Don't Worry be Ha'apai

That is the slogan for the island group that we are staying on now. Our group of 16 has been split into 4 different villages by the language groups we were previously in. My group consists of: Sami (a 22 year old girl from Pennsylvania, who is very energetic, really inclusive and a lot of fun); Jason (28 year old guy from Spokane, who seems to be quite an adventurer and is also a solid Christian); Dawn (67 year old lady from Phoenix, who makes us laugh often as she says pretty much exactly what she is thinking, which is both refreshing and funny at the same time). I like our language group a lot and especially our language teacher Poli.

Our first day here, we spent primarily sleeping and getting to know our family (which is a bit awkward!). Poli, Sami, Dawn & I went for a walk in the afternoon. Here are a couple pictures of my new house and from our stroll.

This is my home for the next 6 weeks. Definitely a bit more westernized than my last home. I have a very nice bed (with mosquito net since some of the panes are missing from the windows!)

This is the church that all of our families go to, so we'll be here together which is sort of nice.

A 10 Hour Tour

To get to our next homestay, we needed to take a boat up to another group of islands. The boat ride was 10 hours, leaving Nuku'alofa in the late afternoon and arriving in Ha'apai about 2 - 3 in the morning. Our host family surprised us and showed up at the dock to say goodbye one last time.

Here are our accomodations. We had the nice place to sit. It was very uncomfortable and very cold. Although Tonga is tropical, being in an open air boat in the middle of their winter, at night was really, really bad. But at least we weren't sleeping in the stair/walk ways like I saw Tongans doing. I had no idea people still traveled in this manner! I lept wondering during the 10 hours how Peace Corps could have us travel like this and not at least provide blankets or sleeping bags or have told us to bring a coat at least...

Our view from the boat...you can see just how flat parts of Tonga are.

Leaving Ha'atafu

We left Ha'atafu today. It is really scary to think about the new place we will be going - Ha'apai. There, we will be on our own with a host family ... which is going to be really difficult. I'm used to relying on Amanda to vent to about the frustrations of living with a family and the cultural/language frustrations that come with it. I'm scared about what my new situation will be like. The unknown is always pretty scary to me. Although, I keep reminding myself of how worried I was about this homestay and how it turned out to be just fine and I'm sure the same will be true for the next section of training. Here are a few photos of our final moments in Ha'atafu.

Tongan Kids & Teeth

We have never been able to figure out how these kids are related to our homestay family, but that is very typical in Tonga...families are so extended and 3rd cousins are considered brothers, so these little girls stayed over at our house frequently and entertained us with their antics. One thing that is pretty gross about the kids is that many of them have teeth that are literally black. Since baby teeth fall out, our best guess is that children here don't brush their teeth until they have adult teeth which results in some pretty nasty looking teeth! (Unfortunately, I don't have any really good pictures of the bad teeth!)

Final Sunday in Ha'atafu

Our host family dressed us up in new outfits and tauvalas so that we could go serve kava to the men before church. Think of it as a tailgate party before church. Sort of seems like an oxymoron...

The Prince's Funeral

A Tongan Prince and Princess were killed in a car accident in the San Francisco area just before we arrived here. Their funeral was today and we were allowed to go in lieu of our usual class time.

Our host mom, prepared Amanda & I for the funeral. All black clothing is required for any funeral as well as these mats, called a tauvala.


















Here is our whole group (minus Alex who was fighting a sickness) ready to depart for the funeral.

















We were a little early, so our trainers stopped along the coast to let us relax for a little bit. I love this picture of our group in our funeral garb running down to the water.

Here are some women in traditional funeral mats. The larger the mat, the closer to the family a person is.

Here is the procession for the casket and the casket being carried into the church. You can see girls in school uniforms sitting alongside the road with their faces averted...they lined the streets for the entire length of the procession, which would have been for miles and miles. Their face are averted to display that they are not even worthy to look at the casket of the prince.

Blowholes!

Our host Dad (Timote) drove 5 of us girls over to see the Blowholes today ... miles of coast line with small caves in the lava rock that the water shoots through creating what looks like miles of small geysers. It was really beautiful and wonderful to be able to see more of this country that I'll be living in for the next 2 years. In the picture from left to right is Jamie, Jessie, Timote, Amanda & Rose.

Tongan Escorts

Palangi (paw-long-ee) women are not allowed out on their own in our village. At least that is what Amanda and I have found. Our host Dad pretty much requires his daughter to accompany us whenever we want to get away for a moment on a walk. Tongans aren't really big on exercising, walking or spending time at the beach just for the sake of it, so it's always a little difficult to get our host-sister to want to do the activities we are interested in doing. Today, she did agree to take us to the beach. Our fellow PCV, Jamie, joined us with her Tongan escort :)

Sundays

A Tongan Sunday consists of three things and three things only ...

Church -- Eating -- Sleeping

Or (in Tongan)

Lotu (low-too) -- Kai (k-eye) -- Mohe (mow-hey)

Repeat that 3 times and you have completed a Tongan Sunday.

Amanda and I hid in our room for the afternoon to "mohe," but we were really reading and listening to music (something not allowed). In the afternoon, we were allowed to go out for a very slow walk.

Surreal

Today, we had a water safety class, then headed over to the house of a guy who was a Peace Corps volunteer several years ago and basically never left Tonga after he was offered employment here.

We stood in his backyard where there are several tall, lovely coconut trees, he showed us how to husk coconuts - did you know that they are covered in a thick brown husk that makes them the size of a large football?? After husking, volunteers had the opportunity to crack open the coconuts with a bush knife and I just had one of these moments...we're standing around cracking open coconuts so that the white milk splashes out, with perfect coconut trees behind us and a beautiful blue sky behind that....It was definitely one of those, I can't believe I'm here moments!

