When I picture the South Pacific Islands, I see beaches and palm trees, hammocks and Piña Coladas. In the background, I hear the strumming of ukuleles and singing in an unknown language.
Why I still carry this illusion is a mystery. I would expect someone like me to know better, as I have been living in this “island paradise” for two years. Let me start again, this time with a more accurate picture of “hanging out in paradise.”
For me, a Saturday is rarely spent at the beach. This morning I did the same thing I would do on a Saturday in America; I went shopping. The sun, the dusty roads, and the inevitable sweat however, provided enough variation to exasperate even the most “adjusted foreigner.”
After I survived the walk home, I sought that illusion of the island paradise. Grabbing a book and a cold coke, I sat down in my hammock and prepared to relax. I turned on the radio hoping for some local music to complete the scene. “What’s wrong with this picture?” you may ask, “It sounds like paradise to me!”
And you’re right, it is picturesque. But the illusion is broken (as it always is,) by some piece of reality. That is, Tonga is not simply the island paradise that we foreigners want. In fact, some Tongans are searching for something in the other direction, reaching for the culture they find exotic. How do I know? On this particular Saturday, it’s the song on the radio.
Picture this: I am lying in a hammock, hot, sweaty, and dusty, drinking a coke and listening, not to ukuleles, but to a remix of the Macarena with a variety of pop Christmas carols.
I laugh to myself, realizing that once again, the illusion designed to beguile the tourist is broken. The people here do not lie on the beach in hammocks, listening to island music as the palm trees sway in the breeze. They go about their lives, playing mismatched songs from overseas, creating their own illusion of exotic pop culture.
I have come to like the remixes. They are a reminder that life here is a jumble of “exotic” cultures that in the end, make it unique; and I will always choose its surprising remixes over the illusion of paradise.
Monday, October 31, 2011
Thursday, October 27, 2011
What you should know before running in Tonga…
- When running in a rural village, plan on being accompanied by anywhere from 2-10 children, (or more!)
- Enjoy the company of the children, they help keep the ‘Tevolo’ (devil) away as you run through the bush!
- For a country where exercising is much less valued than in America, the track in town can get very crowded!
- When running at the crowded track, be prepared to dodge children, rugby balls, women and men walking, and women doing ZOOMBA! (dance/aerobics program)
- At the track, you are likely to feel very good about yourself, as you will be one of the few people running.
- This confidence may not last if you join a weekend running/swimming race with all the athletic Tongans and foreigners, in fact, you may be one of the last to finish!
- No matter where you run, you will be stared at…
- Especially if you run when it’s hot and your face turns beet red! “Who is that white girl running in the hot sun?” (Fair question!)
- Wearing headphones makes it more difficult to hear the remarks from the boys you pass or the boys practicing rugby at the track. (This however, does not always work!)
- It’s hot.
This blog post inspired by my desire to keep running, but being forced to take time off by the pains in my leg. (oh and number 11. It’s just as easy to overrun your muscles here, just because it’s hot doesn’t mean your muscles warm up faster…. Oops J)
Thursday, November 11, 2010
'Ako Hiva
Yes I’m starting up my blog again. No excuses/reasons why I haven’t done it… I’m just starting again. ;)
After being in Tonga for over a year, many things have begun to feel more natural. That is, until something new happens and I am reminded that there are many things I don’t understand. And then I feel right back to square one.
Recently I started feeling like I needed something else to do. The school year is coming to a close and things have felt pretty slow. (Granted this is Tonga and everything is slower….) I decided it was time for a new undertaking, something that would help me be more social with my village in a more regular manner. And again, this is Tonga, so the only social events in my village are church related. Therefore, I am now in a church choir. (Don’t laugh, I sing well enough for this!)
