Lu Cook-off!

17/11/2013

Lu is a traditional Tongan meal typically using taro leaves, coconut milk, onions, and some sort of meat. The taro leaves are used a pocket to hold the rest of the ingredients and then that is wrapped in banana leaves and the put in the underground oven (umu) for about an hour. This is the meal that pretty much the entire country eats on Sundays after church. The Peace Corps decided to get together and have a little competition to see who could make the best lu, with a palangi (western) twist. We all got together with some of the new volunteers to prepare our own lus and umu from scratch.

I decided to try a chicken curry rice lu, that in my opinion was the best. Mandy ended up with the winner, with her eggplant soy lu. The judges were Don and Nori, they graciously let us use their house to have the event.

In reality all the lus were really good and we had a lot of fun trying to cook them ourselves. Even though I didn’t win the trophy I have high hopes for next year!

After the event i took the left overs back to my site to my friend Hepi and his family. He took one bite of Mandy's lu creation and announced that it was ta'eoli (gross), then he tried mine and said it was good but he was full (lie of course). His mom still chastises me about putting rice in lu because apparently that is just wrong. I told her it's lu fakapalangi (white people lu) to which she replied yeah well lu fakatonga (Tongan lu) doesn't use rice.

They're Here, They're Here!

12/11/2013

After a year of Group 77, team Vava’u got the new recruits from Group 78. 6 new PCVs arrived on the boat wide eyed and overwhelmed. The new group is all girls and the are all spread out around the main island. At first we (Harrison, Mandy, and I) had a lot of talks about how we feel about the new group with Harrison and I decideing we were some what abivilent and Mandy practically drooling over the opportunity to finally have girls to hangout with. It turns out Harrison and I are not as ambivalent as we thought, in fact we are quite excited to have some new blood around. It is nice to see some new faces and be able to share some of our knowledge.

The arrival of the new PCVs could not have come at a better time, I am feeling great about my service, school is coming to an end, and I have never felt more integrated in my community. It is so awesome to have new volunteers come at a time when i feel like I am at the top of my time here. I wish them the best of luck and can only hope they have as amazing a time as I have had so far.

Examination Day

September 29 – 30, 2013

The day had finally come. The big test day that all of my volunteer group have, in some way or another, been working toward- the Secondary Enterence Examinations for the class 6 students to determine what high school they will be attending next year. There are 4 exams spread out over 2 days. I personally don’t take too much stock in these exams because I don’t see the end result, if the kids do not make it into the best high school- the government school Tonga High, they go to one of the religious schools, but in the end I do not see a big difference in career choices from those at the different schools…

  The test starts in the morning after we (I mean me and the teacher who came to proctor the exam and the replacement principal) had morning tea. The first day was English and science, I decided to take the English test myself to see how many mistakes were on the test (this is very common, most of the time the tests are so poorly written you can’t even answer the questions) and to see how difficult I thought it would be for my students. It turns out the the test was not too bad at all, I had high hopes for my students. Of course my ¾ teacher, who is crazy!, was telling me the whole time “don’t worry they did this with Ela.” I kept responding that I had done it with them as well to which she assured me “but don’t worry ,they did it with Ela so they should be okay.” After I asked my kids how they thought they did, the same teacher mocked “ oh Sifa there’s no do now section on the test, no do now so you won’t get it! HAHAHA” (she thinks the fact that I do a do now everyday is a ridiculous notion and tells me the kids hate my class because of it).

After their first exam we all had a big feast with the parents, Mike, who was still staying with me at the time also got to join in. I gave my fakamalo (thank you speech) and gorged myself on all the amazing food. Of course after the big meal all the students have to go and take another 3 hour long exam...

The second day was pretty similar to the first. They took their Tongan and maths tests. The second day’s feast was even better and I tried to redo my speech from the day before because I had forgot to thank certain people that I culturally should have mentioned. I know I am pretty decently integrated because after I had spoken for a bit some of the fathers called out for me to be done (this was in a joking matter so I didn’t take offense). All the men came the second day and had a kava circle in one of the classrooms. I went with Mike to drink some kava and The Proctor of the exam was so impressed by how much kava i could drink, (roughly translated)"I have never seen a white person drink kava like that" of course this tempted the men in my village so they responded with "He can really drink watch" they handed me huge shells after that and so as to not disappoint I drank them. It was also a funny experience for me because with Mike there it was probably the most English they have ever heard me speak and They kept looking at me with weird faces- normally you are not supposed to speak English at kava circles.

Now that the test is done school will be a lot more relaxed for everyone.

