Ba’hai Weddings and Dances

March 28, 2013

So Right after I step foot out of the back of the truck coming back from the Sports day event we had in town I head straight to the weeding that I knew was going on but thought I was going to miss. I was a bit bummed about missing the wedding because yesterday I got to watch them skin the cow (it was so cool! It’s stomach was huge and just kind of plopped out and after that they let the pigs on fire to shave them before gutting them too) and was invited to the feast. Wedding feast are the best, and I have never been to one with beef before. I couldn’t fond a seat at the table right away so first I hung out in the back for a bit with some friends and had a quick dance with some women, in front of the wedding, who decided to pick me up (I don’t know why this is a thing but this is the third or fourth time that I have been picked up randomly here), although this time I picked her up too- she was pretty heavy-I surprised myself. I ran into my host brother from Tongtapu, it turns out his cousin was the one getting married to the guy from my village- only in Tonga! I finagled my way to the table and ate a lot of food even though I shouldn’t have given all the food I had eaten earlier… Susi (she is from my village and the sister of the groom) and my host brother invited me to a Ba’hai event after the wedding and that is how I ended up dancing with Ba’hais at their center in town until 11 pm. There was one girl there who was so rad! She danced crazy but really good- she entertained everyone and was perhaps the coolest person I have ever seen because she was dancing like that with under the influence of nothing! Although she was definitely the best and the most out there, Tongans love to dance and they get down! Especially the older women who have ZERO shame, they always try and dance on me but I am not new here and I know they love it when you play along so I always try and dance up on the older ladies or give them an ass shake- always good for a roaring laugh.

The dance over all was a lot like one of the Mormon dances except less adults, less people and a little less conservative. The dance was a really fun surprise. Tonga is always like that- I think I am going to be spending a night watching a movie or something and then a random event happens like a wedding and a dance and I end up having such an awesome night that would ravel even one from back in the states.

the process for preparing a coq is much different then for a pig

I was surprised how much blood came out after the chopped off the head

using the penis to yank out all of the intestines

setting the pig on fire to shave it!

the wedding

some of the entertainment- this was after my guest appearance

I tried to capture crazy women's dancing but really the picture doesn't do her justice!

of course there are always tau'olungas

Malimail! (Smile!)

March 21, 2013

there is a program in Tongan were some volunteers drive out to the villages about twice a month and help teach the kids about brushing their teeth. Oral health is important to me so this is now something I do with the kids every day after lunch. I get to ring the bell and all the kids come running, yelling "fufulu nifo!" (which means brush teeth). It is a fun thing I get to do with them everyday and it makes me laugh because they always have so much toothpaste ever where, that plus I get to say pupu, which means rinse in Tongan.

The kids are supplied a toothbrush that they keep in an empty plastic bottle at the school and when it's time they bring out their bottles and line up like this

Tongan Sports Days

March 28, 2013

Last week I got to go to the inter-high school track competition. All of the High schools in Vava’u got together to compete in track and field events. The competition was 2 days and it was held at the Mormon high school, which is beautiful. It’s campus is probably one of the nicer high school campuses I have seen.

I went to the event on the second day with my teachers after school. It was really cool, there were so many people there, and of course so much food- people set up tables and sell random package goods like instant noodles and cookies and they also make fried chicken and chopsuey to sell. Even cooler than all the food, was the event itself. Tongans are naturally athletic so seeing them compete was really neat- for some of them there could be a real future in track if they had that opportunity here.

Along with the athletic aspect, I like that every school showed up almost in full and everyone cheered for their team. Not just a few people or a section like in American schools- everyone was cheering and happy. People would lead really funny cheers- a lot in English that was exactly correct- guys and girls would dance in front of the school and guys would put on little impromptu skit type antics where they would run into the field and antagonize the other schools. The whole thing was really cool.

Today was the primary schools’ version of sports day. We have been training our district for about a month now and today was the big day where the 5 districts of Vava’u got together. My school is kind of slow so we only sent 3 kids to the competition but it was still really fun to go and watch the event. I hung out with Harrison, one of my fellow volunteers from a different district, and we prep our teams and ran with some of them and basically just tried to act important. Since it was an all day event (from 8:30 – 4) it was also a picnic. People come with bins of pre-made food, I am not talking PB and Js or cheese and crackers either, I am talking friend chicken, pork, root crop, sausage and giant tubs of water mixed with this sugar powder; also, my new favorite thing, sugar cane (giant sticks that you get to naw on after a big meal). My district got third and none of my kids won their events, but it was still an awesome day and it gives me something to work on for next year.

