Turning 23

February 6, 2013

Since I was to spend my birthday in the village I thought I would spend the day doing things that I liked, this pretty much meant I planned on making myself good meals. I made tortillas and had breakfast burritos with coffee to start the day and ended it with a Coke and chicken and rice "burritos" (I desperately miss Mexican food and I wish the burritos i made where anything like what you reading this are thinking). I thought I would go to school and then spend the rest of the day watching my favorite shows, reading (I am so close to finishing the Count of Monte Cristo) and then end my night drinking kava with the guys. Of course I am in Tonga, so not everything can go as planned… I went for a run and somewhere along the way I dropped the keys to my house, I retraced my steps, so basically had to do the run over again, and still didn’t find them. I had to borrow a screwdriver and break into my own house (if you are counting, this is the 3rd time I have had to break into my own house...). Finally after breaking into my house and discover I didn't have any water (bucket baths are so great!) I got to sit down to my burritos. Halfway through my meal Imy town officer shows up at my house and asks me if I want to go with him to drink kava in another village. I thought I would celebrate, it being my birthday and all so I through on a tupenu and hop in the fan. On the way we almost died driving into a herd of cows in the middle of the road. We got to the hall and I ended up having a blast, my Tongan was on and the tou’a was attractive, plus I thought since it was my birthday I would shamelessly flirt with her. As I was conversing with the server a molokau almost bit me but luckily my minister saved me by burning it with his cigarette. I was having so much fun we ended up staying until after midnight. Even though it was vastly different than my birthday would have been in the states, I still had an awesome day, which gives me high hopes for future celebrations here.

Teacher's Planning Week

January 28, 2013

It was the first official day of work today; this week is Teacher’s Planning Week on the calendar and then next week we start school! The ministry of education holds a planning week/ presentation week were all the elementary teachers from around Vava’u get together and work out the year. I went with my teacher’s into town where we met all the other teachers and Peace Corps at a hall. Of course this is Tonga, so instead of starting at 8:30 the meeting started around 11 and it was actually a church service rather than a meeting. They had also put all of us Peace Corps on separate benches in the front of the room… The next 2 days were a bit more of a meeting but still all in Tonga so not of much use to us.

On Thursday we were supposed to be done with the meetings in town and we were told to just meet at our schools and work. I missed this day of teacher planning because I had arrange to go out with the Micro Finance group on the island to see what the meetings are like and to learn more about the organization. It was really neat getting to go around and meet with all the women and see how a Micro Finance org works on the ground. At each meeting I was offered a bride as soon as I walked in, one of the meetings offered me a bride and lunch! I got to learn a lot though and I think I will try and to do more work with the group in the future.

On the last day of the week I had accidentally talked myself into making breakfast for my teachers while we met. After breakfast (I made scrambled eggs with onions and hot sauce, then to make it fakaTonga I put it into bread bowls) instead of doing planning I helped my principal mow the humongous field that is in front of our school- this was done with a push lawn mower not a ride-on one… I am just assuming I didn’t get much out of the week because I don’t speak Tongan, but it also just seems like an interesting way to start a school year and I am not sure if it is better for us outer village schools or inefficient.

I know it is kind of lame but I am proud of this food invention so I had to take a picture of it

Some Tongan Medicine

February 1, 2013

I have noticed I have been blogging less because things that would have been kind of interesting before are becoming more normal to me now but this last eva I felt was blog worthy so here it is:

I went eva today and got to see a little bit of Tongan medicine. I was with some young women in my village, we walked to this house and then I realized we were there for another women to apply some medicine to one of their kids. The medicine was some sort of herbs wrapped in a cloth and then squeezed into a small bowl of water. First the lady massage the kids throat and mouth with a bit of the herb water and then she got a higher concentration of the herb water and poured it into the kids mouth. The kid (he must have been 3) didn’t like it at all but what kids likes medicine? I couldn’t really figure out what it was for but I think it was a toothache because the kept saying he ate too much candy…

I continued on my walk and ran into some of the local teenagers and went with them to a house to find hair clippers. One of the guys was getting his hair cut and I have never in my life seen someone so detailed and precise when giving a haircut (especially with clippers). The kid’s hair wasn’t long to begin with (he was more getting it cleaned up rather than cut) and the whole process still took over an hour. The guy who did the cutting made sure every single hair was cut perfectly, he even brought out a razor to get the hairs the clippers missed. I couldn’t believe how exact this kid was being (I should have know because it was the same kid I ran into cleaning the pig a few weeks ago); Corey if you read this, your competition for haircuts lives in my village! I know that when I cut my hair I am going to this kid!