So tonight was my first choir practice, or in Tongan, ‘ako hiva. Now I’ve been in music quite a bit and have a good ear so I figured I could just read the words (printed in a hymnal without any written music,) like I do every Sunday in church and listen to the tune and catch on eventually. Not so much. Apparently before even learning the words to the song, they learn the melodies. And that is NOT done by reading music that looks like ours. It looks something like this:
3:- 3: 3: 3: etc …………………….
5:-5: 5: 5: etc …………………….
8:- 8: 8: 849: etc …………………….
When I arrived at the practice, I was given a paper that looks like this and everyone just starting singing. A good friend of mine, despite the fact that she can speak English well, was not entirely helpful. I asked her to explain and she simply responded by singing it to me. Needless to say, it didn’t help much.
The small amount I deduced from this practice tonight is that they sing the first syllable or the number that is written, (in Tongan.) The numbers seemed to correspond to a scale but not in sequential order as I expected. The lines following the number notate how long the note is held and the closer the numbers are together, the faster they seemed to be sung. But that doesn’t help much when there are pages of this stuff. J
When practice ended, people were thanking me for coming and asking if I had fun. I told them yes, but I have no idea how to read their music, it’s so different! From this I had hoped someone would say “Hey, I’ll teach you!” But again, not so much. The response was laughter and “Come again Thursday!”
I guess this will be another “learn as I go” experience, one of many here in Tonga!
After being in Tonga for over a year, many things have begun to feel more natural. That is, until something new happens and I am reminded that there are many things I don’t understand. And then I feel right back to square one.
Recently I started feeling like I needed something else to do. The school year is coming to a close and things have felt pretty slow. (Granted this is Tonga and everything is slower….) I decided it was time for a new undertaking, something that would help me be more social with my village in a more regular manner. And again, this is Tonga, so the only social events in my village are church related. Therefore, I am now in a church choir. (Don’t laugh, I sing well enough for this!)
So tonight was my first choir practice, or in Tongan, ‘ako hiva. Now I’ve been in music quite a bit and have a good ear so I figured I could just read the words (printed in a hymnal without any written music,) like I do every Sunday in church and listen to the tune and catch on eventually. Not so much. Apparently before even learning the words to the song, they learn the melodies. And that is NOT done by reading music that looks like ours. It looks something like this:
3:- 3: 3: 3: etc …………………….
5:-5: 5: 5: etc …………………….
8:- 8: 8: 849: etc …………………….
When I arrived at the practice, I was given a paper that looks like this and everyone just starting singing. A good friend of mine, despite the fact that she can speak English well, was not entirely helpful. I asked her to explain and she simply responded by singing it to me. Needless to say, it didn’t help much.
The small amount I deduced from this practice tonight is that they sing the first syllable or the number that is written, (in Tongan.) The numbers seemed to correspond to a scale but not in sequential order as I expected. The lines following the number notate how long the note is held and the closer the numbers are together, the faster they seemed to be sung. But that doesn’t help much when there are pages of this stuff. J
When practice ended, people were thanking me for coming and asking if I had fun. I told them yes, but I have no idea how to read their music, it’s so different! From this I had hoped someone would say “Hey, I’ll teach you!” But again, not so much. The response was laughter and “Come again Thursday!”
I guess this will be another “learn as I go” experience, one of many here in Tonga!
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Oiaue!
For some bizarre reason, up until last week, I had thought I had experienced enough life to know not to be too surprised when things don’t turn out how you expect. However when these past two weeks happened, I was surprised at how shocked I was at the speed of the changes. As I wrote about in my last entry, I’ve had to move sites. This entry is about the grand adventure I went on to make this happen.
The first step of this adventure was to take a plane from Pangai down to Tongatapu. The flight’s not long and I arrived early enough to grab lunch before a meeting at the main Peace Corps office with the other volunteers who were being moved and PC staff. At this meeting we were given details about the rest of the plan. The PCVs were to ride a chartered boat up to our islands (we were all in the same district,) that evening and ride through the night. We would have 24 hours to pack our things and have them ready to be taken out to the boat. (This is done via small boats from the island; the big boats can’t actually come all the way in.) The other new PCV, Sarah, and I were to then travel with the same boat back to Pangai where she would stay and I would wait another day to get on an airplane again and fly back to Tongatapu. The other volunteers who have been there a year have two weeks to stay and wrap up projects and say goodbye.
