Saturday, July 11, 2009

Last week marked the beginning of Term Three. It is hard for me believe that I’m already through half of the school year, and to be honest, this is a great feeling. As I may have mentioned before, I have a whole new respect for teachers. Teaching is exhausting, frustrating, requires hours of planning and at times the language barrier is just plain confusing. However, as I’m beginning to realize, it is also very rewarding. When we moved to our village, my students spoke no English, but now, 6 months later, they are on their way to becoming little English chatterboxes. They’ve made leaps of progress! As I walk around our village in the evening I often hear them saying English words and phrases, which makes me smile proudly. I want to take this opportunity to thank those who have sent me books/school supplies. When I bring a new book to class the children smile so widely and giggle with excitement.

Chad and I both had two weeks off between Term 2 and Term 3 so we decided to take a much-needed mini-vacation to Tongatapu and ‘Eua. We spent a few days in Nuku’alofa getting medical check-ups and then took a two-hour ferry to ‘Eua. We sat on the top of the boat, and despite getting a little wet, really enjoyed ourselves. The ferries in Tonga are nothing like ferries in America—they are much smaller, very old and pretty rocky. Despite their proximity to the ocean, Tongans get seasick very easily, which can be a little gross.

‘Eua was incredible. We spent the first night catching up with a few of the ‘Eua volunteers. The next day, Jenny, our good friend from training, took us hiking all over the island. It was great to be in the middle of nowhere. We went on an eight-mile hike the first day. We went to a few look outs that were about 500 feet above the ocean and you could see straight down. The views were spectacular with the ocean crashing into the shore below. ‘Eua has gigantic wild parrots that are blue and green and you hear them squawking and see them flying as you walk through the forest. We also went to rats cave, where you have to crawl through a small whole, which then opens up to a large cave that is on the edge of a huge cliff. We were dead after the hike so we walked back to Jenny’s and made a big dinner and crashed.

The next day we went camping with 3 of the volunteers from ‘Eua, Phil a volunteer from Ha’apai and two visitors to the island. We went to to a remote beach on the northern end of ‘Eua to camp for the night. The hike down to the beach was amazing. It was part rock climbing and part hiking. It reminded me a lot what people say New Zealand looks like. The beach was amazing! We drank green coconuts and made a big fire and relaxed the night away. A couple days later we returned to Nuku’alofa. We had to catch the boat back at 3:30 in the morning. The return ride was pretty rocky and we both almost got sick, but luckily we pulled through. When we got back to Nuku’alofa we stocked up on so much food that we had to pay extra at the airport because our bags were so heavy. It was well worth the added expense because we got a bunch of things that are not available in Vava’u. Our time away rejuvenated us to return to our village. It was so nice to have some anonymity—something we certainly don’t have in our village and really not in Neiafu either—and enjoy the other islands in the Kingdom.

When we got back to Talihau we found out that a woman in our village died while we were away. We knew something was going on before we were even told because a large area of land had been cleared and the village was extra quiet—no children playing outside, no men playing rugby or volleyball, etc. A putu (funeral) is a big deal in Tonga, and I hope that my description of it in this blog does it justice. After a person dies, their body is taken to the morgue at the hospital and frozen. The time between the death and the funeral is not only a period of mourning but also a period of lots of planning and hard work. During this week all activities not related to the putu cease, including weaving.

In Tonga, multi-generations of family live in one home. In this case, the woman who died lived with her daughter, son-in-law and six grandchildren (a typical Tongan house has one big open room, sometimes an additional “bedroom” and a kitchen, which is generally a small detached room; most families all sleep on the floor in the same room). In preparation for the putu, the family clears out the main room of the house and covers the wall in while linens, which is where the body of the deceased will lay during the day of the putu.

The night before the putu the deceased’s female relatives and the women in the village sit outside the morgue and sing all night long. On the morning of the putu, the frozen body is transported back to the village and laid in the family’s house. Mourners begin to show up around 8 AM and continue to arrive by the carloads all day long. The people attending the putu always bring gifts—tapa, cloth, toiletries, mats, pigs, cows, etc. Upon arriving at the putu, it is customary to sit outside the house until the group of people ahead of you has visited with the body. When it is your turn to go inside, you bring your gifts and lay them down beside the deceased. Typically, there are a few relatives in the room, including a young girl who is in charge of maintaining the body and the fahu, the highest ranking woman in the family. When it is your turn, you kiss the forehead of the body. Once your group exits, the gifts are all moved to another room.

Upon exiting, you take a seat under one of the many tents that have been set up and wait to be served a plastic bag of food—typically chicken, beef, pork, hot dogs and some root crop. Based on your closeness to the deceased, after you eat you either hang out and wait for the burial, help prepare food/clean up or join the rotating chorus of about 50 women (and sometimes a few men) who sit outside the house and sing all day long. It is amazing to watch the men and women of the village all gather together and help the family. The men stay up all night long preparing the food—mostly meat and root crop—while the women prepare the house, the body and sing. Every person—young, old, male and female—has a job, which they do happily, without complaining.

Around 4 PM the body and mourners move to the cemetery (in the village) where a service is held followed by the burial. The family may stay at the cemetery the rest of the evening/night. If the spouse of the person who died had and was buried over 15 years ago, his or her bones are dug up and reburied in the same grave as the person who just died. It is common for a family to place plastic flowers and hang a quilt at the grave of a family member. The colorful quilt is left hanging all the time and replaced when worn out. The family continues to visit the grave for weeks after the putu is over.

