Swear-in!

November 9, 2012

Our swear-in ceremony was yesterday, and it was super great. We got to take our oath and become real Peace Corps volunteers in the presence of the Prime Minister of Tonga and the US Ambassador! It was so crazy being in front of such important people who were actually there to watch us. The ceremony was in the same small beach resort we went to the older volunteer’s close of service. This time the room (over looking the ocean) was elegantly decorated and the stage was set for the distinguished guests.

the group right before the ceremony

a really bad shot of the Prime Minister

getting my pin

Everyone who wanted to got to do something in the ceremony. Some people read hymns, some played songs on the guitar and ukulele, Ryan gave a wonderful speech and some of the girls did the Tau’olunga (a traditional Togan dance); I performed the tau’ovale, which means I was the back up dancers for Katy and Mandy when they were doing the tau’olunga. When I first said I would do the dance I thought I would be with one other guy and I thought that we would just dance in the back, little did I know I would have to be making a fool of myself shirtless, while wearing war paint and a skirt made out of banana leaves… Oh, I should also mention that I was also lathered in baby oil…. I was really nervous to do the dance because I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, they told me to just dance in the background but they didn’t tell me how... In the end I still didn’t know what I was doing but I got a few tips from and old volunteer and just winged it. We ended up making over 100 pa’anga from the money that the audience sticks to your baby oiled body during the performance, so I must have done something right (-;

me, Katy and Many performing for the PM and other higher ups...

After the performances we ate a thanksgiving type meal with our host parents, who were invited to the ceremony. It was really nice getting to see my host mom again especially since she was the one who made my outfit for the show and came up to dance with me at toward the end of my ridiculous performance… How's that for cultural integration!

All of us used our swear-in as an excuse to have a bit of a celebration. We all, including my host brothers who came to see me, went out to dinner at this pretty decent Chinese place (one of the few restaurants on the island that can accommodate a group our size), and we pooled our money to buy some alcohol for the evening. We had a nice pow-wow at Selas with drinks and sing-alongs and then we all went out. The first bar we went to was reload, my host brothers, Katy and I were running behind and by the time we got there the bar was no longer allowing any Tongans into the bar. This made me extremely angry because I hate white privilege, especially when it is so blatant and in front of people I care about. Luckily, our friends were in the other bar down the street, which turned out better anyway because it had a dance floor. We all had such a great time we didn’t leave until the bar was closing at 12:30. It was a bit nostalgic for me on our walk back to Sela’s when we stopped to get some food at a fried chicken place that was still open, I had flash backs to other intoxicated walks home- from the Celtic bar to my four flight walkup in Bologna, and from Kips to my frat house, and my frat house to my apartment during pledging… I don’t think drunken walks home are going to be quite as frequent here as they were during those times in my life, but it made me excited for what memories this time of my life will make.

Katy with my host brothers Koni and Tonga