Class 6 with some parents they all have new clothes on for the test

my class 6 boys and me

me with the class 6

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The feast!

Camp GLOW/GROW Conselor Day Sail

November 9, 2013

Harrison, Mandy, Sean and I have been spending the last several months putting together Camp GLOW and developing Camp GROW. Camp GLOW (Girls Ruling Our World) and GROW (Guys Reshaping Our World) Vava’u is a three night sleep away camp for students in form three (like 8 th grade) who display academic excellence and leadership potential. The camps cover diverse topics including women’s empowerment, women’s health, the rights of women and children, goal setting, public speaking, conflict resolution, sexual harassment and domestic abuse, nutrition, and environmental responsibility. The camps emphasize the importance of being informed, active, independent, and responsible citizens, and include an element of community service. Camp GLOW is an international PC project that a lot of different countries do but we thought it would be good to develop a guys version so that we can reach the young men of Tonga and teach them about women’s rights as well as tertiary opportunities in employment and education. Please let me know if you would like more information about the camp or if you would like to help with a donation. Thanks to a lot of people in America we have already filled our grant and raised over 7,000 dollars. We are looking to raise another 2,000 here in Vava’u through school fundraisers and a big kalapu (kava night) to be held later this month.

This past Saturday we took our counselors out on a day sail. A very nice couple who own a sail boat here, and normally run charters, donated a sail to our camp. We had such a great time with our counselors teaching them funny ice breaker games, goal setting and bonding in general. It was so cool to be able to grant these kids the opportunity to do something that they may never have been able to do otherwise. My best friend from village is one of our counselors and so it was extra rad for me to be able to share the experience with a close friend.

Youth Rugby

November 8, 2013

Now that the class 6 exam is over there are little events for the kids to participate in. One of those events is a rugby tournament. All the class 6 boys from each section meet up and form a rugby team which then competes in town on Fridays for a couple of weeks. Our section is Vahe Loto (the middle section) It consists of our school and 3 others. I was selected to take the boys over (about 3 miles) to the next village in order to have tryouts and eventual practices. Our school decided to cheat (they all do) and we sent a few class 5s as well as one boy from class 4.

After about a week of taking the kids to the next village- most of the time having to walk there in the crazy heat because we couldn’t catch a suto, we chose the team. We had a big cook out where we showed up at 8 in the morning and started cooking just outside under some trees. All the kids helped by peeling the breadfruit and then building the fire. It took all day to cook for 40+ kids. There was the final tryout in between the cooking and after the food was ready we chose the team and feed the kids. Our school did fairly well- all but 2 of our kids either made the A team or the second string.

For the whole next week we had practice where I would take the kids over to the village- sometimes in the morning and it would last all day and sometimes just half a day. Of course I don’t really know rugby and I can’t really command a bunch of Tongan kids so I really didn’t do much except walk around the field pretending to be observant and then making dirty jokes with the 2 real couches during the breaks (there were a lot of breaks and a lot of dirty talk). By the end of the 3 weeks I had invented a girlfriend and had broke up with her and found a new girl...It was a lot of fun to have this to do with some of my boys and I felt like we bonded a bit especially on our walks home when I would have to wait as the kids would climb tress to eat fruit or take turns crapping in the bush. Something I didn’t think was weird until I realized that if we were in America I would never tell all my friends and my teacher to wait as I went to drop a load a few feet away….

The first Friday of the tournament our team did pretty well –won one and lost one. All the kids look so good in their little uniforms and it was really fun to cheer for my kids as well as all the new kids I got to adopt for a few weeks. The second and final round the following Friday was not good for us, after scoring a try 3 times and it being revoked we had to do a tiebreaker field goal kick off (or whatever it’s called in rugby). After going 3 rounds of this ending in ties the other team finally won. Our boys where pretty upset and they lost their next game without too much of a fight. We ended up fourth out of 6 or 7 teams.

The whole thing was fun and very Tongan, but I have to say I am glad it’s over though because I am really tired of walking all that way and I am not sure if I could add much more to the story of my fictional girlfriend.

before the tournament there is a march of all the teams (we are red)

me with our sections rugby players

the players from my school, the girls are part of the net ball tournament

just being champions

Bottles and Calfs

October 29, 2013

I have been staying with this family every Saturday for the past couple of months, their 19 year old son is my best Tongan friend and it is nice to hang out in a family dynamic every now and then. I went to the bush with them and because I couldn’t do much, I went with the youngest boy (I call him Sammy he is in my class 3) and another boy (Paea in class 1) to collect coconuts. On our way out of the bush we went to check on one of the cows that had recently given birth. Now apparently mother cows are not the most nurturing of animals and some of them are actually not naturally aware of how to breast feed. In other words we had to find the new calf and try and force it to feed. This was no easy task, the mother cow had to be held tight with a rope and the calf had to placed under its legs, all the while the cow kept trying to back kick Samu (the father) and almost stepping on its own baby. After about half an hour of trying to get the emaciated calf to feed from its crazy mother we decided to take the calf back and try to feed it ourselves.