After the burial everyone returns to the food tent and is given raw meat to take home. At this time, everyone except the family is free to go home. A typical putu lasts for three days. The viewing of the body/burial is the first day, which is followed by two days of mourning, singing and eating by the family. From the time of death to a few days after the burial the whole village dresses in black. The family continues to wear black for weeks to months depending on their relationship to the deceased. When a close relative—a spouse, child or parent—dies, the survivor wears black every day for a year. Close, lower-ranked relatives of the deceased wear gigantic funeral mats for three days. After the burial, the highest-ranking female in the family can tell the other women in the family to cut their hair, which is sometimes woven to make a rope for tying up the mat.

Chad and I have now experienced two putus in our village as well as a few in other villages. Death in Tonga is looked at so differently than we Americans view it. In American, upon hearing that somebody died, one may ask many questions. What happened? How did she die? Was she sick? How is her family? In Tonga, death is very matter-of-fact and these sorts of questions are rarely asked.

It is hard to believe that we’ve been gone for almost 10 months already. My parents will be here in less than two months and we are so excited for them to see our village and meet the people who have so graciously welcomed us in to their lives.

It is Saturday night and Katie and I are just relaxing on the floor reading and now blogging. We don’t have any living room furniture. Most Tongan homes don’t. Everyone just sits on the floor and a lot of Tongans sleep on the floor as well. Our furniture consists of a little cushion mat and a plastic chair that doesn’t have any legs, so it sits right on the ground. These legless chairs are quite popular at kava. They make sitting on the ground easier and they are surprisingly comfortable. I am especially looking forward to taking the legless wonder to kava. It is killer on my knees sitting Indian style for 3 or 4 hours even when I’m drinking a mild narcotic. I often cheat and sit with one leg out and one folded Indian style. Well my favorite chair was also Mango’s favorite place to sit. I don’t know how to bring this up, so I will just say it. Mango was hit by a car last Saturday night and he died. I will spare the details because they are just too awful. It was one of the saddest things I have ever witnessed. Katie and I are crushed. He was our best friend and slept in our bed every night. I love that little guy. Our home is now a little quieter, a little cleaner and a lot sadder. He got us through some rough times adjusting to life here in Tonga and we’ll never forget him for that. This change of events certainly has rocked our world. It has also brought Katie and I closer. It makes you realize how quickly life can change and to appreciate every moment. Ok, I will move on from talking about this unfortunate event, but forever will I carry his memories with me.

Well, what have Katie and I been up to? We have been scuba diving twice in the last two weeks. Katie and I are thinking about getting advanced dive certified, but we wanted to do a few test dives before we invest the money. We had a great dive yesterday. It was the most comfortable that I have felt in the water. We went down to 94 feet, which is crazy to think you have all that water on top of you; it’s pretty cool being down there. I would like to thank Riki for letting us use his equipment for free on both dives. So if anybody ever comes to Tonga please go dive with Riki at Riki Tiki Tours. Most of the businesses in Neiafu are very Peace Corps friendly and give us discounts on food, sailing, diving and whale watching. It is going to be pretty cool here when the whales come through. The humpback whales come here to breed in the warm Tongan waters and they stay from around July to November. Tonga is one of two places in the world that you can swim with the whales. If Katie and I are lucky we may see the whales from the beach in our village. Katie, Steve (another PC volunteer), and I have hiked Mt. Talau a few times in the last few weeks. Mt. Talau is the highest point in Vava’u at 131 meters or roughly 393 feet. That doesn’t seem very high, but it does give you a bird’s eye view of the whole island. It is beautiful up there. There should be some pictures posted from our treks up Talau on our photo web site.

Work has been going great for me. I am starting to adjust to being a teacher, but I don’t think I will pursue this profession when I get back to the States. It is hard being a teacher, which I think I have talked about in a previous blog. My catering school catered a few small events these past couple of weeks, which is great. We have been making a good profit from each event. The money we make goes to the students to help them pay for their ingredients they use during their practical exams. The high schools are in rugby and netball season now. The Tongans take rugby very serious and practice a ton. The team from my school was training in my village today; I went out and talked with them while they were running this giant hill. I noticed a lot of them did not even have shoes on. I don’t know how they do it. The roads are so rocky. Every time I go out without shoes on I look like an old man hunched over walking over hot coals. It does not even seem to faze them. I just think back to when I played football and if I didn’t have spikes, I wasn’t practicing. Here if one kid has a pair of spikes he will give one shoe to his friend and they will share one pair of spikes. It just shows you how communal this culture is; they share everything. A good example is when a kid gets on my bus with a stack of crackers, by the time he gets to his seat he has one left. The kid won’t even be upset about it. He would probably split his last cracker in half if someone else wanted it. It is a wonderful sight to see…not the kid getting his crackers stolen, but the fact that it doesn’t bother him.

