Village Nightlife

October 3, 2012

So I have taken to hanging out with some of the local guys in my village, thanks mostly to my host brother Tonga. Yesterday for example, I was already for bed but Tonga pressured me to go out instead. This wasn’t hard since I have been feeling like an elderly person for not staying up past 10 pm. Because it was a Tuesday night there was obviously a faikava (kava drinking party), so instead of me drifting off into sleep by 9’oclock I went with Tonga to drink kava. As it turns out, we went ‘eva pe-ing (wondering) around the village instead of going straight to drink kava. We went to this guys room-house and listen to music while they all told jokes and what I can only assume was making fun of each other’s penis size (I only understand about 10% of what is going on at any given time, so I have to rely a lot of their hand gestures…). Luckily Tongans love to make the same jokes over and over again (most of the time it is just calling each other names) so I can catch on after a bit. I am also lucky because they have taught me a few dirty phrases that I can just repeat, without much context, and it seems to always get a laugh. Tonga and I finally left the guys place around 9:30 or 10 and hit up the kava party (which is in that room right next to my house). Of course when we get there I sit down at the circle with the tau’a and everybody starts to talk to me, now I know a very limited amount of Tongan so I am at a loss of words almost immediately. There was the older man in the circle sitting right next to the server who must have been a comedian at one point in his life because he had the entire circle cracking up almost the entire time. I am pretty sure all his jokes where at my expense (because I could understand a little), but not mean spirited or anything, I was laughing too. They all kept urging me to talk to the girl serving and try and hit on her, but a) I don’t speak Tongan, b) she was not cute, and c) I do not speak Tongan… After about a while drinking kava and failing at talking to the server I found my way out of the circle and went home. Of course the old man had to get a few more laughs before I left and reached to grab me when I left. The grabbing thing is a very classic Tongan joke so I don’t mean to freak anyone out here, it wasn’t weird, Tongans do that especially to palangis just to mess with them… The best, was after all of that I got to end the night falling asleep to the traditional Tongan songs that they all sing during kava, since my room is about 50 feet from where the party was. Hands down no better music to fall asleep to, especially when you have been drinking kava.

Tonight I had a similar experience, I think I am about to go to bed but then Tonga comes to take me around the village and hangout with the guys. It is funny because everyone pretty much just stands around and shoots the shit by calling each other names and smoking cigarettes or Tongan tobacco. I was handed a rolled cigarette to try the Tongan tobacco and I thought, “I guess I should try it, if its Tongan…” I smoke a bit and got the biggest head rush right as my friend Steph’s host mom came up. Instead of trying to talk to her, which was proving difficult in my new state in the clouds, I just danced and she laughed (and I found out later told Steph what a good dancer I am) and walked away. I have found out that one of the great things about hanging out with Tongans is when you are completely lost you can just dance or say something ridiculous and they just start cracking up- they have the best since of humors, they really do laugh at anything! I do have a new passion to actually learn Tongan now though, just so I can keep up with their back-and-forth. It is so great to end a great day of teaching with people telling you to blow them… It is funny that things like that are really cross cultural, all you have to do is imitate the shake-weight commercial and you can get a laugh out of any guy in any country.