I was quite apprehensive about this plan to start with but I accepted that it was the only way I was going to be able to pack my things and say goodbye to my community. My apprehension wasn’t helped when a Tongan friend told me the sea was rough and wanted to make sure I was riding a good boat. While I completed trusted the judgment of the PC staff on deciding whether the conditions were safe, I could tell this was shaping up to be quite an uncomfortable ride.
Uncomfortable turned out to be an understatement. I won’t go into details about the boat ride since much of it is a blur to me, but I will tell you that there were two real options for places to ride. One was outside in the rain/ocean spray (which was terrible,) or inside where I my seasickness was drastically increased. I however created a third option; I ended up riding for about 7-8 hours of the 15 hour trip in the bathroom where I could quickly be sick every few minutes. Throughout this journey, I kept saying to myself, “I signed up for this?!?!”
Thankfully, the PC staff member who was with us, made the wonderfully wise decision of giving us an extra day when we arrived at our islands. For me, this meant I had an afternoon to recover from the trip before going to the evening meeting with the community and the PC staff to explain why I would no longer be working with them. This meeting was pretty tough for me and I’ll even admit that I cried during it.
Somehow everything got packed, I recovered from the boat, and said goodbye to my community. I even managed to go to the school and explain to the students in broken tongan why I couldn’t be their teacher anymore. They didn’t seem to upset about it when I passed out all the notebooks and pens that I had. Throughout all of this, I had many people cry for me, tell me they love me, and tell me they were going to hide me on the island so the boat wouldn’t take me away. When the time came to actually leave, the entire school came to my house and helped me carry my things to the beach. (Only 18 kids though, don’t be too impressed. J) Most of the village came to the “road” or down to the beach to say goodbye. The town officer, who is a large and old man, even carried his chair down to the beach so he could wave as I left. We all waved until I could no longer see them anymore.
The rest of the story is slightly less eventful. Luckily, the boat ride into Pangai wasn’t nearly as bad and I arrived with a feeling of relief. While I still had a plane ride the next day, I felt as if the madness of the journey was over. I spent the evening with some Tongan friends and was able to just relax. The final day of the trip, I spent the morning helping Sarah move into her new house and then just preparing to leave. The flight I took that evening was of course delayed by over an hour, but by this point in the journey I barely noticed. When I finally arrived back in Nuku’alofa, I turned down the offer to go out with some friends and went straight to sleep!
To wrap up though, much good will come out of this move even though it wasn’t my first choice early on. When I was on the island again those two days I realized just how isolated I would have been for two years and how potentially lonely could have been. Now I’m placed close enough to other PCVs so I can see them if I need to but far enough that I can have a good Tongan experience. I have a couple Tongan friends in this area that I’m really happy to be near as well. Exercising will include running in one direction longer than 5 minutes before needing to turn around and I’ll have access to vegetables! So hopefully I’ll be able to stay healthy. And……
It makes visiting me that much easier!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
‘Ofa aupito!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Fakakata pe
Fakakata pe or Just Kidding......
So this blog post has been empty for a while as I'm trying to put into words what I need to update you all on....
I know some of you have heard, but I'm being moved from my site to a new one due to transportation issues. The one boat that used to run out to the district I was living in has been deemed "unseaworthy" and therefore cannot run any longer. This came as a huge surprise because I was in the capital of the Ha'apai district for a meeting when it happened. I was told completely unexpectedly that I would not be returning home. :(
Initially I was very upset about it. As you know I was very excited about the prospect of living on an island with no electricity and running water. I had also began to feel part of my new community and had come up with some ideas for projects to start. The people of my island had also gone to a lot of trouble to get me there and now I have to tell them I'm leaving.