I have a new rule that I follow in Tonga. If you feel like you have something crawling on you, then you probably do. I remember back in the states I used to feel like I had something crawling on me and it was always nothing, you know like a phantom itch. In Tonga I feel like I always have something crawling on me and it’s always some kind of bug. It is usually an ant or a mosquito or a centipede or some other kind of random bug that I don’t know the name of. The point is I can’t ignore any tiny itch or anything because most likely there is something crawling on me. Speaking of bugs, Katie and I got another visit from the bed bugs. We thought that we had gotten rid of them, but apparently you can never get rid of them. Our mattress is a hand-me-down 4- inch thick piece of foam. It looks like it has been around since the 70’s. It doesn’t provide that much cushioning either because you can feel the uneven boards that our bed was built with. Throwing your mattress out and getting a new one is the best way to get rid of bed bugs, but since mattresses are extremely expensive in Tonga we can’t do that. A real mattress would be over $1000 US dollars and for a new piece of foam like the one we currently have it would be over $400 Pa’anga, which is around $200 US. That is way more than half of what the Peace Corps gives me to live on per month. So we battled them again and we are hoping this time they will stay away. We did get a hypo-allergenic mattress cover from Katie’s parents (Thank you!) that says it keeps bed bugs in, which means that they will not be able to get out to bite us. So hopefully that will do the trick. Nothing gives you more paranoia than going to sleep dreaming about little bugs biting you and feeding on your blood.

It is March 21, 2009, at about 4 o’clock on a Saturday. I am blogging and updating our pictures while Katie reads next to me. It’s hot and it’s nice to relax to avoid the heat of the day. Today was very productive for Katie and me. We got up early and while we were having our morning cup of coffee a group of 7 piglets were right outside our door. Then Mango, our kitty, discovered them and she would stalk and chase them around, but the piglets didn’t seem to mind. We have attached a bunch of pictures of this because it was quite a sight. After that, I installed a kitty door into our bathroom window. There should be pictures attached of my contraption. With limited resources the project was difficult, but the result was successful. I had to make three ramps that form a Z on the inside wall of our shower and the same thing on the outside wall. Both set of ramps lead up to the bathroom window where I installed a swinging kitty door. I had to use our shower window because all of the other windows have security screen bars over them and thus no exit. The bathroom window only has mosquito screen, so it worked perfect. I thought about making the kitty door in the wall or the door, but I didn’t want to put a hole in anything. Our house is brand new, so I wanted to leave the doors and walls perfectly intact. Plus having the kitty door up high keeps all other critters, like pigs and dogs, out. Katie and I will be in Nuku’alofa for a week, so this way the kitty will be able to come and go as she pleases while we’re gone. Why are we going to Nuku’alofa, you ask? Well Katie and I have IST otherwise known as In Service Training. This is the first time that we will see everyone in our training group since swearing in, and we are very excited to hear how everyone is doing. We have had 4 people go home since we all arrived in Tonga back in October and we currently have 2 other volunteers in Australia that have been medically evacuated, so it won’t be everyone, but almost. I am excited to hear about everyone’s experiences because even though we are all here in Tonga everyone goes through a very different experience. Some people live in bigger cities, some in small villages, and some live way out on outer islands. Not to mention that Tonga has 4 different island groups, which are all very different from each other. After we get done with IST, Katie and I will have a week-long break from school and we are not sure what we will do—maybe just relax and hang out in the village for a week. Oh, back to our productive Saturday, I digress. While I was installing the kitty door, Katie hand-washed the laundry, baked banana oatmeal raisin cookies, and cleaned up the house. What a good little wife! Then we took a walk to the beach, which is about a minute away. We went snorkeling for about an hour. The highlight of the swim was when we saw a group of fish all swimming around a reef. When we got closer we realized that an eel had killed a fish and was feeding on it. It was a big white eel about 3 feet in length and it looked pretty scary. The other fish were all feeding on the leftovers. Then we saw another eel right by it with white and brown stripes. We kept our distance, but it was pretty cool to see them feeding. On our swim back to shore we came across a giant puffer fish—it’s eyes were as big as a silver dollar (that is the biggest round coin I could think of, I am not sure of the last time I have even seen a silver dollar, but I know they are big). The swim was a nice way to cool off from a hot day of housework. On days like today it feels really good to be in Tonga.

The mountainous highs are followed by extreme lows. It seems that this roller coaster ride of an experience has our emotions constantly changing—day to day, week to week, and month to month. Some days I think that life can't get much better—living in this tropical paradise, helping the people of Tonga. Then some days being so far away from home, missing friends and family, and dealing with the stresses of adapting to such a different environment sweep me off the cloud I am riding. There are so many emotions, positive and negative, hitting all at once, which create the peaks and valleys of Peace Corps life. The challenge is riding those waves and not getting too high or too low, but staying in the middle, which of course is hard. Katie and I have each other to carry us through the low moments and someone to celebrate the highs with. I give a lot of credit to the volunteers that are here alone. We have monthly meetings where we talk about the challenges that we are all facing and offer advice to each other. Also, all of us in Vava’u try to get together at least once a month for a little getaway—camping, sailing, etc. In only 5 months, this experience has allowed me to grow as a person and develop skills that I never knew I had. What I say in this blog goes for Katie as well. We go through so much of this together and are continually balancing each other out. I am starting out with this paragraph because so much of our blogs are only about the fun stuff (and yes, we are having a ton of fun) but we want you to get the full, real picture of our experience in Tonga.