After cracking a coconut, it needs to be grated with a metal & wood contraption that you sit on. All the shavings fall into a bucket. To make the milk used in cooking, a little warm water is added to a bowl of shavings, then the shavings are squeeze with pieces of the coconut husk (or tightly with your hands) and the liquid that drips out is saved for use.

We learned how to make Lu and 'Ota Ika which are traditional Tongan dishes.

For Lu, Taro leaves are used first (these cause a terrible allergic reaction if they are not cooked before consumption) to make a sort of flat bed for some raw meat (mutton or tuna), then some coconut milk and salt and pepper are added and the leaves folded up to form a sort of package. It is then wrapped in foil and tossed into the 'umu (an outdoor oven) for cooking.

'Ota Ika is a raw fish salad. Something I would have never thought I could enjoy. We started with diced up raw tuna that had been lightly marinated in lime juice. To that we added some chopped cucumber, chives and tomato. Then added some salt, pepper and a generous amount of coconut milk. Dished it into bowls and gobbled it up!

Where am I living??

Tongan Sunset

This is a 5 minute walk away from my house...

Bells & Roosters

For the first time in as long as I can remember, I do not need to be out of bed everyday until after 7 am. It is quite a wonderful feeling. Just that knowledge makes me more relaxed and very happy.

While I may not have to be out of bed, there are certain things about Tonga that still ensure I am awake well before then!

Roosters are supposed to crow at sunrise, right?? That's what I thought! They actually crow close to hourly beginning at 2 am or so ... right outside our window.

Church bells can also be heard 4 out of 7 days ringing for at least 15 minutes at 5 am. And there are A LOT of churches, some which don't have actual bells, but just some metal object that they beat against another to create a loud clanging sound, sure to wake every Tongan (and palangi = white person) within hearing distance.

Living in Tonga...

Here is a view of the street we live off of. The only paved road in the area.

Our "house" is a conglomeration of sheds or lean-to like structures put together to form several rooms. Amanda and I have a small room at the side of the house - there IS electricity and a toilet that sort of flushes, but no electricity in the toilet area - a lightbulb on a cord has to be drug into the area and hung up when needed. The shower, isn't. There is a stall with a hole in the floor for a drain (this serves as a sink too, since there is no sink), but there is no running water in the area water. Water is brought into the stall via a bucket. We have to help each other wash our hair it is pretty difficult with a bucket, in minimal light and of course, one of us stays on the lookout for the spider the size of my palm who has it's home in the stall and also for the large roaches that race around the top.

To Ha'atafu

We climbed aboard a bus today to go to Ha'atafu where we will spend 2 weeks in a homestay (with another volunteer as a roommate) and have training each day to prepare us for our service. I am going to be rooming with Amanda B (we have two Amanda's in our group). Amanda B is closer to my age than many of the other volunteers, from Colorado, a scuba diver, traveler and pretty cool girl. I am excited to get to know her better.

Here's a group before we boarded our bus ...


















Upon arrival, we met in a community hall building ... an open air building with sheets of linoleum loosely covering the floor and swarms of large mosquitos circling our fresh blood.

Amanda and I were placed in the home of the town officer (similar to a mayor in the US). His youngest daughter still lives at home and is 18 or 19. Her name in 'One (oh-neigh). She spent the evening trying to teach us Tonga. She knows very little English and we know very little Tonga -- only hello and full (for when they try to make us eat as much as a Tongan!). Everything was a bit overwhelming and we were glad to escape to our little room once it seemed appropriate.

Arrival in Tonga!

We finally arrived. My biggest thought when we were approaching the island was "Wow, it's a lot flatter than I imagined." Although we were jet lagged, we had a whole schedule when we arrived. We were greeted at the airport by current volunteers and PC staff, bearing what I would describe as similar to a Hawaiian Lei (called a kahoa here) and transported to the hostel/guest house where we will spend one night before joining our Tongan host family. The full schedule was probably good as it did not give us any time to think about how scary all of this is.

We had our first kava circle (kava is a drink made from the powder of a crushed root - it looks and tastes like dirty dish water, but leaves your mouth slightly numb). Afterwards, we enjoyed a BBQ at the PC office with the current volunteers - ironically, I already have a connection with one of them ... she knows someone who goes to the same church as Julie and had already heard that I was coming. She graduated from USC and seems like a really cool girl.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

After a day and a half of orientation, apparently we were ready for Tonga and we headed to LAX for our flight to New Zealand and then flight on to Tonga ... the surreal feeling of "am I really doing this?" has yet to end. I hoofed it down to In-N-Out at lunch for my last animal style cheeseburger today. Yum ... it was SO good! I have realized that I am finally in the company of "my kind of people" for the first time in my life - at least in a group setting. I can't believe it's taken me this long to find them. I have identified one other Christian in the group so far. He seems like a really cool guy and I am thankful to have a fellow believer nearby.

Saying Goodbye to Family

My Mom, Dad and Mark saw me off at the airport in San Luis this morning. It was really hard to say goodbye. My Dad was so great ... reminding me that they would be coming to visit me and how excited he was for me. I was surprised the Mark had gotten himself out of bed to join us as it was an early flight. All of these goodbyes are so hard. Bonnie picked me up at LAX to hang out for a little while one last time with her and the boys, then she dropped me off at the Sheraton where my next adventure was to begin. Peace Corps orientation.