Clearly however, I cannot argue with the lack of transportation. So as my Tongan friends have been reminding me, since there is nothing I can do about it, I should just relax and go with the flow. That's proving tricky though since I'm not always the most patient person in the world. ;) (Tonga is being very good at making me practice though....)
My new site is a smaller village on the outskirts of the main island of Tongatapu. I'll still be working at a primary school and I have been assured this community is very excited to have me come. I'll be near some close Peace Corps friends and I've been told there are beautiful beaches in the area. I'll have running water and electricy and get this..... access to vegetables! I'm living the high life now! So in other words, I'm starting to accept the idea and am looking forward to meeting my new community.
The current dilemma is how to return to my island to get my things and then transport it all to Tongatapu. That should be happening sometime next week. I'm sure I'll be able to keep you all posted easier now that internet is more accessible. (Still none in my village but I can get to a city now.) Oh and my address won't change... still go through the Peace Corps office.
I'll post again soon once things start to fall into place. Prayers, thoughts or whatever are greatly appreciated during this transition!
Much love!
So this blog post has been empty for a while as I'm trying to put into words what I need to update you all on....
I know some of you have heard, but I'm being moved from my site to a new one due to transportation issues. The one boat that used to run out to the district I was living in has been deemed "unseaworthy" and therefore cannot run any longer. This came as a huge surprise because I was in the capital of the Ha'apai district for a meeting when it happened. I was told completely unexpectedly that I would not be returning home. :(
Initially I was very upset about it. As you know I was very excited about the prospect of living on an island with no electricity and running water. I had also began to feel part of my new community and had come up with some ideas for projects to start. The people of my island had also gone to a lot of trouble to get me there and now I have to tell them I'm leaving.
Clearly however, I cannot argue with the lack of transportation. So as my Tongan friends have been reminding me, since there is nothing I can do about it, I should just relax and go with the flow. That's proving tricky though since I'm not always the most patient person in the world. ;) (Tonga is being very good at making me practice though....)
My new site is a smaller village on the outskirts of the main island of Tongatapu. I'll still be working at a primary school and I have been assured this community is very excited to have me come. I'll be near some close Peace Corps friends and I've been told there are beautiful beaches in the area. I'll have running water and electricy and get this..... access to vegetables! I'm living the high life now! So in other words, I'm starting to accept the idea and am looking forward to meeting my new community.
The current dilemma is how to return to my island to get my things and then transport it all to Tongatapu. That should be happening sometime next week. I'm sure I'll be able to keep you all posted easier now that internet is more accessible. (Still none in my village but I can get to a city now.) Oh and my address won't change... still go through the Peace Corps office.
I'll post again soon once things start to fall into place. Prayers, thoughts or whatever are greatly appreciated during this transition!
Much love!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Farewell to Something Resembling Normality! ;)
I'm off tonight for my site! Only 9 hours to go until I finally leave the hostel I've been stuck in and board the boat that will take me to my island on the edge of the world. ;)
Here are the steps I have been taking/will take in the next day to finally reach my site!
1) Shopping: Before moving into the houses, all new volunteers are given a move in allowance. This amount allows us to buy the essentials to living in our site close to a local level. Since most volunteers will be living in the cities and working at secondary schools, they have electricity. Therefore, their shopping list contains things like refrigerators, washing machines, extension cords, water heaters, etc. My list however was quite different. I spent the majority of my shopping time rushing around to different stores looking for the cheapest buckets and large Tupperware containers. The best part however, was definitely the purchase of my new machete. Let's just say I felt pretty hard core walking around the store with it.... until I reached the cash register and was laughed at for being a girl buying a machete! :)
2) Swearing-in: A key step in reaching site. It wasn't until this ceremony that I became an official volunteer. I was dressed in the wrap skirt/outfit thing that was given to me by my host family. I think headed to a language instructor's house where she finished my outfit by wrapping a taouvala, (which is a fancy, woven mat,) around my waist. (Pictures to come someday... I promise!) The ceremony was great and the entire group 75 took the oath to defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and became official Peace Corps Volunteers.