That said...Now onto the fun stuff. We have been up to a lot here over the last 3 months and I will try to summarize without leaving out the juicy stuff! We have a new addition to our happy family and her name is Mango— our 4-month old kitten. We found her on one of our walks through our village and she was just too cute not to take home. There are dogs, cats, and pigs running around everywhere. Animals don’t get spayed or neutered here in Tonga, so there is always an extra puppy or kitty that needs a home, but you should never take someone’s pig! You will see plenty of pictures of Mango. Let's see, pretty much the last part of December and the majority of January was spent getting to know our village. Our jobs didn't start until late January. I got on a streak where I would go to kava every Saturday and play sports with the guys in the village every night of the week. Kava has been a lot more fun than I expected. All the men sit in large circles on the ground and pass shells of kava around. They play guitar and sing and have taught me the card game they play. It's called Tifuli (it reminds me of euchre and spades mixed). The men in the village have been very welcoming and help me with speaking Tongan. They play either volleyball or rugby EVERY NIGHT—seriously, they don't miss a night. They love sports! I used to go as much as possible, but after a long day of teaching I am drained and don't have the energy. Katie has started to meet the women of the village and has been invited to weave with them. We have also introduced exercising to some of the women in our village and they join us on our walks. Exercise is relatively unheard of in Tonga. We have become a lot closer with our village over the last three months. For example, Katie was sick a week or so back and women in the village kept bringing her fruit and fresh fish throughout the day. It really cheered her up!

One of the highlights from the last 3 months was our sailing and camping trip. We set sail on a Friday about 1pm with a mix of Peace Corps Volunteers, Japanese Volunteers, and one Australian Volunteer. Getting out on the water and away from Vava’u Lahi (the main island, including our small village) was such a great and much-needed experience. The blue in the water was the most vivid that I have ever seen it. The shades go from dark blue to a light turquoise. We went by a school of jellyfish..there had to be more than 10,000 of them. They are a nonstinging variety, so we stopped and jumped in to swim with them. What an amazing experience!!! We had our masks and snorkels on and when we looked through the water all we could see, in every direction, were jellyfish. We even picked them up and held them. Wow, it was great! After an afternoon of sailing we arrived at an uninhabited island that some friends of ours are planning to build a house on. The island was a gorgeous 2-acre island surrounded by beautiful waters with coral and tropical fish. I saw a small group of baby squid swim by as I swam to shore. I swam with them for as long as I could keep up—until they jetted away. We camped on the island, creating our own little village of tents. We got up the next morning and sailed all day to other uninhabited islands. The trip was truly amazing. It was great to get away from our daily life and see the real beauty of Tonga.

Although 2 years seems like a long time to be gone, our weeks here fly by. We both work Monday through Thursday. After work, Katie and I spend our nights together making great dinners and taking walks around the village. People (back home) always ask what food we eat, so here is a summary. Depending on what is at the market, we get green peppers, cucumbers, onions, green beans, potatoes, eggplant, avocados, lettuce, carrots and Tongan root crop. The avocados are about 4x as big as you get in the States. We have some pictures posted of these monsters! We sometimes get fresh tuna when the boat comes, which is about twice a month. Our village also delivers us fresh reef fish quite often. We also have tofu and chicken every once in a while. We make pasta dishes with lots of veggies, fish/chicken tacos with guacamole, omelets, stir fry, quesadillas, grilled cheese, tuna salad, and whatever else we can think of. We try to eat well even though we end up spending a majority of our monthly allowances on food. Vava'u is the most expensive island group to live in, so we don't really save any money from what Peace Corps give us (which isn’t much). We spend the rest of night after dinner and our walk either reading or watching a movie on our computer. Usually we are pretty tired, so we don't stay up too late.

We have started doing a movie night every other Friday in our village. We are trying to raise money, so we can buy some big garbage cans to put on the beach because Tongans are not the most proactive people when it comes to trash disposal. We hope that the trash will make it into the cans once they are installed. We have enough money raised to buy one can and hopefully we will have enough for a few more in a few months. Our village seems to love the movies. We rent a projector and use a big sheet for a screen. Oh and here is a little tid bit for you...If you ever have a Tongan over to watch a movie, go with Jumanji over Finding Nemo. They were dying of laughter over Jumanji. Our Saturdays consist of our weekly chores: hand washing our laundry (Katie washes and rings and I hang), sweeping out the entire house, shaking the rugs, and whatever else Katie makes us do. I must say that we do have the cleanest house out of any volunteer. We have screens on our windows, so not a lot of bugs get in, although mosquitoes still make their way in somehow. We battle the mosquitoes and flies, but ants our true nemesis. We do daily checks to stop any major invasion and surprisingly we are on the winning side. We sometimes go for a swim after our Saturday cleaning and snorkel over to Mala (a neighboring island) with beautiful coral gardens. Our Saturday nights are spent relaxing. Sundays are devoted to going to church. We rotate between the Church of Tonga and the Wesleyan Church. Then we eat with a different family every Sunday after church. This gives us a chance to meet each family and enjoy the traditional Tongan food. We eat clams, fish, chicken and root crop all prepared the traditional Tongan way in an underground oven called an umu. They build the oven by digging a hole, putting lava rocks in the bottom, lighting a fire on top of the rocks and getting them really hot. Then they remove the fire and place the food—often meat with coconut milk and onions wrapped in taro leaves— wrapped in banana leaves on top and cover the food with a piece of thin metal and then cover that with dirt. Let that bake for a few hours and serve. The rest of our Sunday is spent preparing for the next week of teaching and then relaxing. Katie and I are both going through the growing pains of learning how to teach, and our students don’t speak fluent English, so this adds a degree of difficulty and frustration. Katie will tell you more about her job, so I will take this time to explain mine. I am working at the Wesleyan high school in the main city. My commute is a half hour bus ride. It seems to always be an adventure because Tongans like to play a game called “Let’s see how many people we can fit on the bus.” I counted 15 in a section of the bus that would normally sit 8 comfortably. They are very polite to me and always make sure I have a seat. The riders are all the kids that go to the various high schools in the main city. I have counted more than 45 kids on the bus at one time, but you will never hear a Tongan complain about how they are crammed on the bus. By the way, our bus is about a quarter the size of a normal school bus. If there was a saying in Tonga, it would be “there is always room for 7 more.” So, as I mentioned, I am a teacher. I was brought in as a business volunteer and wound up teaching and doing a little business work. I teach at the catering and hospitality school where I am also trying to start up a catering business. The money we make will go to help the students pay for the school. I also teach form 5 (10th grade) computer class and English a few hours a week to the automotive school. The catering and hospitality school and automotive school are affiliated with the high school, but they are technically a college. I have a newfound respect for teachers. I never knew how hard it actually was to teach. Without the language barrier it would be a lot easier, but I am hanging in there and doing my best. I feel I may have left out some of our adventures over the last three months, so here is Katie with her side of life in Tonga. Take care and we miss you all.