We decided the best method was to bottle feed it milk. First thing was to find a bottle. I went with Samu Lahi (big Samu) to the Chinese store but they were out of bottles. Samu new some of the guys hanging out in front of the store so he tried to get one from them. He got a lead from one of the guys so they went to his house and I waited at the little shop to chat up the twin girls who worked there. Samu came back empty handed so we went back to Holonga. We stopped at some houses and asked around. I was sent to a house to ask and got lucky! I found a bottle so we went back to Samu’s house and tried to feed the calf. It was a family affair as we all got around the calf and tried to get it to accept the bottle. Luckily it didn’t take to long before the hungry calf began to feed.

Just another day in the life of Sifa! The amazing Tongan Peace Corps.

Hospitals in Vava'u

September 29 – 30

Our friend Michael, a volunteer on the main island of Tongatapu, came up to Vava’u to visit during the term break. Mike got to experience an amazing week doing rad things like swimming with the whales, island tapas dinners, and going out to one of the most beautiful islands in the country. However on the last day of the break Mike got hit with a really bad case of strep throat. We were all still on Ofu (an outer island) when Mike started to feel super sick. We came back to the main island and I told Mike he could come back to my place and try and sleep off his fevor (at this point we didn’t know it was strep). We were back at my place for just enough time for me to take a shower before Vava (my cab driver) was told to come take Mike to the hospital. I went with Mike to the hospital to help him out. This happened to be my first time actually in the hospital (when I was sick I saw the Docotor who works in the pharmacy in town). I didn’t think it was too bad but Mike has other thoughts. We get there and Mike can barely talk, I am trying to help check him in and jugle talking to the oncall nurse as well as on the phone with the PC doctor who is trying to give instructions to the nurse but can’t really. The whole time we were juggling the PC doc calling the Tongan Doc (who wasn’t going to be at the hospital until later) trying to get him to approve medicine for Mike. While all this is happening Mike is keeled over in the bed and I am having side conversations with the staff about moas (tongan slang for girlfriend) and wives because we are still in Tongan and just because I am around working professionals the environment is the same dirty joke, loud laughing place as anywhere else in Tonga. This male nurse shows up and he and I start a back n’ forth between him giving Mike shots in the butt.

Eventually we get the order the Mike has to spend the night in the hospital. Here’s the thing about hospitals in Tonga, you have to bring everything with you when you stay the night, that means sheets, pillows, food, water, soap, and of course toilet paper. Being nieve Americans we were clearly underprepared. Luckiy this is Tonga and not only Tonga but Vava’u where I am the Mayor. We get put into a room and in right across from Mike’s “bed” (one of the foam mattresses covered in ripped plastic) was a women from my village! I talked to her a bit and she, being very well prepared, gave some food to Mike and promised to keep an eye on him. I called Vava to tell him he wouldn’t need to take us back because Mike was staying in the hospital and I’d get a ride back (this is where I became overwhelmed with how amazing people can be), Vava asked if we had stuff to stay the night to which I responded no, Vava the guy who drives me home sometimes and we have chats comes to the hospital with his wife with a complete set of bedding, pillows, water, juice, food, and toilet paper for Mike. I love Tongans.

After staying with Mike a while and seeing the Doctor I made sure Pina (the lady from my village who was staying to look after her husband in the bed across from Mike) would keep an eye on Mike. Secured that Mike would be okay until I came back in the morning I left. When I came back the next morning there were even more people from my village. Mike was a sleep so I was just talking and joking with my people and the crazy male nurse from the previous night. They were telling me to go around the hospital and find oil so they could do some Tongan medicine on Mike, of course me, who has no shame went to look for some oil. On my search I also had to get information from the nurses to rely to the PC doc. The whole time I felt like such a champion because I was basically acting like a translator and I felt at ease with how I could communicate with people and how I had met people from my village who I felt comfortable with to ask for their help. I really felt integrated- I felt bad because Mike was so sick but it was definitely a good ego boost for me.

