Adventures

During the first two weeks of June, my students from the catering school were working in local restaurants doing their practical work experience. The last two weeks are the mid-year school break, so I have had lots of free time this month for adventuring. Here are some of my favorites!

1. Camping on a deserted island

To celebrate several birthdays, most of the Peace Corps volunteers in Vava’u, a few Tongan friends, and a friend from New Zealand took a trip out to a little island called Vaka’eitu. Local stories about this island say that the village that used to be there relocated because it is haunted. A former chief found his wife cheating on him with another man and murdered her. Now her spirit haunts the island. Despite the stories, we had a great time there swimming, playing volleyball, and hanging out around our beach bonfire.

2. The Magic Circus of Samoa

Last week, Vava’u hosted a travelling circus from Samoa that has been visiting all the different island groups of Tonga. Some of the acts included juggling, tightrope walking, clowns, trapeze, and magic tricks. Unfortunately no animals since they don’t travel very well on the boat. At one point, I was called up on stage and I was serenaded by a dwarf clown. Definitely a unique experience!

3. Aloha Night

Last weekend, my boyfriend invited me to a social night hosted by the Catholic youth. The theme for the dance was “Aloha Night”, so we had matching, Hawaiian-themed clothes made for the event. It was much more formal that I anticipated. There was an opening processional march and a waltz competition. However, the youth are very fond of disco (western-style dancing) so there was plenty of that too. My boyfriend and I won two awards: best clothing and king and queen. I have to keep practicing my waltz so next year we can win that one too!


4. Mala Island

Mala is a small resort island, only a 5 minute boat ride from the beach on the main island. A lovely family stays there; a Serbian man, Tongan wife, and 3 beautiful children with a 4th on the way soon. We went to spend the day swimming and relaxing and hopefully enjoying some yummy food. When we inquired about food, the owner replied, “You can use the kitchen. You are Peace Corps, figure it out!” So, that’s exactly what we did. We cooked an awesome dinner and enjoyed our food as we watched the sunset.

5. Holonga

Last Thursday, I went with Ashley, Farfum, Carolyn, and Sephora on a bike trip to Holonga look-out point and beach. We rode bikes most of the way there (about a 45 minute ride) with the exception of some rather large hills. We then hiked up to the look-out point, which is an incredible view of the ocean and surrounding cliffs and beaches. We had a photo shoot and picnic at the top. Our next stop was the beach where we got to swim and cool off after lots of fakamalohisino (exercise). One the journey back we got a bit dirty. Well, actually we were covered in mud. Regardless, it was a fabulous day and it reminded me of the beauty of Tonga.

Next adventure...my dad in Tonga!!!!! I can't wait =)

50 Years of Peace Corps

This year marks the 50th anniversary of Peace Corps, so countries around the world are celebrating in a variety of ways. In Tonga, the volunteers and staff on the main island had a big event where several past volunteers shared their stories and lots of important people made speeches. Here in Vava'u, we are a little more chill, so we had some less formal celebrations. Our first event was a clean-up at the Neiafu market. The Vava'u volunteers, several Peace Corps staff members, a couple University of the South Pacific Students, and some Tongan children all participated.

Part 2 of our celebration was a dinner at a local restaurant. We invited our Tongan counterparts to come to share in our evening as well. Our country director gave a speech about Peace Corps in Tonga, and volunteers and counterparts shared about the experiences with Peace Corps. There were so many positive stories...it was really encouraging! Hopefully there will be many more years of Peace Corps and many more postive stories to share.

Kaukau Tuitui

One of my most recent discoveries in Tonga is something called kaukau tuitui. In Tongan, kaukau means to shower and tuitui is a small nut. In order to use the tuitui to clean yourself, there are several steps. 1. take a hammer to crack open the nuts 2. use a knife to get the nut out from inside the shell 3. put the chunks of tuitui in your mouth 4. chew together with good-smelling leaves (usually cinnamon) 5. use the finished product as a soap, rubbing out all the dirt from your skin. It's a great exfoliant!

Help Camp GLOW!

Camp GLOW (Girl's Leading Our World) is a camp that many Peace Corps countries run which promotes leadership among girls. Our Camp GLOW is going to be held in September, and we still have lots of fundraising to do. Please help us meet our goals! Check out this website for more information and how you can donate. Feel free to contact me with any questions!

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=donate.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=421-128

Library Fun Day

This Saturday morning was fun day at the Vava'u public library...woooo! Fun day consists of lots of carnival games, food, and music. There are lots of local businesses that sponsor the event and the food and games also raise money. I helped out at the food table selling some yummy baked goods. There was also a cake walk and a pinata. The kids had a great time and the volunteers had fun, too!

Some other fun activities that started recently are the college rugby and netball games. Rugby is the sport of choice in Tonga, and it seems like the whole island comes out to watch the games. Rugby is really important to the boys because it offers opportunities for them to get scholarships and jobs overseas. They take it very seriously! The girls play a sport called netball which is a combination of basketball and handball. Players shoot baskets, but there is no dribbling and you can't run when you have the ball. It looks really fun, even though I have yet to attempt playing. Both the rugby and netball games are very fun to watch, and I'm excited to see which school wins the championship this year.

Another exciting event that just started in Vava'u is the annual Church of Tonga conference. Members of that church from all the islands groups, Australia, New Zealand, and America have gathered for a week long conference. Everyday there are church services, meetings, and tons and tons of food.

A quick update on my music class...they now know 3 notes on their recorders! Perhaps soon they will learn a song. Or perhaps not, hahaha.

Hey It's May

Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms reading, especially my mom. Ofa lahi atu (lots of love to you)!

A quick note about last week's entry; children's Sunday, or "Faka Me" in Tongan, is held the first Sunday in May every year. The children do the scripture readings, songs, and prayers...basically everything except the sermon. All the kids did a fantastic job!

This Sunday was Sapate Fa'e a.k.a. Mother's Day. To celebrate, Tongans do almost everything the same as American families. The moms are given gifts and honored during the church services. The only difference is that Tongan moms receive flower and candy necklaces. We don't usually have flower necklaces in Pennsylvania!

This week in school, I taught a unit about diversity. It was a challenging topic to cover because Tonga is such a homogeneous society. Racially there is little diversity, and the same is true for religious diversity. However, we also covered topics like age, special needs, and gender, all of which the students experience on a daily basis.

One of the interesting subjects we talked about was the gender roles of Tonga's third gender, fakaleitis. Check out this website for an explanation of fakaleiti: http://www.tongaatoz.com/f.html There are many fakaleitis working in the hospitality industry, and it is likely the students will work with them in the future. We talked about showing respect for our co-workers, regardless of gender, age, religion, or any other area of diversity.

Another fun class that I started teaching recently is a music class at a kindergarten. We are learning to play recorders, which can be a little painful on the eardrums at times. However, the kids are adorable, and I really enjoy teaching them. I also get to sing all the fun songs my mom and dad taught me growing up..."Little Bunny Foo-Foo" and "The Beehive" are two favorites!

Children's Sunday