night fell we went on a nighttime cave-exploration adventure which was neat, there are really neat caves to explore all over the island. The next day we all rallied and spent the morning cleaning up the beach, and made some really interesting finds. One time at the base of one of the cliffs Jason actually found a human jawbone, but nothing that interesting this time. We ended up with piles of rubbish all along the beach that we had planned on burning on our way out, but it turned out to be too wet to burn anything. So now there are piles of trash all along the beach which looks worse than when we got there and it was all spread out. We're trying to get something together where we work with the youth to get a beach cleanup program started, so hopefully more to come on that.

Katie and Chad took off back to Vava'u Monday morning, but the rest of us got together and had a little birthday dinner for my birthday. Jason made pizzas- a sea bass pizza, a fried egg pizza, and an eggplant and cabbage pizza. I'm usually a cheese and pepperoni-type gal, but it's been so long since I've had pizza, they were amazing! I hadn't really been too excited about my birthday here (I would have just as soon forgotten about it) and I definitely wasn't planning on doing much, but it turned out to be a great evening with everyone around. One of my neighbors also knew it was my birthday and brought me a cake, which was a nice surprise. So overall a really great birthday.

The next day I went horseback riding to the cliffs on the northern coast of 'Eua which was beautiful. Pretty soon the whales will be coming through and you can see them playing right off the coast, so everyone's looking forward to that. We are all planning on going out when the whales come and swimming with them which sounds pretty exhilarating. Ashley and I are considering investing in a horse to ride around the island for the rest of the time we're here, so we're asking around about that. We both think it would be worth it!

The week before school let out was especially busy, I tested all my kids on their progress so far, then had to write up report cards for all of them. I only have 37 students, but I had to write the reports in Tongan, which made it tough. The first week of break I still taught class 5/6 (they continued to have class in the mornings in preparation for their exams at the end of the year) since their regular teacher went to Tongatapu for a conference. It was pretty informal and fun, one day I took them on a walk to town with their notebooks and we wrote down all the things they didn't already know, such as: barbed wire, litter, fence, etc. and practiced using the words in sentences. It was fun. School starts again on Monday, which I'm actually looking forward to. After testing the kids I've identified a few things I really want to focus on and hit hard this next term, especially for the kids that will be taking the class 6 exam.

Things are going really well here; there are definitely bouts of missing home and those modern comforts which I used to take for granted like a hot shower, but just about every day I feel like I've lucked out getting to be here. I am learning new things on a daily basis, which I think is fun. Staying busy has been key, although that's not always the easiest thing to do around here! It's always exciting to hear news from family and friends, so shoot me an e-mail! Cheers!

Training in Tongatapu, staying busy

"It's Tonga" story of the week:
- My counterpart didn't come to school one morning, one of the other teachers told me she was at the hospital. Unfortunately, she had the only room key with her. So how do we solve this problem? Dismantle the window of course. After taking the window off, a kid crawled through and opened the classroom. Problem solved.
- Later that day, I ran into the counterpart on the road and asked her if she was feeling better. She said she was, but she had a hole in her tooth. I asked her if they were able to fix it at the hospital or if she'd have to travel to Tongatapu to get it fixed. She told me they gave her antibiotics for it. I was confused, so I asked her what she was going to do about the tooth with a hole in it. She told me she tried to pull it out herself, but that didn't work, so she had to cut it off. Now I was really confused, and I think it must have showed on my face, because she opened her mouth and showed me the gaping, bloody hole where her tooth used to be. Up to this point, our conversation had been in Tongan, but I had to switch to English to sort this whole mess out. It didn't help. What I took from the conversation was that the tooth went bad, and she used scissors to cut it off. I'm pretty squeamish about teeth anyway, so I couldn't take the conversation much further than that. Make of it what you will. I'm just praying that I don't get any holes in my teeth while I'm here.

I've officially been serving as a Peace Corps volunteer six months! And I'm busy as ever, but really having a good time as well. Last week was the final week of the second term of the school year, so the high school kids were taking exams and got out of school early, and the primary school kids were generally getting out of school a little early as well. For night school one night I taught my class six students how to make pancakes at my house, and on Friday I had my high school girls in my village over for lunch and we spent the afternoon playing cards. I've found since being here that Tongans tend to play cards a little differently than Americans. When we play, we follow the rules strictly and the point is to win (and to have fun, but really to win, and it's only fun when everyone plays by the rules). When you play cards with a Tongan, the point is to cheat and goof off and not follow the rules and see hopw much cheating they can get away with. I don't get it, but every Tongan I've ever played with plays that way, and they even mentioned it in our training cross-cultural manual. I just didn't believe it when they said, "They point of playing cards in Tonga is not to win, it's to cheat." I now believe it, but still am trying to wrap my head around how that is fun. Like I said, I just don't understand the appeal of not even playing right, but I've learned to just go with it.