Mike woke up to a group of Tongans giving him some Tongan medicine (an oil massage on his throat) and a bunch of loud laughing as we were basically having a gathering in the room. He was given the OK to leave the hospital around noon and with the penicillin coursing through his body he rapidly recovered and we were able to salvage what was left of his trip in Vava’u.

Hospitals in Vava'u

September 29 – 30

Our friend Michael, a volunteer on the main island of Tongatapu, came up to Vava’u to visit during the term break. Mike got to experience an amazing week doing rad things like swimming with the whales, island tapas dinners, and going out to one of the most beautiful islands in the country. However on the last day of the break Mike got hit with a really bad case of strep throat. We were all still on Ofu (an outer island) when Mike started to feel super sick. We came back to the main island and I told Mike he could come back to my place and try and sleep off his fevor (at this point we didn’t know it was strep). We were back at my place for just enough time for me to take a shower before Vava (my cab driver) was told to come take Mike to the hospital. I went with Mike to the hospital to help him out. This happened to be my first time actually in the hospital (when I was sick I saw the Docotor who works in the pharmacy in town). I didn’t think it was too bad but Mike has other thoughts. We get there and Mike can barely talk, I am trying to help check him in and jugle talking to the oncall nurse as well as on the phone with the PC doctor who is trying to give instructions to the nurse but can’t really. The whole time we were juggling the PC doc calling the Tongan Doc (who wasn’t going to be at the hospital until later) trying to get him to approve medicine for Mike. While all this is happening Mike is keeled over in the bed and I am having side conversations with the staff about moas (tongan slang for girlfriend) and wives because we are still in Tongan and just because I am around working professionals the environment is the same dirty joke, loud laughing place as anywhere else in Tonga. This male nurse shows up and he and I start a back n’ forth between him giving Mike shots in the butt.

Eventually we get the order the Mike has to spend the night in the hospital. Here’s the thing about hospitals in Tonga, you have to bring everything with you when you stay the night, that means sheets, pillows, food, water, soap, and of course toilet paper. Being nieve Americans we were clearly underprepared. Luckiy this is Tonga and not only Tonga but Vava’u where I am the Mayor. We get put into a room and in right across from Mike’s “bed” (one of the foam mattresses covered in ripped plastic) was a women from my village! I talked to her a bit and she, being very well prepared, gave some food to Mike and promised to keep an eye on him. I called Vava to tell him he wouldn’t need to take us back because Mike was staying in the hospital and I’d get a ride back (this is where I became overwhelmed with how amazing people can be), Vava asked if we had stuff to stay the night to which I responded no, Vava the guy who drives me home sometimes and we have chats comes to the hospital with his wife with a complete set of bedding, pillows, water, juice, food, and toilet paper for Mike. I love Tongans.

After staying with Mike a while and seeing the Doctor I made sure Pina (the lady from my village who was staying to look after her husband in the bed across from Mike) would keep an eye on Mike. Secured that Mike would be okay until I came back in the morning I left. When I came back the next morning there were even more people from my village. Mike was a sleep so I was just talking and joking with my people and the crazy male nurse from the previous night. They were telling me to go around the hospital and find oil so they could do some Tongan medicine on Mike, of course me, who has no shame went to look for some oil. On my search I also had to get information from the nurses to rely to the PC doc. The whole time I felt like such a champion because I was basically acting like a translator and I felt at ease with how I could communicate with people and how I had met people from my village who I felt comfortable with to ask for their help. I really felt integrated- I felt bad because Mike was so sick but it was definitely a good ego boost for me.

Mike woke up to a group of Tongans giving him some Tongan medicine (an oil massage on his throat) and a bunch of loud laughing as we were basically having a gathering in the room. He was given the OK to leave the hospital around noon and with the penicillin coursing through his body he rapidly recovered and we were able to salvage what was left of his trip in Vava’u.

Swimmin' With Mother (and calf) Humpbackin' Whales!