Chad

Malo e lelei! Chad is definitely right; our experience here so far has been quite the rollercoaster ride, although the ride seems to be getting smoother every day. Overall, work is going well and I’m having quite a fun time learning to teach English to students who speak virtually none. My school is about 15 feet from our house, so my commute is about 30 seconds door to door. There are two classes (30 students total)—one consisting of classes 1, 2, and 3, and the other of classes 4, 5, and 6. I spend the majority of my time with classes 4, 5, and 6. Although teaching can be frustrating at times, my kids are really progressing, which makes it all worth it. My kids are absolutely fabulous and are eager to learn and are such a help to me outside the classroom. Yesterday, I went to pick a lime for my water bottle. Upon seeing that I like limes, kids showed up at our door the rest of the day with shirtfulls of limes, oranges, and every other citrus fruit that grows here. In addition to teaching English, I also help teach proper tootbrushing with the MaliMali (Smiling) Program. On Mondays after I am done teaching, I walk/hitchhike to Neiafu (the main city; pop. 7500) where I meet up with a Japanese Dentist and a Tongan Dental Therapist. Together we go to 5 primary schools and teach proper brushing and also provide fluoride rinse. On Tuesdays, the program comes to my school so I actually get to participate with the program twice a week. Tooth decay is a huge problem here, and the Malimali program is a great combination of education and prevention—and fun. The rest of my days I spend hanging out with people in my village—weaving, walking, chatting, etc. Since I spend virtually all of my time in the village, I’m starting to speak Tongan pretty well. Our village is full of wonderful people who are always willing to help or share anything that they have. I feel like part of the family!

A week ago, Chad was right, our nemesis was ants. However, our number one enemy has changed...to bed bugs. Last week I woke up covered in small bug bites. While I itched, Chad laughed. However, that all changed the next morning when Chad woke up covered with the same small dots covering his body. At the time Chad was sick—maybe Dengue Fever, maybe just a bad case of the flu—which took him out of operation for a good two weeks. So, despite his illness, we decided to battle the bed bugs, which entailed washing all of our clothes in dettol and laundry detergent, washing our sheets in boiling water (which we had to boil one small pot at a time), and spraying our mattress with some chemicals and leaving it out in the sun for the afternoon. The battle took about 5 hours, and it seems so far that we were the victors. However, we won’t know for sure for a couple of months, so keep your fingers crossed.

So our little kitten Mango is quite a good friend here in Tonga. What Chad didn’t mention is that she was attacked about a month ago. She is mostly an indoor cat but goes out for a bit each evening to play. One night she came home and I noticed she had blood on her fur. Upon examination, we realized that her entire back leg was sliced open—exposing her muscles, tendons, etc. We were convinced that it would never heal on its own—we even tried to sew it up ourselves, which was totally impossible. When we thought we exhausted all our options—flying her to Nuku’alofa, flying a vet to Tonga. In the end, a man from the Ministry of Agriculture ended up giving us some liquid antibiotics, which we injected in to her neck for about 2 weeks, which prevented infection. She is now fully recovered and happily playing outside again.

In a couple of weeks we’ll be flying back to Nuku’alofa, the capital, for a Peace Corps training event. It will be nice to see all the other volunteers again and also buy some products (chocolate!) that aren’t available in Vava’u.

Be sure to check out our pictures at http://chadkatie2008photos.shutterfly.com/

‘Ofa atu (love to you all),

Katie

P.S.

If you are bored, send us a letter...they make us very happy!