My fellow teachers, checking out the competition

crazy parents entertaining people during breaks

the bigger kids were told to do shot-put, but they didn'tt really know how to through it, they all looked so nervous when it was their turn

the one in the red is one of my students!

after the competition they did a march around the field

all of the districts. My is Vaheloto, the ones in red

Playing Host

March 21, 2013

I invited the Australian volunteers and Sean over to my place Friday for a sort of thank you dinner. They are always so generous with us Peace Corps when we are in town so I thought I would return the favor. I decided to make pasta and meat sauce. After planning, cleaning and getting all the necessary ingredients I had about 2 hours left until they would arrive, I thought this would be plenty of time- I was wrong. Not only is rolling dough out to be flat enough for pasta the world’s biggest bitch, but it is even more of a pain to do it with a water bottle (why would a Peace Corps have a rolling pin?). As I am sweating previously trying to roll it out some kids come to my door an invite me to some church event- with food. How sad is it that I debated on going for a good half an hour before I told the kids I couldn’t go? They were in my house looking at me like I was a crazy person while I was rolling the dough and then they mentioned something about ice cream… Now I knew I didn’t have time and that I didn’t need ice cream, but man I was so close to dropping everything. I asked the kids if I would have to go to church first or if I could go and just eat ice cream (that’s right I sunk to a new low) after this I hinted at them bringing me back food- which they were more than happy to do but luckily didn’t.

By the time everyone got to my place I was still rolling pasta and cooking sauce but the meal turned out to be pretty good so I say it was worth the labor- no one said Peace Corps was going to be easy!

The next morning we walked around the village and gathered fruit to put on the pancakes we made for our breakfast. After breakfast we went down to the beach and nearly got washed away by the tide. All in all it was an awesome weekend that made me happy to live in Tonga and even more happy to live in my village.

Mark and Alissa’s Island Adventure

March 3, 2013

The Vava’u group (minus Abby and Ryan who got sick) went to visit Mark and Alissa out on their island this past weekend! It was rad, their village is awesome and outer island life is even more chill than outer village life (who knew that life could get even more chill?). Walking around the small village with no roads and soft grass, tress (of all different types not just Palm tress) in the distance, it felt like walking around the Shire in Lord of the Rings. We had great meals where we fashioned a bbq out of an old peace of tin and some cinder blocks and bbqed burgers and hot dogs. Us guys went to drink kava after dinner, I was being my normal obnoxious self at kava so they gave me the big shell as a joke, I didn’t want to look like I couldn’t handle it so I slung it back like a champ, but I was so full from dinner I immediately felt like I was going to puke. I waited a minute, got up as if I just had to pee and walked behind the church to get rid of the recent intake (a nice way of saying i blew chunks). We stayed for a while after and none were the wiser.

The next day we went snorkeling off this amazing unpopulated island and went to this underwater cave. Mariner’s Cave is reached by swimming through an opening below the water. It was one of the scariest things I have ever done but it was awesome! That night we got back and their village put on a show for us with dances (traditional Tongan War dances and Tou'olungas) and music.

The day we left I got a super bad stomachache/ headache and couldn’t eat at the mini feast one of their village members invited us all to. My sickness only got worse until it reached its most unbearable during the hour plus boat ride back to the main island. We made it back and I am feeling much better now, it’s just lucky that it didn’t strike me earlier in the weekend!

a guy getting fish bait for later

Mandy and me after snorkeling

the top of Mariner's Cave- we swan about 10- 20 feet below this and about 10 feet forward into darkness to enter the cave

one of Alissa's students doing the tou'olunga

one of the war dances

Camping on the Beach

February 26, 2013

Actually fulfilling a random suggestion made the night before, a group of us got together to camp out on the amazing beach that is in my village. Because one of the Ausaid volunteers is dating a Tongan we got to do some pretty cool things, including but not limited to getting a pig and then killing it and eating it all on the beach. That’s right folks the pig that rode in the back of the pickup with us from town, very much alive trapped in a food grain bag, was killed shaved an roasted by yours truly! Nothing makes you feel more Peace Corps than cleaning out a pigs entrails with your hands and then spearing it with a stick to roast it on a fire built out of wood and dried leaves. We didn’t let anything go to waste, and feasted on the delectable stomach and lungs of the little piglet as we waited while the delicious specimen was being slowly roasted. Our Tongan friend climbed perhaps the tallest coconut tree in site (maybe 40 feet) to get us a plentiful supply of coconuts and a few of the leaves to be weaved into a matt on which we would lay the fruits of our labor. We ate at the foot of the beach during sunset…. It is times such as these that make me really appreciate being placed in Tonga…

I still made it back to my village in time for second church! Where my friend Ofa caught me dozing off more than a few times. I still got my Sunday lu too! I dropped the fact that I had only eaten bread that day and my principal told me to come to her house to find some lu... Side note: you really have to appreciate a culture that specifically grows certain plants that contain the ingredients for a meal that is only had on Sundays.