September 22 – 28

It all started when I was sitting in church and felt as if I was about to die. Now I didn’t think too much of it at first because this is a not too uncommon feeling when you are sitting in church here, and the weather has been warming up recently. I was sitting in the pew trying to mop up the copious amounts of sweat coming from my body when the service finally ended. I went back to my house and got out the PC med kit, found the thermometer and begin the test- just as I suspected 103. Now this worried me because it was the start of our school break and I had plans to go swimming with the whales that upcoming Tuesday. With my phone close to my side I spent the next 3 days in bed, drinking rehydration salts, texting the PC doctor in Tongatapu trying desperately to bring down my temperature. Unfortunately for me, the temp was not budging and I was becoming very agitated spending my break in bed. I think all the church hours racked up and gave me a stroke of good luck because the whale company called and said there was actually room to go on Thursday, which was the day the other PCV group was going- score and extra 2 days to beat the fever and intestinal problems…. Tuesday morning I finally got the ward to go see the doctor here and see if there was anything to be worried about- my cab driver Vava (who is such a great guy) came to take me into town. He was telling me that when the PC Doc called him to pick up Joey he was very confused and he didn’t know what she meant, he had thought maybe there was a new volunteer staying with me. He didn’t know it was me until I got into the car, see every Tongan knows me as Sifa and it can get confusing if Tongans have to contact Joey. I made it in to see the NZ Doc, she was really nice and told me there was not anything to worry about but she gave me some extra strength antidiarial medication just in case I wasn’t completely cured by Thursday and was worried about scarring off the whales with some sort of intestinal explosion.

Tuesday was also the day our volunteer friend, Mike, came up to visit from the main island (Tongatapu). As I was starting to feel better I decided to stay in town and hang out with the group. Everyone decided to come in and a few volunteers (the married couples) rented a little room for the week. So we had a lot of fun all getting together and hanging out.

Mike, Mandy and me

Thursday came around and I was defeintely recovered and stoked to see some whales. The trip was absolutely amazing! Jeff, Mike, Harrison, Mandy and I went down to the boat at 7 am and spent the whole day out on the water jetting around the islands in search for whales. Tonga is actually one of only 2 places in the whole world you can have this experience. The humpback whales travel thousands of miles to come to Tonga to have their babies. People can go with trained guides and actually swim with the whales and the babies. Our crew found a mother whales and her calf. It is all super intense because you get the word from the guide and you have to jump in the water really quickely and swim to the whale all in attempt to catch it before it dives. Luckily after the first few times of just seeing it glide past we got to spend a good amount of time swimming with the the calf in front of us playing around in the water. We got so close to him it was almost scary, I thought at one time he would fin slap us! As captivated as we were by the calf we looked down and saw that we were directly over the mother and it was perhaps one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. There is no way to actually describe just how awesome the experience was- truly amazing.

Harrison, me, Mandy, Jeff and Mike

Whales!

More whlaes!

me

After the whale swim we met up with the married couples and we all went out to the little “Spanish” island for the special tapas dinner. This place is maybe one of my favorites in the world- it’s just so unique. We had an amazing time all eating and catching up and sharing stories about our whale swims. We sperated after dinner; Harrison, Mandy, Mike and I went to Mandy’s place and the couples with Jeff went back to their room. When we got to Mandy’s we got a text from Alissa telling us to come out and so Harrison, Mike and I decided to sieze the moment and set off toward town- luckily it didn’t take long to catch a suto (hitch hike) and we met the couples at the only bar in town. It just so happened to be karioki night and our group plus 3 tourist were the only ones in the whole place.

Mandy, Abby, Ryan, Alissa and Mark on their way to the island of Tapana to have the tapas dinner

The next day Harrison, Mandy, Mike and I went with Jeff out to his Island, Ofu, to spend the weekend out there. We had an awesome time taking an epic kayaking journey to remote unpopulated islands, hiking to a fresh water deposit at the bottome of a cave and just enjoying Jeff’s slice of paradise.

Despite the rocky start it was one of the best weeks I have had in Tonga.

Swimmin' With Mother (and calf) Humpbackin' Whales!

September 22 – 28

It all started when I was sitting in church and felt as if I was about to die. Now I didn’t think too much of it at first because this is a not too uncommon feeling when you are sitting in church here, and the weather has been warming up recently. I was sitting in the pew trying to mop up the copious amounts of sweat coming from my body when the service finally ended. I went back to my house and got out the PC med kit, found the thermometer and begin the test- just as I suspected 103. Now this worried me because it was the start of our school break and I had plans to go swimming with the whales that upcoming Tuesday. With my phone close to my side I spent the next 3 days in bed, drinking rehydration salts, texting the PC doctor in Tongatapu trying desperately to bring down my temperature. Unfortunately for me, the temp was not budging and I was becoming very agitated spending my break in bed. I think all the church hours racked up and gave me a stroke of good luck because the whale company called and said there was actually room to go on Thursday, which was the day the other PCV group was going- score and extra 2 days to beat the fever and intestinal problems…. Tuesday morning I finally got the ward to go see the doctor here and see if there was anything to be worried about- my cab driver Vava (who is such a great guy) came to take me into town. He was telling me that when the PC Doc called him to pick up Joey he was very confused and he didn’t know what she meant, he had thought maybe there was a new volunteer staying with me. He didn’t know it was me until I got into the car, see every Tongan knows me as Sifa and it can get confusing if Tongans have to contact Joey. I made it in to see the NZ Doc, she was really nice and told me there was not anything to worry about but she gave me some extra strength antidiarial medication just in case I wasn’t completely cured by Thursday and was worried about scarring off the whales with some sort of intestinal explosion.

