During my time as a PCV, I became concerned about Peace Corps’ approach to sexual assault response protocol, prevention, and training. I am now an active member of the First Response Action Coalition (firstresponseaction.blogspot.com). First Response Action is a coalition of both returned and current Peace Corps Volunteers with a mission to support PCVs who [...]
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Our time in Tonga has come to an end. There would be too many people to possibly thank in one blog post. We are so grateful for the kindness and support we received from friends, family, fellow Peace Corps Volunteers, and co-workers during our time in the Kingdom. I was 29 when [...]
I wanted to give a few updates from the past few weeks. Two winners of the prestigious “Commonwealth Writers’ Prize” happened to be in Tonga after receiving their awards in New Zealand. The authors, Marina Endicott and Mandla Langa, were only in the Kingdom for a couple of days. I was fortunate enough to set [...]
Obviously this blog is specifically about our experiences as Peace Corps Volunteers in the Kingdom of Tonga, but this post is about a different topic. I wanted to share a story about health care in the United States. Of course this is a controversial political issue. Yet for many working class Americans, it [...]
Well my main position here at the Ministry has always been IT, but since Lara’s departure, I was able to transition over to GIS. It’s a great time and I really enjoy working with Richard, Seli, Leilika, and Maka. We have a good time and I have actually felt like I have had [...]
In 2008, when Karen and I lived in Ha’apai, we were notified that we were to receive a mandatory flu shot from Peace Corps. Personally I have a problem with being told that I have to have a shot and not to mention that it makes me sick every single time, so I fought [...]
I wanted to share a link to the blog of a fellow Peace Corps Volunteer in Tonga. Sarah completed her service here about six months ago, and compiled a list “25 Reasons you Know you Volunteered in Tonga.” It is hilarious, and totally worth a read. http://sarahsfakafabulousblog.blogspot.com/
Teaching has been incredibly challenging lately. The Ministry of [...]
We have gotten a bit behind at posting photos, so I thought this blog post would mostly include some of our favorite images over the past few months. They of course don’t capture the full picture of our lives here, but I wanted to share them anyway. There isn’t an enormous amount to report [...]
So here were the two main stories in the Nuku’alofa newspaper this week.
1) A man was acquitted by a magistrate Court Judge of a quite horrendous domestic violence charge because his wife “provoked him” into brutally beating her with hedge clippers.
2) A primary teacher, to break up a fight, hit a child 20 times with [...]
Well, our New Zealand trip is completed. The weather started clouding over, so we left the hiking trails and headed in for some city life. We had a beautiful view of the harbor and mountains from our room in the capital city of Wellington, but it wasn’t entirely restful because someone pulled the [...]
FYI– The South Island of New Zealand is INCREDIBLE!! Just being here makes us feel humbled by nature. We left Lake Tekapo and went over to Aoraki/Mt. Cook. At 3755m, it is the tallest peak in Australasia. The Maori name, Aoraki, means Cloud Piecer. It is absolutely mesmerizing and majestic. Seriously, I could have gazed [...]
We flew into Christchurch and had a great visit with our friend Justin! He’s a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer from Tonga, who has resettled in NZ. Christchurch had great food, great beers, and lots of shopping. It is a beautiful city, with a huge amount of green space, large side walks, intricate [...]
Well our flight was delayed until the afternoon of the 21st, which was fine because we got a good nights sleep and got a ride with Peace Corps to the airport.
Air New Zealand is awesome. They have these killer little personal entertainment devices in the back of each seat and you can watch TV, Movies, [...]
Well, Karen and I woke up to a really large earthquake this morning lasting from 35-45 seconds. From the feel of past earthquakes, I would have guessed that it was in the mid 6. magnitude by the time it got to us. My dad called and said that CNN was reporting it as a 7.9 [...]
So I guess you could say that just about anyone on the north side of Tongatapu who has been paying attention has noticed a huge plume of steam rising out of the ocean just to north east of A’tata. It’s pretty darn amazing and us in Nuku’alofa are about 65-70km away so imagine what it [...]
So yesterday at work I came back from lunch and my coworkers said that the Peace Corps office had called and said that I was invited to attend an official event with the King. This event just so happened to be where the new U.S. Ambassador to Fiji, and the region, presents his credentials [...]
One component of this experience that I will always treasure is the exposure to South Pacific writers. It is a genre that I knew very little about prior to my time in Tonga. I wanted to share another poem by Dr. Konai Helu Thaman. Gender, culture, and tradition are often themes in [...]
Well Karen and I are finally getting over the crazy tropical illness that we both had for the past 8 days. We were both on IV’s for multiple days and it was violent on our GI systems. We are just now getting back to normal and feeling like we can eat solid food. [...]
Well, I’m home sick for the eighth day in a row. Scot now has the same stomach virus. We are definitely better than we were, but still far from where we would like to be! Getting sick here is just really brutal. At least I am well enough to surf the [...]
Well what has happened since our last post….???
We made it through another Peace Corps training (MST), which could be described as similar to teeth pulling or watching grass grow or some combination of the two. I did make a few good contacts though.
We got a cat. He/she was really cute and we were feeding it [...]
This blog post has been brewing for a couple of weeks now! We just returned from two and a half weeks in Fiji, and there is much to say about our time on the main island of Viti Levu! Wow, what an amazing country.. Fiji is a short plane ride from Tonga (about an hour [...]
Well part of Vava’u burned yesterday. It destroyed a number of buildings downtown, but luckily no one was reported being hurt. It’s a real bummer. We haven’t heard how the fire started.
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Why oh why can I not escape politics?! This post is a candid reflection, which may be a tad controversial. But I am nothing if not opinionated, so here goes… Did you know that Tonga was a member of the “Coalition of the Willing?” Yes, it is true. In June 2004, [...]
By Scot. Well as my time here is progressing along, I am getting into more and more interesting things. As many of you know I am currently working for a Ministry office, which is like working for the Department of … in the States. I am mainly doing IT work, but now various things are [...]
I thought I’d write a blog post about a random evening here. It isn’t anything particularly exciting, but I thought that maybe some of you would find it interesting! Last Friday I finally felt well enough to leave the house, after being sick for two weeks. We decided to go eat dinner at one of [...]
We just wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to our friends and families back home! This year was our second turkey day in Tonga. A group of Peace Corps Volunteers got together for a pot-luck dinner to celebrate. We all tried to make it as “traditional American” as possible, with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc. I [...]
Well, now that the U.S. Presidential election is over, this blog will most likely return to postings about Tonga. I know our readers will miss my incessant left-wing rants (haha!), so maybe I’ll occasionally have to sneak something in for fun:) I will say that experiencing this election in Tonga has further shaped my belief [...]
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