Tevita shaving the pig

Tevita and I cleaning the pig

about to eat some pig lung

me picking out the edible entrails

you can't tell, but this is Tevita in the tree

Tevita weaving the matts

our view

Sean and me waiting to grub

our feast

Sports Day

March 20,2013

All schools in Tonga do this really cool thing called Sports Day. It is a day where all the students from different schools get together and compete in running events. At the primary schools classes 4 through 6 compete. In effort to include the whole school, classes 1 through 6 (and maybe to have a semi-day off), we had a mini version with just the kids at our school last Friday. I was leading a team with one of my co-teachers and my principal and the other teacher were leading the other team. My team was team green, so on Friday we had our team come to school wearing green and the other school was wearing red. After the radio broadcast, parents came (with food of course (-: ) and we had the kids run all different running events on the field in front of our school. We even had them do a sack race! It was adorable seeing kids as young as 4 try and run, especially when they were in a giant bag.

I love any Tongan event because that means there will inevitably be food, and in Tonga you don’t need to worry about quantity or mode of consumption, as long as you are not standing up while eating (that is the biggest no no here as i was informed when I was eating a canned spaghetti sandwich and trying to hold up the finish line marker) you can eat as much as you want in anyway- my favorite is double fisting usually some sort of root crop in one hand and some sort of dipping sustenance in the other.

The day ended around 11 and as if you didn’t already know, my team was the victor.

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TEAM GREEN!

some of the kids resting under our makeshift shade- i had to climb the tree to make the shade a success but it ended up not being able to stand up to the wind )-:

class 1 and 2

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The sack race

the moms sitting with their food in front of the school

Sifa Survives a Storm

March 5, 2013

In the South Pacific you don’t get snow days but you do get quite a few rain days- cyclone warning days. Normally this just results in the kids working through their lunch and going home at 1:30 instead of 3:30 (what is called a long run). The reason for this is mostly because it is really hard to talk over the loud noise that rain makes on a corrugated tin roofs, plus it gets pretty dark and my school doesn’t have lights. We have had a lot of these long run days but as I was telling my friend Wren yesterday, we have not had to cancel school. Apparently, Wren’s school on the main Island back in Tongatapu has been cancelled all week so she has yet to actually start teaching. Well, I jinxed myself. This morning I was woken up by the sound of a kid banging on my door requesting the key to the school. Giving him the key I noticed it was probably going to be a long run day, so I immediately started planning what I would do with my extra free time as I put on my skirt and matt. I started to walk out my door, cup of instant coffee in hand, when the kids came up to me and told me that the radio said school would be cancelled- I was not sure how I felt about this, 1 that is a lot of extra time, and 2 now I have to push back my assessment testing. Oh well! I threw off the skirt, hopped back into bed and got ready to start an epic day of watching Lord of the Rings. I made myself some toast and started to play the movie when I heard another succession of loud bangs at my door, it was my principal’s daughter informing me that we do in fact have school; bummer. I got dressed for the second time and took my six-step-commute to school. There were only two kids there and I wasn't really down to go through with a lesson with only two kids especially when school is supposed to be cancelled anyway. Turned out my principal thought that school was cancelled for just the main island and quickly realized she was wrong. So for the second time I ripped off the clothes grab my toast and hopped back into bed to start my movie. Twenty minutes into my cinematic adventure the power goes out and my laptop battery died- foiled again!  I decide to try and cook myself a big lunch in hope that the power would come back on by the time I was finished- no dice. So I read and barricade myself in my room while outside it sounded as if waves were crashing against my house. Luckily, around 3 or so the power kicked back on and I was able to wait out the storm in the comfort of my bed watching the trials and tribulations of young Frodo and his companions. I left the house after the movie to do my first night of night school with the high school students. Now I am back in my room hoping to survive the big storm that will be touching down any minute and will probably last the night… I really hope I keep my power for it…