Wow...It has been a while since our last blog...there are a few reasons for this...First, training has taken up a majority of our time...Second, we are now on Tongatapu (the main island of Tonga) and are about a 45 minute drive away from a computer with internet...Third, life here has been a little harder than it was at first and we both wanted to wait to write for fear of being a little down and negative; now everything is bright shinny, and happy so we can look back and laugh about the rough times. Where do I start...There has been so much that has happened...I will try to catch you up. We were in Vava'u for a 6 week home stay...We absolutely love Vava'u..Katie and I believe that it is the most beautiful of all the island groups, although it is the hottest of all the island groups and without air conditioning you are pretty much a sweaty mess all day, but who cares cause everyone else is too. I pretty much have to take a shower at night because you are so sweaty from the day and you don't want to mohe uli, which means sleep dirty in Tongan and you will get teased if you don't shower. So one night I took my shower, put my t-shirt that I wear to bed on, and went to talk to my host mom and sisters. Then I feel a horrible STING in my arm pit...I think that it is a hornet or wasp...then I feel another on my shoulder and slap my shoulder. I feel a big lump and realize something is in my shirt...You aren't supposed to take your shirt off in Tonga...let alone in front of women, but I had to. I ripped my shirt off and there is a centipede on my back. Katie brushes it off and it scurries away before I can stomp on it. It was the worst sting I have had in my life and it wasn't even an adult centipede...they call them Molokau here. They are evil looking creatures and get up to 8 or 10 inches long...This one was only 4, luckily, but it left a few nasty welts. Not a fun night. Now for some good news! Katie and I got our jobs and our site location (our number one choices), which I can email you if you want to know the specifics, but we can’t list our exact location here. We will be in Vava'u and we have one of the top snorkeling spots in Tonga about 30 meters from our house. We are also looking into getting a sea kayak so we can go and explore other islands and camp out on the remote ones. Katie will be teaching at the Governmental Primary School and they are really excited to have her there. I will be working at a technical college that has a catering program/chef school. I will be teaching at the college and help with sales, marketing, and recruitment. There are also have two computer labs that I will help run. I am super excited about this opportunity and it looks like I will learn a ton from it! So, we had our 6 week home stay in Vava'u and then we went to Ha'api for a week and stayed with a current volunteer and shadowed his daily life to get an idea of what our lives will be like as volunteers. That was great and gave us an opportunity to see Ha'api and do some snorkeling there, too! We spent Thanksgiving in Ha’api. The Peace Corps main office shipped us a big turkey and about 15 huge legs and wings. We didn't have anywhere to make all this food, but we got lucky and the Matafonua Lodge owner (GREAT GUY) (http://www.matafonua.com/) let us cook our Thanksgiving meal at the resort. Go here for some pics of the place--it was a picturesque scene! They let me use his kitchen, and let us use the place to have our Thanksgiving dinner. I ended up being the only one who knew anything about cooking, so I made the turkey, 15 huge legs and wings, corn, and gravy with the help of Tongan staff. I am not bragging, but the turkey turned out juicy and wonderful. I was super nervous because I have never cooked for that many people before...While the turkey was baking Katie and I went snorkeling for about an hour. Wow, it was a great thanksgiving!!! That was Ha'api...Good times. We are now back on the main island of Tonga, Tongatapu...We are at the end of a two week home stay and are just a few days from being DONE with training!!!! It has been pretty grueling, even though you guys probably think we are just snorkeling all the time. We are actually in class M-F 830-5p and we can't wait to be done! Our big language test is this Monday and after that we will get officially sworn in as Peace Corps Volunteers!!! Training has been tough and quite a few of us have been sick with stomach problems and various other illnesses. Katie's stomach seems to be getting better despite her bout with intestinal parasites (Giardia) and I have had some open wounds that just won't heal due to the extreme humidity. All and all we are surviving!!! We will FINALLY be at our site around December 18th!!!!!! We can't wait to move into our new home!!!! Please email me or Katie if you want the exact location or other details we left out! I took up all the internet time, so Katie will do the next blog...Thanks for reading and caring!!!! WE MISS ALL OF YOU SO MUCH!!!!! Google Tonga Vava'u and you can see pictures of where we will be the next two years!!! Fakaofaofa (Beautiful)!!!!

Love,

Chad and Katie

Hey Everybody!

Happy Halloween to everybody in the US! What are you dressing up as for Halloween? Please send us pics.

Last night we hung out with some current volunteers in Vava'u and had a great time! It was very nice to just socialize and kick back. We've been very busy with language classes, culture training, etc. Yesterday we also learned how to survive on coconuts if we are ever stranded in the middle of nowhere. I eat SO much coconut…and mango, papaya, pineapple, etc! The fruit here is amazing! We are also really enjoying snorkeling. I cannot believe how many tropical fish we see just floating around. Luckily, we haven’t seen any sharks yet.

Hey people…It’s Chad…Life is good here...We have been doing A LOT of language training through the week…We have a Kalapu tonight though which should be fun…A Kalapu is like a fundraiser..well it is a fundraiser where all the men sit in circles around a big bowl of Kava and we drink Kava out of coconut shells…The single girls serve the Kava to the men and they are called Toa’s...There is usually a few men playing guitar and singing Tongan songs in the corner…Tonight the Peace Corps members in the village will be hosting the Kalapu with all proceeds going to the local school…It should be a good time…I am looking forward to mixing the Kava…you strain it through these big net like things into a big drum….I am not doing a great job of describing this, but I will take pictures, so you can see what it is like. Yesterday we had our survival training and learned how to open coconuts and start a fire incase we are ever stranded somewhere…it was fun…I attempted to climb a coconut tree unsuccessfully…I got about half way up, but it was harder than it looked…Then we walk to another village called Leimatua…we took a walk by to the beach there…they have a botanical garden that we are going to have to go back and see…then I got to play basketball for the first time since I have arrived in Tonga…Then we showered up and went to the Mormon Church to watch some of the girl villagers perform some traditional dances…then I played some volleyball with the guys in the village…they were some of the hardest spikers that I have ever played against…Then as Katie mentioned above we caught a ride into town with some other volunteers and met up with some current volunteers at their place…Good times!...Katie and I would really like to live here in Vava’u for the next 2 years…There is just so much you can do…As I am typing this blog in an internet café, some of the current volunteers just stopped by and told us that they are all going sailing…I can’t wait until we have some free time to partake in such events…Well I am rambling…back to Katies part of the blog….Tokisio!