After school every day all the kids have been getting together to play kick the can, which sometimes I partake in or watch when I'm around. It's a lot of fun though, they call it "bunny" instead of "kick the can," and they use twenty old tin cans which they have to stack in a pyramid before the other team gets everyone out by pegging them with a flat basketball. This can be especially tricky because all the cans are rusted and bent and of different size. But it's a lot of fun, kids from class one all the way to the high school kids play all together.

The proposal and cost estimate for the library has been finished, and the project is still coming along swimmingly. Now a counterpart and I are working on filling out and sending of grant applications to get the money to build it. My village has volunteered to provide all the manual labor to build the library, and I think we want to let the kids paint it, so that all has helped cut the cost quite a bit. Still working on getting book, but overall the project is doing great!

I was brought into Tongatapu this week with one of my counterparts to complete a training workshop about conducting service projects with our students within our communities. It was a good workshop, and it was nice to make it into the main island again. While here, I went to a salsa dancing lesson put on by another volunteer, as well as a yoga class put on by another volunteer. I washed my clothes in a real washing machine, watched half a movie in the volunteer lounge, and drank real coffee at a coffeeshop. And...after three days here I'm defenitely ready to get back to 'Eua. I miss playing "bunny" and the sound of waves crashing against the shore lulling me to sleep every night. And I miss my puppy, Tahi. He's doing great; he's a really, really good dog. He's always gentle with the kids, even when they're not so gentle with him, and he loves cuddling in my hammock, but he's also really protective and gets all "tough" when strange dogs or people come around. Although this past week or so, he's started hanging out with a rough crowd of dogs around the neighborhood and chasing the neighbors pigs, which will get him eaten in these parts, so I have to get that situation under control.

I went hiking and camped on the beach last weekend, looks like that's probably on the slate for this weekend too since a couple of Austrailian volunteers are on their way out to 'Eua. That'll be a good time. I'll head back on the boat tomorrow, hopefully it will be a smotther ride that the boat we took coming in (there was a line of palangi's hanging over the edge of the boat puking for most of the ride).

Hopefully I'll be getting my camera back soon, and it'll be fixed, so pictures to come soon!
I started making a list of things that have broken since I've been here in Tonga, and realized that every single thing I brought that required battery or electricity is toast (good thing I didn't bring too much of that stuff) including my iPod, camera, fan, water boiler pitcher, and headlamp. Faka'ofa (pitiful). Good thing I like to read :)

I know it's getting to be summer back in the states, so here's hoping everyone is having a good start to their summers and warming up. It's "dry" season here, and actually getting really cold, at least on my island. No telling how cold, because no one has a thermometer, but I think it's really cold, and I am, after all, from Alaska, so that's saying something. Take care everyone!

Only in Tonga...

As you can see, I added some things to my blog, a list of books I've read here, links to my friends' blogs, and some other things. I rated the books on a scale from 1-10, ten being really super and one being barely readable. So if you're looking for a good book to read, there are some pretty good ones on that list! I actually just finished this book, I Know This Much is True which was really excellent, I highly recommend it. I also recommend checking out Sarahs Faka-Fabulous blog; she posted a Peace Corps Tonga Top 25 list which explains a lot about life as a PCV in Tonga, it's pretty funny. Also the latest Mo'ui Nonga blog- kinda took the words right out of my mouth, I couldn't have said it better myself. Malo, Saskia :)

So last Thursday my phone broke; it just turned off and wouldn't turn back on. It was only then that I realized that my phone was the only way I had of telling the time. My iPod isn't set to the correct time, and my little alarm clock got broken when it was thrown at the walls in an attempt to scare off the rats in the middle of the night. So Friday I went to school when the bell rang. Then on Saturday I realized that my shortwave radio had the time on it. Great! I walked to the other end of my island Saturday, had dinner with a few other PCV's, and by the time I got back to my house it was 10 o'clock. I hadn't realized it was that late! Sunday I went to church when the bells rang, and didn't do much the rest of the day. Monday I woke up, checked the shortwave radio and realized it was almost 8:30, when school should start. I rushed to get ready, then looked out my window and saw that there weren't that many kids at school yet, which is strange. Also none of the teachers were there. I assumed there was a reson school was starting late that I hadn't been made aware of, because that wouldn't be unusual. By the time the principal showed up it was 9:30, and I asked her why school was starting late today. She looked confused for a second, then apologized profusely and explained that it was cold out that morning. Uh, okay. After school I tried turning my phone on, and it worked again! I set it to my shortwave radio time, and set off to go use the internet. After being on the internet for an hour, I realized that my phone and the time setting on the computer were an hour off. That got me thinking. Then I asked someone what time it was. It was then that I realized I was an hour ahead. Not only was I an hour ahead, but I had been an hour ahead for three days. That was a little disorienting. That got me to thinking about how long I could possibly go in America being an hour off on the time. I concluded that it would have to be no more than an hour before I would figure out my mistake. Even on Sunday, there would be football which starts at a specific time. All the other days I would go meet with friends, go to school, work, there was no way I could get through an hour thinking the time was an hour off from what it actually was.

