October 6, 2012
We got to have class together again yesterday and we went over some of the observations of our practice teaching that were super helpful. We also got to celebrate Ryan’s birthday yesterday, which meant cake and extra long teatime! I am beginning to develop a love-hate relationship with teatime, on the one hand who doesn’t love a nice break with cookies and coffee and other snacks, on the other hand my body has begun to expect cookies, if I don’t eat at least 6 cookies a day my body goes into shock. I didn’t even eat cookies that much in the states! Now I feel so ashamed every time I sit down after tea break; the score is always the same: teatime- a lot Sifa- ZERO… I have been getting back to one cup of coffee though which is good, although I think it is more because out of all the strange food here in Tongan I am still finding the instant coffee hard to stomach. I can’t wait for site so I can use my single cup brewer for real coffee!
We had all planned to go to this church/village concert in Futumu (one of the villages hosting PC) last night because our friends who live in Futumu were performing. Mandy did a traditional Tongan tau’olunga dance and Mark played ukulele and sang. It would have been pretty awesome and I was excited to go but when I told my host mom she mentioned that they were hosting a family reunion. I didn’t want to be rude so I decided to stay at my home stay, luckily for me there was a big feast complete with a roast baby pig- so I guess not all was lost. I was sitting in the Kava room where about 30 members of my host dad’s family were gathered. I was pretty lost the entire time except I got that they were deciding when to meet up for the big family reunion, I think the were debating about whether to have it in November or December and where. Of course this is all my speculation based on my understanding of about 10 to 15 words…
After the meeting we were able to eat! I felt truly Tongan, eating with just the root crops and my hands (-: basically I am saying I have integrated.. My company was Lau, the 8 year old who lives with me, and a 14 year old who kept asking me if I have a girlfriend. The food was really good and the pig tasted a lot like Turkey to me (so maybe that is the difference in Tongan pig Tonga was telling me about)… When I was done eating Tonga and I went to go and hangout with some guys and then to drink kava. I am loving hanging out with the local guys because I am seeing how when I learn some more Tongan I am really going to have a lot of fun here. It is such a social culture and everyone has a lot of fun with each other without having to go out and do a whole bunch. We went to drink kava around 10:30 but before we had to stand around the outside of the building and make sure the tou’a was attractive- she wasn’t really but we went in anyway. We spent a good couple hours just chillin’ drinking kava, which hasn’t gotten any easier to drink in case you were wondering. Kava circles are awesome for a bunch of reasons, mainly because it is such a cool cultural thing with the guitar and traditional island songs, but they are also cool because it is so easy to talk to people and practice Tongan. When I get through my 4 complete sentences I can spend the time listening to people and soaking it all in without feeling weird. I felt good because we didn’t leave the circle until around 1 am, which is one of the latest nights I have stayed out here- I am slowly turning back into an actual person!
Our roasted pig
The top of the eumu with all the Lu and root crops
Mountains of food being stacked on the plates
This is Lau, my host sister's oldest son.... I think
New born puppies that Tonga showed me next to where we were for the family reunion.
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