Tuesday was also the day our volunteer friend, Mike, came up to visit from the main island (Tongatapu). As I was starting to feel better I decided to stay in town and hang out with the group. Everyone decided to come in and a few volunteers (the married couples) rented a little room for the week. So we had a lot of fun all getting together and hanging out.

Mike, Mandy and me

Thursday came around and I was defeintely recovered and stoked to see some whales. The trip was absolutely amazing! Jeff, Mike, Harrison, Mandy and I went down to the boat at 7 am and spent the whole day out on the water jetting around the islands in search for whales. Tonga is actually one of only 2 places in the whole world you can have this experience. The humpback whales travel thousands of miles to come to Tonga to have their babies. People can go with trained guides and actually swim with the whales and the babies. Our crew found a mother whales and her calf. It is all super intense because you get the word from the guide and you have to jump in the water really quickely and swim to the whale all in attempt to catch it before it dives. Luckily after the first few times of just seeing it glide past we got to spend a good amount of time swimming with the the calf in front of us playing around in the water. We got so close to him it was almost scary, I thought at one time he would fin slap us! As captivated as we were by the calf we looked down and saw that we were directly over the mother and it was perhaps one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. There is no way to actually describe just how awesome the experience was- truly amazing.

Harrison, me, Mandy, Jeff and Mike

Whales!

More whlaes!

me

After the whale swim we met up with the married couples and we all went out to the little “Spanish” island for the special tapas dinner. This place is maybe one of my favorites in the world- it’s just so unique. We had an amazing time all eating and catching up and sharing stories about our whale swims. We sperated after dinner; Harrison, Mandy, Mike and I went to Mandy’s place and the couples with Jeff went back to their room. When we got to Mandy’s we got a text from Alissa telling us to come out and so Harrison, Mike and I decided to sieze the moment and set off toward town- luckily it didn’t take long to catch a suto (hitch hike) and we met the couples at the only bar in town. It just so happened to be karioki night and our group plus 3 tourist were the only ones in the whole place.

Mandy, Abby, Ryan, Alissa and Mark on their way to the island of Tapana to have the tapas dinner

The next day Harrison, Mandy, Mike and I went with Jeff out to his Island, Ofu, to spend the weekend out there. We had an awesome time taking an epic kayaking journey to remote unpopulated islands, hiking to a fresh water deposit at the bottome of a cave and just enjoying Jeff’s slice of paradise.

Despite the rocky start it was one of the best weeks I have had in Tonga.

Swimmin' With Mother (and calf) Humpbackin' Whales!

September 22 – 28

It all started when I was sitting in church and felt as if I was about to die. Now I didn’t think too much of it at first because this is a not too uncommon feeling when you are sitting in church here, and the weather has been warming up recently. I was sitting in the pew trying to mop up the copious amounts of sweat coming from my body when the service finally ended. I went back to my house and got out the PC med kit, found the thermometer and begin the test- just as I suspected 103. Now this worried me because it was the start of our school break and I had plans to go swimming with the whales that upcoming Tuesday. With my phone close to my side I spent the next 3 days in bed, drinking rehydration salts, texting the PC doctor in Tongatapu trying desperately to bring down my temperature. Unfortunately for me, the temp was not budging and I was becoming very agitated spending my break in bed. I think all the church hours racked up and gave me a stroke of good luck because the whale company called and said there was actually room to go on Thursday, which was the day the other PCV group was going- score and extra 2 days to beat the fever and intestinal problems…. Tuesday morning I finally got the ward to go see the doctor here and see if there was anything to be worried about- my cab driver Vava (who is such a great guy) came to take me into town. He was telling me that when the PC Doc called him to pick up Joey he was very confused and he didn’t know what she meant, he had thought maybe there was a new volunteer staying with me. He didn’t know it was me until I got into the car, see every Tongan knows me as Sifa and it can get confusing if Tongans have to contact Joey. I made it in to see the NZ Doc, she was really nice and told me there was not anything to worry about but she gave me some extra strength antidiarial medication just in case I wasn’t completely cured by Thursday and was worried about scarring off the whales with some sort of intestinal explosion.