3) Packing: After a lot of shopping, repacking everything proved to be quite difficult. Most things will be shipped up on the boat and therefore had to be packed well and left at the Peace Corps office. Conveniently, the boat that everything will be shipped on is the same boat I will be riding to site. (More on that in step 6.) The most difficult part however was packing all the books I took from the Peace Corps library. Since I am living on a ridiculously small island, I will be filling A LOT of time reading books. As many of you know, I go through books quickly when I'm busy so trying to pack for 3 months worth of reading proved nearly impossible. But after many tries and sharing books with my closest site mate (40 min boat ride away,) I managed to do it. (Still love getting books in the mail to offset this problem!!!)
4) Saying Goodbye to Other Volunteers: Group 75 has been together for quite some time. After meeting in LA at staging, traveling to Tonga and going through all of training together, we are now split up for the first time. Many new friends have headed off to various parts of Tonga and we will not see each other again until our training in April. Most volunteers are placed closer to a group on a main island but another PCV and I are headed out on our own to the outer, outer islands. WOO HOO!
5) Nofo pe: The Tongan term for "just staying." The original plan was for me to take the Pulupaki late Wednesday night after the swearing-in ceremony and arrive early Thursday morning. Unfortunately, a cyclone decided it was going to make a beeline for Tonga and therefore delayed any boat travel. While the cyclone eventually died down and was only a tropical depression by the time it hit us, the Pulupaki was still delayed by 4 days. So while the rest of my group has headed to site, us outer island girls are still here in the capital and "nofo pe" until 2am tonight/tomorrow morning when the boat leaves. Luckily this meant 4 days of per diem cash that buys us great meals and things like Dr. Pepper which I found at the American store here in the capital! While those treats have been fun, I am more than ready to get to my site and meet the people who will be my community for the next two years! Less than 9 hours now!
6) Ride the Pulupaki: There is only one boat in Tonga that travels between the different island groups. The Pulupaki is a barge type of boat that they use to ship freight and people. It is the only way to get to the small cluster of islands that I will be living in and it only travels once a week. I will be bringing a mat and sleeping bag since I am traveling in the middle of the night and there aren't chairs to sit in. Additionally, it has been recommended that I don't eat/drink anything prior to boarding the boat since the toilets are pretty shallow and the boat rocks a lot............ And this is my method of travel for the next two years! :)
7) Disembark from the Pulupaki: The "main island" in my island grouping is actually too small to have a wharf big enough and the Pulupaki can't actually pull all the way up to the island. Therefore, the method of disembarking supplies and people from the Pulupaki is to use a large number of small boats that go out and meet it in deeper water. The supplies are then thrown off the large boat and into the smaller ones. The people half jump, half climb off the Pulupaki into their designated small boat. Apparently it looks like a crazy circus as everyone is doing this at the same time. I will take pictures and share them next time I have internet! :)
8) Ride Smaller Boat: I will be picked up off the boat by my village and they will be assisting me with all of my things. The best part is that my program director has asked the youth boys in my village to come and assist me. For those of you have heard about the dating scene here... the boys will either flirt awkwardly or ignore me completely. All of this attention after riding for 7 hours in the boat and most likely being ridiculously motion sick. As the Tongan's say... Oiaue! (Pronounced... oy-ya-way)
Following all of those steps, I will be arriving in my community where I will spend the next two years of my life. I am so excited and super nervous about it and can't wait until I can share stories with you again. Keep sending those real letters as it may be quite some time before I hit the internet again. (February or March if I'm lucky but definitely in April!) Don't let me down... I hope my email inbox is so full of emails I won't know what to do!
