Our Next few days were a rush of learning the ins and outs of what our training would look like and how we were to be integrated into the community. I got to buy my first Tupenu (the traditional Tongan male garment that is similar to a long skirt but with pockets!), I didn’t know how to tie it for a whole day and kept having to readjust it as it fall off every time I got up from my chair /-; Now, I rock this piece of clothing like a champ pretty much on the daily.
This is me trying to figure out how to tie the Tupenu
Here is a picture of the guys in the group (minus Peter) rocking our Tupenus for the first time
I also got to run a Hasher 5k, which was super great because the city of Nuku’olfa is not super beautiful, but the run was on the outskirts of town so I got to see more of the real Tonga. A haasher run is a British thing I think where a bunch of ex-pats get together and set up different runs around a given area. They end their run with a beer and the person who made the course has to chug (they call themselves a drinking club with an exercise problem). On our last night at Sela’s we had a big PC Pot luck at a PC’s house from group 75. It was a lot of fun getting to eat amazing food (there was different ingredients to make-your-own tacos!) and getting to talk to all of the older volunteers.
This is actually their house, not a Peace Corps house. The couple from group 75 got actual jobs in Tonga after their service and decided to stay for awhile.
This is most of us being super excited that we got to eat some Palangi food!
This was also the night that one of the older volunteers took, the few of us that were down, out to the 2 bars that are in the city and I got drunk for the first time since America. Now, if you know me, I am a fan a trashing it up on occasion and this night provided me with just such an opportunity. The first bar we went to was called Reload. Reload is a very typical bar, it is like any small bar you would find in America except it had Rugby playing on the TV. Me, Peter and Harrison (two guys from my group) plus Lose (the girl from group 76 that took us out) and some New Zealanders got into the bar no problem, but the Tongans who tried to get in right before us were rejected- this was my first run in with Palangi (white person) privilege in Tonga. After being handed beer after beer and getting way more drunk than I ever expected to get during my Peace Corps service we went next door (literally, right next door) to the other bar called Timeout. This bar was way more of what I expected, it was hot, dirty and full of people trying to get down. There was a fight between a women who was dancing on a table and a guy who tried to hit on her… We were also introduced to many a Fakalati. A fakalati is the name given to the men who are transvestites in Tonga- it started as a cultural thing were families would raise a boy as a female to get help around the house, but is now more of a choice by men. It is strange that in such a religious and conservative culture, where homosexuality is actually illegal, that this would be allowed, but it is acceptable among the people. We drank several more beers (who knows how we got them) and escape a few more fights before we left Timeout. After grabbing Peter from the lips of his New Zealand Moa (term used for non-serious girlfriend/boyfriend) we caught a much-appreciated ride back to Sela’s. When we got back to Sela's we had to sneak in our room and try and pass out because we all had to be up at 7 am for water safety training.
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This is a bad picture of me, Harrison and our new New Zealand friend Neo at the bar.
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