Evaing is the best, you never know what you are going to end up doing or what you might find...

Back to the Capital for Training

January 25, 2013

We all had our In Service Early Service Peace Corps training last week on the main island. Even though we all had our doubts about this training (because it seemed thrown together in an effort to please our new country director), it turned out to be pretty solid. It was really great getting to see everyone again and hear about all of their experiences settling into their sites. It was also super great getting to eat Chinese food! The training wasn’t half bad either, even though it was a lot of discussion without much action, we had some really great guest speakers, like the minister of education, and Abby and I got the ball rolling on one of our secondary projects, which will be to create a teachable curriculum for TEFL in Tonga. We stayed at Sela’s Guesthouse again, it is strange going back there because it reminds me of our first day in Tonga and how different things are now.

The highlights of the training, besides the food, was getting to go back to Nakolo and getting to say goodbye to Meredith and Dominica. Chiara, Katy and I went back to our home stays the Sunday of training. It was so cool getting to see everyone again and be able to speak better Tongan. My family was having a big family reunion and I got to meet their family from overseas in Australia and New Zealand. We also had a big feast that Katy ended up coming to and I got to try dog meat (which was surprisingly good, it tasted a lot like pig). I had a lot of fun getting to see my host brothers again and seeing some of the guys from the village, of course we got talked into drinking (Katy serving not drinking) kava so we stayed in the village until past midnight. I am excited to go back again and hopefully be able to speak even better Tongan and see my host brothers again.

the feast

my first experience eating dog meat

How To Build an Emu:

Step 1: dig a big hole in the ground and fill it with rocks and coconut husks and set them on fire.

Step 2: remove rocks and place food into the oven.

Step 3: cover hole with banana leaves and scrap corrugated tin

Step 4: cover with blankets.

Step 5: cover area with dirt.

Step 6: uncover after an hour and a half; eat right away.

Dominica’s and Meredith’s send off was an awesome night! We went to this restaurant and basically were the only one’s there. All the current volunteers plus some Ausaid volunteers and some of our staff came, we had a lot of fun owning the dance floor and basically requesting any song we wanted (of course the DJ’s selection was some what limited). I really hope that when my time comes, I will be able to have everyone around too.

Dominica, Meredith and me

all of us, the one throwing up the gains signs in the front is Lose, she is our Language Coordinator

The training was really fun and I was very pleasantly surprised that getting back to site was not a hard adjustment at all. I really thought I would be a bit bummed for a day or two but as soon as a got back and unpacked it was actually kind of nice to come home (after I cleaned up all the dead bugs of course). Now it is just getting the last things prepared for the start of the new year in about a week! Service is about to get real and I am excited for it.

Ice Cream Bread

January 6, 2013

We were all supposed to take a camping trip this weekend out to this small island that this palangi couple owns but unfortunately due to rain we had to cancel the trip. Instead of going to the island- since I was in town anyway- I went out with Dominica, Mandy and the Australian volunteers to spend the day around town doing a kind of pub crawl (more of like a café crawl) getting a drink at the 4 cafes in town. After that we went back to the house of the Aus-aid girls and built a slip n’ slide out of tent tarps and had the Tongan delicacy ice cream bread- exactly like it sounds, you take a loaf of bread cut it into your desired amount, make a hole and then scope ice cream into it. It is actually really good! After that we tested the slip n’ slide. We ended our night with dinner at Aquarium café with pizza!

The next morning we got the famous Rusty (a giant bacon hash brown toped with eggs sunny side up) and did some yoga sponsored by Ginger Spice (oh the DVD choices you have here in the Kingdom...). After the yoga we cooled down in kitty pools and watched Friends, after such a fun weekend it makes me worried to actually be starting school and work soon (I think the break has been too long and I am stuck in vacation mode)…

Step 1

Step 2

step 3

the beginnings of a slip n' slide

The topper of the weekend

Uike Lotu

January 3, 2013

I have been feeling that I have not been getting enough church in my life lately, it is just my luck that for the next two weeks the country of Tonga will be celebrating what they call Uike Lotu (Week of Prayer). Everyday there will be church services at 5 am and 5 pm. Now, I am not trying to wake up at 4:30 so I can go sit in a service where I do not understand anything but, I will go at 5 pm to make my presence known, which is what I have been doing everyday this week. Church on Sundays is not so bad, I go for a bit, normally get some food and it's done, but everyday is overkill. I realized the overkill by Thursday when I was sitting in church and they sang for about an hour- perhaps every Tongan Jesus song there is. During uike lotu it is not really a services but a family gets up and makes a speech to the congregation, well when Tongans do this it is customary to cry. On this particular day without uttering a single word the women burst in to tears, but continued to keep talked for at least 45 minutes, why was she crying? Was it necessary (if I could roll my eyes in type form here is where it would be inserted)? After the women spoke her husband got up and talked for over an hour in a slow monotonous voice- I thought I might die, I was even praying that something might happen to end the service- something like heavy rain not anything bad… It was during this service that I realized Tongan church everyday is not for me- good thing I have another whole week of it!