Speaking of disorienting, I saw the big dipper the other night. It was upside down. Then I realized that I was the one that was upside down. Then I got dizzy and had to stop thinking about it.

The library is coming along swiftly, I took a trip to Tongatapu a few weeks ago where I met with the Ministry of Finance about funding the project and got information on some grants as well as some possible sources for donating books. When I got back I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the PTA had met about it, found a builder, and he should finish his plans and proposal withing the next week or so. Things usually don't happen this fast in Tonga, and I'm excited that the whole community is really supportive of the library and willing to work to get it done.

I had a great teacher moment today. When I first started teaching here I had a little trouble controlling class 3/4. Their teacher used corporal punishment almost exclusively as the form of classroom management, and when they realized I wasn't going to hit them they took advantage of that a little. A few months ago I had to start doing something different with them. Now every day instead of sitting at their desks where they tend to play with things and hit each other, we sit on the floor in a circle and have our lessons there. When they come to the floor or return to their desks, I tell them, "When I say go, please quickly and quietly return the desks to where they belong and take a seat. Go." At first I timed them to see how quickly they could do it, but now they are pretty expert at it, and having that routine with them has worked wonders. I have almost no classroom management issues anymore, and class runs much more efficiently. The icing on the cake was that when I walked into the classroom today, the calss 3/4 teacher had them sitting on the floor for that lesson and when she saw me walk in she asked them to quickly and quietly return to their seat so I could begin. They did so perfectly, and no one was hit. She smiled at me and told me I could begin now. My heart swelled with pride :)

A Week in the Life....

Class 5/6 (above)
At a lookout with PCV Heather
Teaching



Climbing on a huge banyan tree
At one of the lookouts over the rainforest
Stopping for a snack
Tahi- good-looking dog, eh?



It has come to my attention that all my blogs to this point have been event-centered and don't necessarily represent what my life here is about. My experience here hasn't been ENTIRELY camping trips and boat rides :) To that end, I decided it was time to describe what a "typical" day is like for me.

But first, back by popular demand- It's Tonga Moments of the Week:

- Last week I set off on a hike with a few of the other PCV's. We came upon a huge road grader sitting alongside the road. It was running. It was even beeping, as if in reverse. The guy behind the wheel? Fast asleep. Sprawled out across the front seat, feet on the steering wheel. We kept walking.

- On our hike we ended up bushwhacking part of the way looking for a beach we had seen on our boat trip a few months ago. All of the sudden we stumbled upon a huge chest freezer. There were no real trails around it, and there was no way a truck could have gotten through...we all just kinda stopped and looked at it and scratched our heads.

- I got back from the hike and walked up to my house, where someone had left me a bunch (about 100) of bananas hanging from my roof (that's not unusual, they come off the tree in bunches of anywhere from 50-150, and you hang them from the roof to keep the bugs off them). I still haven't figured out who it was.

-The next day I open my door to find a horse skull in my yard...probably a dog dragged it there.

- I was getting a ride back to my village with one of my neighbors the other day, and as I was opening the sliding door to his van the entire thing fell off. Then he picked it up and tried to put the thing inside the van. That didn't work. Finally he got it back on enough to make it back to the village. Now they just don't open that door, they climb in and out through the windows, back hatch, or front seat.

-I was on my way to akome'a (practice of things- more on that later) when a truck pulled alongside me. Out the window popped a hand...with a huge, cooked lobster in it. The guy in the truck handed it to me and drove off. Yum.

-A kid had a fish bone stuck in his throat. To remedy this, they got another kids to start running in circles around him really fast. And it worked.