'Ofa 'Aupito,
Mele
P.S. I may manage to send a letter to a friend in the capital and have them update my blog for me.... so this could be updated before I actually reach internet... we'll see how it works out.
Here are the steps I have been taking/will take in the next day to finally reach my site!
1) Shopping: Before moving into the houses, all new volunteers are given a move in allowance. This amount allows us to buy the essentials to living in our site close to a local level. Since most volunteers will be living in the cities and working at secondary schools, they have electricity. Therefore, their shopping list contains things like refrigerators, washing machines, extension cords, water heaters, etc. My list however was quite different. I spent the majority of my shopping time rushing around to different stores looking for the cheapest buckets and large Tupperware containers. The best part however, was definitely the purchase of my new machete. Let's just say I felt pretty hard core walking around the store with it.... until I reached the cash register and was laughed at for being a girl buying a machete! :)
2) Swearing-in: A key step in reaching site. It wasn't until this ceremony that I became an official volunteer. I was dressed in the wrap skirt/outfit thing that was given to me by my host family. I think headed to a language instructor's house where she finished my outfit by wrapping a taouvala, (which is a fancy, woven mat,) around my waist. (Pictures to come someday... I promise!) The ceremony was great and the entire group 75 took the oath to defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and became official Peace Corps Volunteers.
3) Packing: After a lot of shopping, repacking everything proved to be quite difficult. Most things will be shipped up on the boat and therefore had to be packed well and left at the Peace Corps office. Conveniently, the boat that everything will be shipped on is the same boat I will be riding to site. (More on that in step 6.) The most difficult part however was packing all the books I took from the Peace Corps library. Since I am living on a ridiculously small island, I will be filling A LOT of time reading books. As many of you know, I go through books quickly when I'm busy so trying to pack for 3 months worth of reading proved nearly impossible. But after many tries and sharing books with my closest site mate (40 min boat ride away,) I managed to do it. (Still love getting books in the mail to offset this problem!!!)
4) Saying Goodbye to Other Volunteers: Group 75 has been together for quite some time. After meeting in LA at staging, traveling to Tonga and going through all of training together, we are now split up for the first time. Many new friends have headed off to various parts of Tonga and we will not see each other again until our training in April. Most volunteers are placed closer to a group on a main island but another PCV and I are headed out on our own to the outer, outer islands. WOO HOO!
5) Nofo pe: The Tongan term for "just staying." The original plan was for me to take the Pulupaki late Wednesday night after the swearing-in ceremony and arrive early Thursday morning. Unfortunately, a cyclone decided it was going to make a beeline for Tonga and therefore delayed any boat travel. While the cyclone eventually died down and was only a tropical depression by the time it hit us, the Pulupaki was still delayed by 4 days. So while the rest of my group has headed to site, us outer island girls are still here in the capital and "nofo pe" until 2am tonight/tomorrow morning when the boat leaves. Luckily this meant 4 days of per diem cash that buys us great meals and things like Dr. Pepper which I found at the American store here in the capital! While those treats have been fun, I am more than ready to get to my site and meet the people who will be my community for the next two years! Less than 9 hours now!