So we are all very interested in the Election. A couple of the current volunteers arranged for all of us to meet at a bar in Neiafu for an election viewing party! Go Obama!!!!!

We're doing great. We finally uploaded pictures! We hope to label them all later. Hope you like them!!!

xxxooo,

Keiti and Toka

Thanks to everybody who sent us emails! They make me very happy!

Malo e lelei! Chad and I are now in Vava'u for our first homestay. We are located in the village of Ha'alaufuli. It is absolutely GORGEOUS here! For the next 6 weeks we will be staying with the Sanft family who are absolutely wonderful. We got really lucky! We actually have our own little house (fale) next to their house. On our first day in Vava'u, our host was introducing us to all the people in the village and we came across a man riding a horse home from the bush (farming area). The horse had a little baby colt who followed it everywhere it went. Anyways, the man let Chad and I ride the horse (without a saddle) all around, which was so fun. Chad then played rugby with some kids.

I have some big news...I am no longer a vegetarian. There is virtually no protein other than meat here so I decided to eat fish and chicken. So far so good! So a little background info about our daily lives. Right now, we are in training. Each day we have about 6 hours of language training; the rest of the day is spent hanging out with our families, studying. At least one day a week we meet up with the trainees who are staying in other villages for culture training, language tests and safety courses. After our first homestay, we will find out what island group we will be placed on for 2 years. We will then spend a week on that island following a current volunteer around. After that, we got back to the main island, Tongatapu, for a second homestay for 2 weeks. We then go back to Nuku'alofa, the capital, for 5 days. Then, on December 17, we are formally sworn in as volunteers (a big deal!!)!!!

Our first night in Vava'u we were sitting inside our fale studying. When we looked up, we noticed there were 5 geckos (pretty good sized) in our living room. Chad caught the first 4 and took them outside. When he grabbed the 5th one, its tail fell off and fell to the ground and flopped around all over the floor. I was a little shocked. After that night, we've decided to let all the geckos stay because they eat all the bugs (yes, there are lots of them). Luckily, in Vava'u there aren't too many bugs that can hurt you. Lots of mosquitoes, moths and giant cockroaches.

Like Nuku'alofa, there are animals running all over the place here. We have a very friendly kuli (dog) named Anae who LOVES Chad--he hugs Chad's legs and won't let him go inside. Of course, there are also chickens and pigs everywhere!

The past two nights I've gone dancing with my host mom and sisters. They play American rap , traditional Tongan, and rock-and-roll and everyone dances. They also play American songs translated into Tongan, which is hilarious! Again, we'll upload pictures as soon as we can.

Last night Chad and I took a beautiful little hike down a cliff to the ocean. The views are absolutely spectacular (pictures will come soon, we promise). As we were walking along the ocean we both kept saying that we can't believe we are finally here.

We are having such a great time and are really enjoying learning all about the Tongan way of life!