A day in the life:

Well, a typical weekday for me starts between 6:30 and 7 with a cup of instant coffee and a cold shower (no hot water). School starts at 8:30 (roughly) and I spend all morning teaching English to 40 elementary school students split into three classes. In Class 1/2 we are working hard on numbers, the alphabet, and colors. Class 3/4 we are working on sentence structure and parts of speech. In Class 5/6 we are working on story writing, reading comprehension, and getting them through the Class 6 exam, which is what determines which high school they will attend. With classes 3/4 and 5/6 we are working on conversational English as well.

Teaching here is quite different than teaching in America for lots of reasons. Some I've touched on in past postings, such as corporal punishment, but it's also very rewarding in many ways. There are only 40 kids in my school, so I get to know them really well. They of course, are also the kids in my village, so I pretty much am around them ALL the time. Luckily for me, they are really great kids, and I enjoy being around them. I see them at church, before and after school, and at all the akome'a's. They are excited about learning English and always try to talk to me in English when I walk through the village, which is rewarding.

After school I usually spend the afternoons walking down to use the internet and working on secondary projects or going for a swim in the wharf. (Although it recently came to my attention that the entire islands waste probably drains straight into the wharf, which MAYBE could have contributed to the golf ball-sized thyroid gland issue I experienced last month. I haven't swam in a little while.)
Some of the projects I'm currently working on or hope to start soon include:
- Building a library at my school. We don't have a room for it or books, so this is an ambitious project. The ball is actually rolling on this one and I have the support of my community to build a library on the school campus. I am working on getting books now.
- Working with the other PCV's on the island who teach to put together a workshop series on topics such as: Positive Discipline, Classroom Management, Making and Maintaining Resources, etc.
- Working with the Youth Group in my village to create a sustainable way for them to raise money to fund musical equipment and various activities.

Around five we usually have akome'a (practice of things) where the youth group gets together to practice singing, action songs, and skits. Right now we are doing all of the above for a Children's Day program (I think). Every night this week we have had akome'a from about 5 or 5:30 to 10pm. I can't complain about being tired though, because all the kids from my school are right there alongside me, even the five year-olds. The entire village has been involved in some capacity, so it's actualy been a lot of fun.

After akome'a, I have poako (night study). (Obviously not this week- this week has been dedicated to akome'a in my village) I usually go three nights with Class 5/6 and two or three nights with the high school girls in my village. This usually lasts about an hour and a half, and it's pretty fun because it's not as formal as regular school (the kids aren't wearing their uniforms, I'm not wearing my kiekia). The high school girls come to my house, and we always start with any help they need on homework. After that they just really want to be able to speak English better, so I'll have an activity set up for them and then we will talk, play games (jeopardy, etc.), and listen to music. With Class 5/6 the goal of poako is to practice for the Class 6 Exam, so we still play games pretty often, but for example, the jeopardy clues are taken straight from the exam. By the time that's finished I'm usually pretty exhausted and fall into bed around 9:30. There's not much of a night life around here :)

On Wednesdays all the PCV's and JICA (japanese volunteers) on the island (8) get together for tea. This is a huge sanity saver, as it is an opportunity to share ideas, frustrations, successes, issues, or simply just to talk in English! Friday nights I sometimes tou'a (serve kava) because I have found it's a great way to practice my Tongan and get to know people in my village that I otherwise wouldn't be able to talk to.

Weekends are usually pretty quiet around here. Rugby season has started up here, and every Saturday the villages compete against each other. They play in a field behind the hospital, which, after watching one Saturday, I am convinced in no coincidence. Either Friday or Saturday a few of us usually rally for a hike. Other than that, Saturdays are for doing laundry, burning trash, and other household chores.

Sunday. Oh, Sunday. Sunday's are for church, and church only. It is actually against the law to do any work on Sunday (this includes exercising, swimming, and even playing cards). At first this was maddening. Coming from America, I saw it as: there goes 1/7 of my productivity, probably more, because Sunday's are a great day to get things done and prepare for the week. Not in Tonga. I have actually come to appreciate Sunday's here most of the time. If I am feeling stir crazy, it is acceptable to go on a walk (as long as you don't walk too fast- seriously, you can't walk as if you have a purpose) or I can close the doors to my house and do whatever I want. Church happens three times on Sunday, I go twice (I skip the 5am service, for obvious reasons). There is only one church in my village, so it is a great opportunity to see everyone and of course everyone is dressed in their Sunday best, so it's really nice. There is nothing open on Sunday, so you have to make sure you buy everything you need on Saturday. My neighbors always bring me lu on Sundays, which is taro leaves wrapped around fish, corned beef, or mutton chops, doused in coconut cream, and cooked in an umu (underground oven). The entire Kingdom eats lu on Sunday after morning church, and my neighbors always make sure I am included. Last Sunday I tried to recipricate, and when my neighbors brought me lu, I gave them a bowl of jello. Ten minutes later I get a knock on my door, and it is my neighbor, with a bowl of ice cream topped with jello. I briefly considered eating a few bites and sending it back with bananas sliced over the top...but who knows what they would come back with?