6) Ride the Pulupaki: There is only one boat in Tonga that travels between the different island groups. The Pulupaki is a barge type of boat that they use to ship freight and people. It is the only way to get to the small cluster of islands that I will be living in and it only travels once a week. I will be bringing a mat and sleeping bag since I am traveling in the middle of the night and there aren't chairs to sit in. Additionally, it has been recommended that I don't eat/drink anything prior to boarding the boat since the toilets are pretty shallow and the boat rocks a lot............ And this is my method of travel for the next two years! :)
7) Disembark from the Pulupaki: The "main island" in my island grouping is actually too small to have a wharf big enough and the Pulupaki can't actually pull all the way up to the island. Therefore, the method of disembarking supplies and people from the Pulupaki is to use a large number of small boats that go out and meet it in deeper water. The supplies are then thrown off the large boat and into the smaller ones. The people half jump, half climb off the Pulupaki into their designated small boat. Apparently it looks like a crazy circus as everyone is doing this at the same time. I will take pictures and share them next time I have internet! :)
8) Ride Smaller Boat: I will be picked up off the boat by my village and they will be assisting me with all of my things. The best part is that my program director has asked the youth boys in my village to come and assist me. For those of you have heard about the dating scene here... the boys will either flirt awkwardly or ignore me completely. All of this attention after riding for 7 hours in the boat and most likely being ridiculously motion sick. As the Tongan's say... Oiaue! (Pronounced... oy-ya-way)
Following all of those steps, I will be arriving in my community where I will spend the next two years of my life. I am so excited and super nervous about it and can't wait until I can share stories with you again. Keep sending those real letters as it may be quite some time before I hit the internet again. (February or March if I'm lucky but definitely in April!) Don't let me down... I hope my email inbox is so full of emails I won't know what to do!
'Ofa 'Aupito,
Mele
P.S. I may manage to send a letter to a friend in the capital and have them update my blog for me.... so this could be updated before I actually reach internet... we'll see how it works out.
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Top 10... or maybe 11
So after large amounts of contemplation, I finally decided on a way to post a blog that would sum up my time here without boring you all. :) So here are my top ten (or maybe 11) things you should know when picturing me and my new life in Tonga.
1. Here comes the heat! Summer is on its way and the sun likes to surprise us late morning by fighting off the clouds and relentlessly freckling my skin. The humidity then decides it can't be weaker than the sun and causes all Palangi's (white people technically but often used for all PC,) to feel gross and excessively sticky.
2. Related to heat, I was planning for school in my room the other day when I felt warm and walked into the rest of the house where there was a breeze. My family asked if I was OK, (as they do anytime I am not sleeping, eating or going to school.) I told them it was warm in my room so I was just taking a break. (Which I might add, I spoke entirely in Tongan.) Following my statement, a fury of rapidly spoken Tongan began way beyond my comprehension. My host sister began searching the house and when dissatisfied, disappeared for a few minutes. Upon her return, she had 3 of my little host cousins trailing her, the last of which was carrying a standing, oscillating fan tha twas ast all as he was. Now imagine a fan in America, add dirt and spider webs, remove the front cover, and add a loud clicking noise. :) It was very sweet and I will certainly not be telling them that my room is still hot! :) (Side note... I learned the next day that the word I used for hot also means "sweltering." oops!)
3. There's a mouse, (or perhaps many,) that hang out in my room. However every time I tell my family, it disappears. Pretty sure they think I'm crazy. They believed me when there was one in the toilet though!
4. You know you're adjusting when you like the moko's (little lizards that chirp like birds... seriously!) and large spiders hanging around because they eat the mosquitos and annoying insects.
5. While I'm on that subject, you can draw constellations on my legs. Enough said.
6. There is nothing like sitting on a beach with other trainee's around a bonfire, mixing drinks with fresh coconut milk and pineapple slices and then drining straight out of the coconut.
7. So I definitely thought I was leaving camp songs! When my family/neighbors learned I play guitar, they were insistant that I learn them a song for church. (Remember this is a very religious culture.) If I have to sing "Living Water" one more time.........
P.S. Would someone from camp please send me a song book?!?!
8. "Accidental Moa's." My term for the two boys in my village that somehow became my boyfriends. I think I clarified now that in America we can be just friends with boys but my Tongan isn't good enough to know for sure. (Further explanation probably necessary... let's just say the "dating scene" here is like being back in middle school.) Not going to lie though, when one of my "moa's" brought me a plate of crab, fish and lobster he caught the night before, I wasn't complaining!
9. Just because I can introduce myself, talk about food, family and where I am going does NOT mean I am fluent! Must you laugh every time I ask you to slow down...?