Tuesday was also the day our volunteer friend, Mike, came up to visit from the main island (Tongatapu). As I was starting to feel better I decided to stay in town and hang out with the group. Everyone decided to come in and a few volunteers (the married couples) rented a little room for the week. So we had a lot of fun all getting together and hanging out.

Mike, Mandy and me

Thursday came around and I was defeintely recovered and stoked to see some whales. The trip was absolutely amazing! Jeff, Mike, Harrison, Mandy and I went down to the boat at 7 am and spent the whole day out on the water jetting around the islands in search for whales. Tonga is actually one of only 2 places in the whole world you can have this experience. The humpback whales travel thousands of miles to come to Tonga to have their babies. People can go with trained guides and actually swim with the whales and the babies. Our crew found a mother whales and her calf. It is all super intense because you get the word from the guide and you have to jump in the water really quickely and swim to the whale all in attempt to catch it before it dives. Luckily after the first few times of just seeing it glide past we got to spend a good amount of time swimming with the the calf in front of us playing around in the water. We got so close to him it was almost scary, I thought at one time he would fin slap us! As captivated as we were by the calf we looked down and saw that we were directly over the mother and it was perhaps one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. There is no way to actually describe just how awesome the experience was- truly amazing.

Harrison, me, Mandy, Jeff and Mike

Whales!

More whlaes!

me

After the whale swim we met up with the married couples and we all went out to the little “Spanish” island for the special tapas dinner. This place is maybe one of my favorites in the world- it’s just so unique. We had an amazing time all eating and catching up and sharing stories about our whale swims. We sperated after dinner; Harrison, Mandy, Mike and I went to Mandy’s place and the couples with Jeff went back to their room. When we got to Mandy’s we got a text from Alissa telling us to come out and so Harrison, Mike and I decided to sieze the moment and set off toward town- luckily it didn’t take long to catch a suto (hitch hike) and we met the couples at the only bar in town. It just so happened to be karioki night and our group plus 3 tourist were the only ones in the whole place.

Mandy, Abby, Ryan, Alissa and Mark on their way to the island of Tapana to have the tapas dinner

The next day Harrison, Mandy, Mike and I went with Jeff out to his Island, Ofu, to spend the weekend out there. We had an awesome time taking an epic kayaking journey to remote unpopulated islands, hiking to a fresh water deposit at the bottome of a cave and just enjoying Jeff’s slice of paradise.

Despite the rocky start it was one of the best weeks I have had in Tonga.

Sleepovers

August 26, 2013

I ended up having am impromptu sleep over at my house when during school a class 3 boy, Samu Si’I, was telling the kids how we had fried breadfruit at his house that weekend and told me he would bring me bread fruit later to make it again. Of course I didn’t really imagine this idea panning out but surely enough around 7 pm I here Sammy banging on my door. Si’i and Maloni, a class 5, had come ready to cook and sleep over. As Maloni prepared the breadfruit I went with Samu to buy catch-up from one of the falekoloas, on our trip we picked up one of my favorite kids, Liu, he is in his first year of high school which starts at 12 here.

We all had a good time frying up the breadfruit chips and making banana bread and then when everything was done we put on a movie, a cartuni at the request of Samu. With Samu asleep within the first 10 minutes of the movie and Maloni falling asleep next to him I realized that they were not joking and they definitely where sleeping over. I made them a little bed on the ground and Liu and I finished the movie and I then I walked him home (he was scared of the devil on the walk home).

This is Samu Si'i (Little Samual)

Maloni

Me eating our Tongan Chips

Liu Leka (Liu Jr.)

Sammy being a boss

Maloni and Liu

Trolling

August 24, 2013

Got to spend the day fakatele (trolling) and I actually caught a fish! Our friends/mentors Don and Nori have a small fishing boat here and had invited the Peace Corps out for a day of deep-sea fishing. Harrison, Mandy and I boarded the boat with Nori (Don was sick) at 10 am with high hopes. Unfortunately for us, after Harrison first big catch the rest of the day was a wash in terms of bites. Hours on the water and we didn’t get so much as a bite, although we still had a lot of fun out on the water and seeing the back half of the island.

