October 1, 2012,
We got to see our first rugby game this weekend! Thanks to Wren’s hot sister 7 of us were able to squeeze into a car and meet some others at the rugby field near town to watch the village semi finals! It was really cool being able to go to a sporting event in Tongan; I would compare it to something between an average high school football game and a MMA fight. It was pure entertainment seeing mass Tongans congregating to watch a sport like rugby. There were women dressed up, a lot of Tongan kids being Tongan kids, all surrounding a sport where giant people try and kill each other without pads. There was barely a dull moment; except for the first game we saw when we were seated in the concrete stands where the view of the field was half blocked by a giant circus type tent. I have to admit, we were distracted from the game a little by the unsupervised kids running up and sliding down the handrail, and running around the sidelines with plastic bags over their heads, not to mention the people walking back to their seats with several meat sticks wrapped in foil.
Once we had all finished our plethora of snacks and the team we came to see (Futumu- which is another village housing some Peace Corps) started playing, we moved onto the grass to get a better view. The game was awesome, it was very intense and exciting because most of us had never seen a full rugby game (thank you Jake Gersh for teaching me the rules, I was able to sound like I knew a thing or two (-;). As if the game and the audience spectacle were not enough, about halfway through they game after a tri had been scored an all out brawl erupted! The teams started going at it, full on socking each other and then the sidelines (spectators) jump in and we watched as one random guy ran up and clocked one of the players in the side of the face when he wasn’t looking and then he just walked away before the player could figure out what happened! The fight got separated into two circles and just when you thought a riot was about to commence the teams started hugging it out (very literally, starting with a few players at a time), and then within 10 minutes the game started up again. To make the game even better, during actual halftime a women in her 40s or so started suggestively dancing in the middle of the field as music was playing on the loud speaker set up in the stands. She was alone working it for about 5 minutes and then other people decided they wanted to dance and then more people joined in, it didn’t take long until there was an amazing impromptu half time show going on right before our eyes. Luckily we were able to witness almost all of this wonderful display of raw talent before the torrential downpour started and we had to take refuge under the very tent whose existence we had been mocking.
It was almost sad leaving the match; I just don’t know when I will get the privilege again to see such a magnificent show of Tonganism- I guess it is lucky I will be here so long… The rest of the night was pretty normal, which was more then welcomed. The only sad thing was the rain continued into the night and for the rest of the weekend, which I guess was okay since Tongan Sundays are a personal competition to see who can do the least while being awake the least amount of hours…
This is the only half of the field we could see from the stands....
We got close and personal after we decided to move out of the stands
Chiara eating her dried noodles. I don't think we (I) stopped eating the entire match....
Mark's home stay family got him a really cool Futumu Jersey (He lives in Futumu) Alissa (Mark's wife) enjoying a knockoff cheese doodle, the flavor was formoge
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