April 24, 2013
The Saturday we got back from training also happened to be the Australian Aid volunteers’ going away party at one of the local establishments in town. I felt obligated to go even though I kind of just wanted to get back, unpack and watch a movie. Instead, I had to drop off my stuff and head straight into town. The party ended up being a lot of fun though and I got an early ride back to my village from my favorite cab driver so I was still able to make church the next morning. Their party made me think how different our experiences are even though we cross paths somewhat frequently. My going away "party" is going to be quite different.
the volunteers giving their fakamalo from left to right: Georgie, Elana, Tria
the little kid on my head is one of Georgie's coworker's sons- he liked to climb
At church, unbeknownst to me until minutes before, we performed the action songs that I have spent the better half of 2 months trying to learn. In case you are still wondering what an action song is, imagine an extremely religious, half spoken, half sung, song that hand gestures are put to. Now imagine 50 village kids dressed in all white and in lines from youngest to oldest performing these songs- straight up hilarity.
an action shot of the action song- can you spot me?
my village youth and I after our brilliant performance
Because of training I didn’t get to go to the market this week and buy food, so in an attempt to feed myself I have been asking the kids to bring me assorted ingredients. Pele is a green leaf plant that gross like wild fire here and is used similarly to how you would use spinach. Breadfruit is exactly what it sounds like and is so abundant here that you can literally just go outside and pick it off the trees- which is exactly what I did (of course by me I mean the class 4 kid I made precariously climb a tree to get me one of the only remaining fruits left in my surrounding area). The beauty of living in a village in Tonga is even without money you can always eat (even if what you are eating is pretty flavorless- thank god for onions and hot sauce!). Take yesterday for instance, we had this random Mormon volunteer day at my school where all the Mormons in my village (plus some from other places) came to mow my school's field and generally clean up, after this event the Mormon bishop invited me over to his house and fed me!
this is the crew it took to mow the field in a day- if you cant tell there are 5 lawnmowers, 2 weed wackers and countless machetes
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