The real excitement came at the end of the day when we picked up a sign of a whale and went on a whale hunt. We were successful in our venture and where able see whales surfacing- it was super rad. We couldn’t get too close because we were not a registered whale watching boat and but it was pretty spectacular and the rush of chasseing them down was pretty great as well. And because when you’re on a roll good things happen, as we were headed back we picked up some diving birds and I got to actually reel in a fish! It was surprisingly hard but so fun- the adrenalin rush when you get the bite and the anxiousness you feel until the fish is successfully in the boat is awesome. I reeled my fish in and Nori gave it the final blow with the mallet. She also was able to clean and fillet the 3 fish that we had caught throughout the day all on the way back into the harbor.

When I got back to my village I started proudly marinating my catch. As the fish was marinating I went for a walk around my village, eager to brag about my day. I ended up being able to brag and get the fish cooked for me as I spent the night a family’s house after the mother offered to cook the fish and make me fried breadfruit (-: let’s just say it was a pretty solid day here in Tonga.

beautiful Vava'u Lahi

Me being a boss on a boat

Nori

All Heil The King!

August 10, 2013

Once a year (although it hasn’t happened in Vava’u for more than 5 years) each island group holds an agriculture fair where all the villages come together and display their best. Their best include: very large root crops, their healthiest of fruits, their most vibrant vegetables, mats and tau’ovalas. This year it was held on the rugby field at Vava’u High School. This year as an added bonus, the King was taking his first tour of the islands as the King. He was attending the ag. show for all the island groups.

Side note here on Tongan royalty. Tonga is still a very big monarchy, the King owns all the land and governs the country through his nobles. There is a separate royal language and one is not even supposed to address the king directly, in each village there is a Talking Chief who is appointed to relay messages to the king in his language. All of the monarchy is through inherited through family lineage along with that of the nobles, if you marry outside of royal linage you are ousted from your position and disowned. In fact the King even has the power to annul marriges if they are between a person of nobility and a commoner.

Harrison, Mandy and I had volunteered to help the Vava’u Tourism people at the show working at their booth (we were lucky to get some money donated to the women's empowerment camp we are trying to start). We painted the faces of the plethora of wild Tongan children running about the fair. As most of the Vava’u Tourism group is white and do not speak Tongan we were also their as crowed control.

For the main part of the morning we were busy at the tent but at about noon we took a break which lead into the ceremony for the King. The ceremony itself was very typically Tongan- lots of praying, crying, hymen singing and long-winded speeches. After the welcoming of the king he walked around the show looking at all of the villages goods, as he rounded the corner Harrison and I, who had been trying to sneak a picture of him from the next isle over, didn’t have anywhere to go so we just sat down at the corner. The king came around and he made eye contact with us and then gave us a smile and head nod- which to me basically means we are close friends now.

The show went on for a while longer and the King presented the pale (awards) for the best goods. Our volunteer friend Ryan got to shake the King’s hand because a guy who won a prize in his village asked Ryan to accept his reward! There was dancing and tau’olungas as well as stepping performed by the boys at the Mormon high school.

The show began to wind down and we all went our separate ways to hitch a ride back to our respective villages. I met up with my village and was waiting for a ride, fortunately this provided me with an opportunity to add another interesting item to my weird-stuff-I-have-eaten-in-Tonga list. As we were waiting for the truck to leave a women from my village opened up a small ziplock bag of what I at first thought was full of fish eyes. It turns out it was filled wit mama-what I later figured out is a type of sea slug. This special treat is about the size of your thumb and is relatively flat. It has a line of hard shell pieces along its back (they look like several half thumb nails but thicker and black). To eat it, you take the shells off and brown guts start come out of the openings made by the removed shells. After the shells are gone (and you mentally prepare) you pop it into your mouth. It was actually way better than the Jelly fish and the taste was more appealing than that of pig lung but the mental capacity it took to get over the image of what was in you mouth was too much for me so I only indulged in one.

As we rode back to the village, with one of my favorite class 3s falling asleep on my lap, I thought how awesome it is to be in a place that I can be in the presence of a king and eat sea slugs and ride in the back of a pickup all in the same day.

the entrance to the fair

my handy work on a class 5 from my village- Fokileni

Timote and me

these are some girls who have family in my village, the one in the middle is Sela, she actually lives in my village, she is a class 6

my village's booth

the King's Assembly, it's kind of a bad picture but the tent he was under (at the back of the picture) was really nicely decorate with Tongans mats and tapa cloth

a little guy dressed to play for the King

the King of Tonga right after he gave us a head nod

some of the other booths in the show

the King making his rounds- I think he looks rather white actually

Ryan right after shaking the King's hand

a little boy wearing a hat woven from coconut tree leaves

isn't how the display stuff so cool?!