Dominica came to my village to tou’a because the men in my village had been asking and I knew it would give me props if I could get a white girl to come, plus I thought she might enjoy doing it one last time before she leaves…It turned out to be really fun, it was nice to introduce someone to my village and show them my life here. We got invited to a feast the fallowing day, I think the plan was just to invite us so she would serve again in the morning.

The next day we went to kava again and let me tell you, there is nothing like getting a little drunk off kava before 10 am (again insert eye roll)! We get out of kava around 12 when the feast was supposed to start even though the guys would have kept us there all day if they could have… We got to the part of my village where the feast was supposed to be and we realized that we were not going to a feast but we were crashing a joint birthday party/ graduation ceremony. There are these huge tent type things set up and all these tables and an are stacked with Tongan mats that are gifts for the honorees. It was really fun even though it was a bit weird at first and we had to wait about 2 hours with our food just roasting in the sun before we could eat (bring it on Tonga, my stomach has become iron). There were tou’olungas and other dances, speeches, cake, speeches, gift presentations and speeches and speeches. All in all it was a pretty cool event to find ourselves in even though the people being celebrated where only family of people in my village and not actually from my village, which is why my Tongan thank you speech I was worried about giving didn’t ever happen.

Dominica serving

The people being honored at the ceremony. The birthday was for the little girl in the picture, your first birthday is a big event in Tonga

our food just chillin' (or more like warming) in the sun before we got to eat

some of our entertainment

It's a Tongan New Year

January 2, 2013

Passing new year in Tonga was pretty underwhelming to be honest, not that it wasn’t fun in an interesting way, but after having spent last year's with great friends at a rave and the year before that under the coliseum in Rome, going to church for 4 hours and then eating didn’t really top the epic new year’s eves list.

On New Year’s Eve we had a feast at my PTA chair’s house that I was sort of supposed to help cook for, but my principal came to wake me up in the morning and told me to go fai kava so I did that instead… The feast was really good- the best roast pig I have had- and there was ice cream! We went to have more kava after the feast but it didn’t last long since everyone started leaving to sleep before church, so I went back to the house where we had the feast to see if they needed help cleaning up. I have to admit, my return wasn’t all to make up for the fact I got out of cooking, I kinda wanted to see if there were leftovers (I know I am a bad person /: ). Not only did I get leftovers, but I also got more ice cream and cake! But hey, I also helped clean too… I went back to kava and then got picked up to go to a Ba’hai meeting run by these amazing palangies who have been in Tonga for 35 years! They were the first ones to grow vegetables on the whole island! They were awesome and will be a great resource in the future I am sure. I got driven back to my village just in time to go to church from 10 to 1 am! That’s right, if you guess I would be celebrating the new year in a three hour church service where we nonstop prayed then sang for the last two hours making me believe after every song we were done… you were right! You see, the way Tongans celebrate the new year is by going to a church service to make their last and first prayers of the year, I actually got lucky because I went to the church of Tonga, the Wesleyans went on until 4 am! Anyway the service finally ended, it was the hardest I have had to stay awake for anything in my memory. After the service (or more like group prayer session) We walked across the village and had a huge teatime with breads and cakes and some sort of milk tea.

New year’s day was cool in that we are the first ones in the world who get to experience it! In Tonga you spend the first day of the year going around to all your friends and family and wishing them a happy new year and talking with them. I had to go to the houses of the more important people in my village, like the town officer and my principal, and give them a new year’s greeting. Beside the greeting of people I didn’t do much else really but drink kava, go to church and hang out and at at my PTA chair’s house. I did however, get to end the night in the most exciting way possible (if you live in a village in Tonga)- a Mormon dance, which by the way, are way more awkward when you are the only white person. All in all it wasn’t a bad start to what is bond to be one of the more interesting years of my life.

a little new year's eve morning kava session

the feast, no, unfortunately those are not bottles of champaign- just cider given by a kid from overseas...

I snuck a picture in church, I think this was hour 2...

after (tea)party

dancing with the kids at the Mormon dance