10. Technical training= 8 hours a day for 1 week sitting on a hard bench and learning teaching methodologies and how to plan a lesson. Didn't I do this once before? For 4 years perhaps....? Sudoku anyone?
11. The kids are way to cute and I feel like a rockstar when I walk into the school where I am practicing. I'm becoming very "faka-Tonga" (like a Tongan,) because my response t them all yelling my ame is the ever popular up-nod with a simultaneous eyebrow raise. It's a very common response that has nothing to do with hitting on people and isn't very natural for us Americans. (Try it, up-nod once and raise your eyebrows in one motion. :))
So there it is... the top 11 things that will help you picture my life in Tonga!
'Ofa Aupito,
Mele
1. Here comes the heat! Summer is on its way and the sun likes to surprise us late morning by fighting off the clouds and relentlessly freckling my skin. The humidity then decides it can't be weaker than the sun and causes all Palangi's (white people technically but often used for all PC,) to feel gross and excessively sticky.
2. Related to heat, I was planning for school in my room the other day when I felt warm and walked into the rest of the house where there was a breeze. My family asked if I was OK, (as they do anytime I am not sleeping, eating or going to school.) I told them it was warm in my room so I was just taking a break. (Which I might add, I spoke entirely in Tongan.) Following my statement, a fury of rapidly spoken Tongan began way beyond my comprehension. My host sister began searching the house and when dissatisfied, disappeared for a few minutes. Upon her return, she had 3 of my little host cousins trailing her, the last of which was carrying a standing, oscillating fan tha twas ast all as he was. Now imagine a fan in America, add dirt and spider webs, remove the front cover, and add a loud clicking noise. :) It was very sweet and I will certainly not be telling them that my room is still hot! :) (Side note... I learned the next day that the word I used for hot also means "sweltering." oops!)
3. There's a mouse, (or perhaps many,) that hang out in my room. However every time I tell my family, it disappears. Pretty sure they think I'm crazy. They believed me when there was one in the toilet though!
4. You know you're adjusting when you like the moko's (little lizards that chirp like birds... seriously!) and large spiders hanging around because they eat the mosquitos and annoying insects.
5. While I'm on that subject, you can draw constellations on my legs. Enough said.
6. There is nothing like sitting on a beach with other trainee's around a bonfire, mixing drinks with fresh coconut milk and pineapple slices and then drining straight out of the coconut.
7. So I definitely thought I was leaving camp songs! When my family/neighbors learned I play guitar, they were insistant that I learn them a song for church. (Remember this is a very religious culture.) If I have to sing "Living Water" one more time.........
P.S. Would someone from camp please send me a song book?!?!
8. "Accidental Moa's." My term for the two boys in my village that somehow became my boyfriends. I think I clarified now that in America we can be just friends with boys but my Tongan isn't good enough to know for sure. (Further explanation probably necessary... let's just say the "dating scene" here is like being back in middle school.) Not going to lie though, when one of my "moa's" brought me a plate of crab, fish and lobster he caught the night before, I wasn't complaining!
9. Just because I can introduce myself, talk about food, family and where I am going does NOT mean I am fluent! Must you laugh every time I ask you to slow down...?
10. Technical training= 8 hours a day for 1 week sitting on a hard bench and learning teaching methodologies and how to plan a lesson. Didn't I do this once before? For 4 years perhaps....? Sudoku anyone?
11. The kids are way to cute and I feel like a rockstar when I walk into the school where I am practicing. I'm becoming very "faka-Tonga" (like a Tongan,) because my response t them all yelling my ame is the ever popular up-nod with a simultaneous eyebrow raise. It's a very common response that has nothing to do with hitting on people and isn't very natural for us Americans. (Try it, up-nod once and raise your eyebrows in one motion. :))
So there it is... the top 11 things that will help you picture my life in Tonga!
'Ofa Aupito,
Mele
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