Tongan Take-aways : School's Out For...2 Weeks

July 8 , 2013

Last week was an American invasion in Vava’u. We were on school break for two weeks and so many volunteers had family and friends visit from the states. Katy came up to Vava’u with her best friend and her friend’s mom and sister, Chiara came up with her parents, Harrison had his girlfriend in, and Mark and Alissa were hosting Alissa’s parents. It was so much fun to meet everyone and get a dose of America. After over 10 months abroad it was nice to get a small break from my daily Tongan routine. We all had a lot of fun doing some of the touristy things that Vava’u has to over like a day sail and staying in the “resorts” (I put resorts in quotes because they are not exactly resorts- more so little rooms on a small portion of beach). I had a great time getting to see Tonga from the angle of a visitor and as an extra bonus the place Katy stayed in had air conditioning! We all spent a lot of time together, which was nice since I haven’t seen Katy and Chiara since training.

It was really interesting hanging out in a family dynamic again, I didn’t even realize that it was something I was missing until I was having dinner with Chiara and her parents. Even more of a bitter sweet moment was when I was eating with Katy and her friends and they were talking about all of this stuff I wont be able to care about for so long like apartments, new dogs, new places to go in their town. As I was listening to them talk about their excitement to get back and meet the new dog I was a little bummed knowing that it will be another 17 months before I can even begin to think about anything of that nature. Not that I am in a rush to leave Tonga, but I guess it was the first time I realized what I am delaying by being here…

Those thoughts aside, it was a really amazing break filled with a lot of good times. We even went to this one Island right off the main island that is run by a couple from Spain. The only thing on the island beside their house is a very small restaurant where they do a tapas dinner upon reservation. It was so peculiar, but one of the coolest things I have seen. It was like a little slice of Spain on some small island in the South Pacific. It was even a trip getting there, loading all 16 of us on two small boats in the dark- one of the boats ran out of gas half way to the restaurant and was slowly taking on water (even though the restaurant wasn’t Tongan we couldn’t escape Tonga and their bizarrely inefficient boat travel)…

The last night we all had a great conversation, facilitated by Alissa’s dad who played the role of the question master, about Tonga and our experience. I thought it was interesting that all of us had such different opinions about the experience and life in Tonga yet we almost all had similar ideas for things we would change or we thought could be better. Saying goodbye wasn’t easy but when I finally got back to my site I felt ready to get back to real life (if that is even what it is) and get back into school. I was actually surprised how much I missed my kids, even though they drive me crazy we really do have fun together and after a much needed two week break I was excited to get back in the classroom.