That's pretty much what a "typical" week looks like for me, although there is never really a "typical" week. Here are some other interesting aspects of my life here:

'Eua is a really unique island for a few reasons. To get to 'Eua, you take the shortest commercial flight in the world. Really- it's only seven minutes. Or you can take the boat, which I still have not done- it's a three-hour boat ride, and from what I've heard it is pretty tumultuous. Also, 'Eua is 30 millions years older than the rest of Tonga and geologically completely unrelated. It is the highest coral island in the world, and it is also the fastest moving chunk of land on earth, moving about six inches closer to South America every year.

One of the things about Tongan life that I have yet to fully embrace is the food. I read a book about the first people that came to these islands 3000 years ago and realized that since then, their diet really hasn't changed. Root crop, fish and coconuts. On my island we don't get a lot of fresh fish because the seas are too rough for the fishing boats. Also, there's a whole season where we don't get any vegetables. We're in that season now, and I'm not sure how long it lasts. As a result, the diet here ('Eua) consists mostly of canned fish and corned beef, root crop, and fried dough balls, called keke. I don't care very much for of any of that. I have become an expert at homemade tortillas, and I eat a lot of eggs and oatmeal, in every way imaginable. I feel a little like Bubba Gump, but with eggs instead of shrimp. Hard-boiled, scrambled, omlette, quiche, breakfast burrito....if anyone has any good egg recipies, let me know!
One of the things that is constant here is fresh fruit. It's seasonal, but it can always be found, which I am thankful for. Bananas are pretty much year-round, and right now oranges and avocados are in season. I'm not seeing much papaya anymore, which is sad, but guavas are plentiful and really good.
I've talked a few times in previous postings about kaipola's, or Tongan feasts. These are very common, held at every wedding, funeral, holiday and special church service. Roasted pig is served at every kaipola, along with sometimes horse (funerals), dog, chicken, lu, root crop, lobster, chop suey, canned spaghetti on buttered crackers, canned spaghetti snandwiches, canned spaghetti on fried eggs...you get the idea.

Some of the challenges I've come across so far:
-Constant attention from everyone. Especially the boys and men. (I know, what a problem to have, right? But it really does wear on you trying to fend off constant advances, 95% of which are unwelcome) I don't necessarily like being the center of attention, but as one of six PCV's on the island, it's unaviodable. This is also a culture renowned for it's gossip. Everyone knows where I go all the time, what I buy at the shop, who I hang out with, and even the current balance in my bank account (you have to ask the teller, who will tell you aloud, thus everyone in the bank knows, thus by the next day everyone on the island knows.) They feel this gives them a right to ask for money.
- The language barrier is another issue, albeit one that is getting much easier as time passes. When I first got to my village, no one really spoke English, and I didn't really speak Tongan well enough to communicate. This is extremely frustrating, and I can now sympathize with two-year olds, as a few times I really felt like throwing myself on the ground and kicking and screaming as well. My language has come a long ways, but at first the only meaningful and effective communication I would have was at tea on Wednesdays with the other Peace Corps. I've never been a huge chatterbox, but that was challenging.
-Taimi Tonga. Tonga runs on its very own, very special time table. If someone tells you something will begin at 3, it means that they hope it will begin by 3:30, and it will actually begin around 5. This was really frustrating at first, because I am kind of a stickler about time and hate being late to anything. Now I am used to it, and I still show up on time (usually the first one there) but I have discovered the snake game on my phone, and I am proud to say that I am now a snake master.
-Whenever I go anywhere, I have to make sure that I am back by dark or my village worries about me. They don't worry about some strange Tongan guy hurting me however, what they're worried about is the Tevolo (Devil). If you walk anywhere alone after dark the Devil will get you. They really believe this, and so I always make sure I am back by dark. I even heard about one volunteer who was trying to tell the story of Cinderella to his class. His counterpart, however, insisted that the fairy godmother be called the Tevolo, because anything with supernatural powers that isn't God is the Tevolo. Well, that just confused the kids, and the story of Cinderella will forever be lost on them.

All in all, I am having a terrific experience here. I am enjoying living in and being a part of my village, speaking a new language, trying to understand and respect the culture, and learning new things every day. I am really looking forward to my next few years here, getting the library built and running, working with the youth group more and getting to know everyone here better. It's exciting!