Please email us...we'd love to hear from you!!! Katiebarge@gmail.com

XXXOOO

Malo e lelei......It is day three in Tonga for Katie and me. We landed last Thursday morning in Apai, the capital of Samoa, at 5am after a 10 hour flight...I had originally thought it was going to be a 15 hour flight, but I am glad I was wrong.....after sleeping for most of the plane ride my back was killing. We really didn’t get to see much in Samoa...it was just a lay over before we caught our flight to Tonga. We landed in Tonga at about 8am in the morning. We were greeted by a bunch of the Peace Corps current volunteers, the director of the Peace Corps in Tonga, and the other Peace Corps staff here in Tonga....They were very excited to see us and we were very tired, but still very excited to see them and be in Tonga. We got on a bus and they threw our bags on the back of a truck. Things that day were kind of a blur. We got to the place were we will be staying for the next 5 days in Nuku Olofa the capitol of Tonga...it’s nothing like I would have imagined....In Tonga, there are wild dogs, pigs and chickens/roosters everywhere...We do not need an alarm clock because there is a rooster that crows every morning outside our window....If Katie would let me I would hunt him down because he is non-stop from about 5am to 730am....I still manage to sleep through most of it, but if it is not the roosters it’s the dogs barking or the town bell ringing...I am going to have to start sleeping with ear plugs I think....The place we are staying at is nice though....not 5 star hotel nice, but we have our own bathroom and bedroom....breakfast is made for us each morning and we eat with the other 22 volunteers and then we all walk to the Peace Corps training facility....I will get back to training... but back to after we landed the first day, we put our bags in the room and we were taken to a Kava BBQ at the directors house...He has a beautiful place right on the ocean, not too far from the royal palace, which is also very beautiful....We got to participate in our first Kava ceremony which is a HUGE tradition in Tonga...I didn’t think the Kava tasted that bad...but it didn’t taste that good either, it did make my tongue a little numb, but that’s about it...apparently you have to drink 8 to 10 cups before you really feel it....it was very interesting to see how the ceremony takes place....Then we had a nice BBQ and met the current Volunteers....We also got to talk a lot with the director who is a very nice man...After the BBQ we walked into the downtown area, but it is not like a big city down town, but it does have a huge farmers market, restaurants, shops, a post office, police station and some other things...The Tongan people are so nice and friendly....oh on the walk home we saw a Momma pig and her three piglets following her...Katie tried to take a picture, but I am not sure if it took or not....since then I have saw about 4 other momma pigs and their piglets and probably 50 or 60 dogs running around....We went into some shops and I bought my first Tupanu...it is like a very long skirt that wraps around and ties...I would have thought that I would hate it, but it is so hot and humid because it is summer here that where it is very nice and airy...the guys all like it over where pants...we don’t think that it would catch on in America though, but some the guys joked about bringing theirs back with them to where at home....speaking of the other guys...I really like everyone in our group...guys and girls...we haven’t known each other long, but we are all already bonding...After we got our skirts...oh by the way this is still Thursday the day we landed...it was a long day...we all went and got cell phones....who would have thought that we would have a cell phone on a tropical island in the Peace Corps, but it is actually really cheap to get a phone here...only 39 Pa’anga...or about 20 US dollars....that includes a Solar charger and the phone...then we just buy pay as you go phone cards....it is a little expensive to call the states, so don’t expect a lot of calls, but you can call us and i will give out that phone number in an email when I have time...So the next day we had training all day and met all of the other Peace Corps staff...lots of new names and faces to remember and a new language...The current PC Volunteers came buy after training Friday night and gave a Straight Talk Sex Ed class to us....they broke up the single men, single women, and then the married couples...there are three total married couples...this gave everyone a chance to ask all the questions that we wouldn’t normally ask the PC staff...it was very beneficial...Katie and I then went out with a bunch of the current volunteers and got to hear about their stories from the past year or past few years...it was a fun time.....just to let you know the Tongan prices....Katie and I had a 4 beers total and a big Veggie pizza and it was only 33 Pa’anga or 16 American dollars...very affordable...beers were only 4 Pa’anga....so 2 bucks!....that was our first beers in Tonga!...We got a lot of good advice and knowledge from that night....Today, which is Saturday, we had a water safety class...not drinking water....We went to the Tongan Navy base and met with some of the officers...we had to jump off a big ship and do a bunch of swimming in the ocean and get comfortable in the water...they taught us some useful skills and how to be safe...we also learned what marine life to avoid...it was very interesting......then we went out to lunch with Brett and Kate a married couple in our training class...very nice people....I had my first seafood in Tonga...some Mahi Mahi...very good....Katie is still remaining a vegetarian although it may be tough for her to keep that up because Tongans love meat...They really don’t understand the concept...Tongans are very interesting people and extremely nice people...everyone you pass on the street says hello...all of the children wave to you and smile...We had our lunch and had to walk home in our first Tongan rain...and it just poured on us...it was actually quite nice to be walking home in a tropical down pour...this experience has already been very eye opening and you realize how hard it is to be in another country away from everyone you know and having to adapt to a completely different way of life...I guess we have more of that to come because we leave Monday for Vava’u....We will be placed with our home stay family and be staying with them the next 6 weeks...We have heard lots of stories about what is to come...I can’t wait to share ours...We are excited....Vava’u is supposed to be one of the most beautiful islands...we will hopefully get to do some snorkeling too, we will be bringing our gear.....Well, the last few days feel like they have been two weeks and there is more to come...The Peace Corps really packs in as much as they can into a short time....We get to go to our first Tongan church tomorrow and that should be quite the experience...I will write more when I can, but for now this is good bye....Katie and I miss you all...she is sleeping next to me right now...I think all of that swimming wore her out. Take care and A’ lua!

So after 5 weeks of the Chad and Katie good bye tour....It is now the night before we leave. Katie and I are still packing....and getting lots of other things done. I have recently found out that I am a horrible packer...So Katie has taken over all packing responsibilities. We have been so busy that we haven't had time to be sad, but I know we are going to miss everyone so much. The last 5 weeks have probably been the craziest most hectic weeks of our lives...What is the saying, something about shoving 10 pounds of potatoes into a 5 pound sack...Well whatever it is, I think we tried to squeeze in another 5 pounds....you get the idea...we have been doing a lot...We have been touring Illinois saying goodbye to all the people we care about...which consited of about 70 different stops on the tour, we got scuba certified, went to Colorado for a week, went to Pearl Vision several hundred times, we have learned a lot of Tongan, and we have now finally bought all of our gear...We just made our last trip to Target! Our 50 pound bags are packed and our 30 pound bags are packed...We have to just finish packing our carry on and then we will FINALLY be done packing. I feel like Katie and I have been talking about leaving for so long that it is hard to believe that we are finally leaving tomorrow! I am going to blog as much as possible while we are there and add pictures too! Please email or leave comments as much as you want. We are going to miss everyone so much! We love you all! Take care and the next time you hear from us we will be in TONGA!!!!!

Our first blog post...wow...Katie and I received a phone call from our Peace Corps placement officer at 9am on Thursday August 21st while we were walking into work just about to step on the elevator. Ever since that phone call our lives have been a whirlwind. She offered us an invitation to the Peace Corps to go to Tonga in the South Pacific leaving in October...we accepted!!! Katie and I are more excited than you could know. Since that phone call we have sold all of our worldly possessions. We took everything we wanted to keep to Katie's parents. Our lease ran up at the end of August, so it was kind of perfect timing. Our last day of work is today!!!!!!!!!! It is such a strange feeling to think about not having to come into work next week. We are spending the next month visiting with friends and family before we depart on Oct. 7th. We leave for LA for two days of training and then on Oct. 9th we take a 17 hour flight to Samoa and then a 2 hour flight to Tonga. I get cramped on a 5 hour flight...let alone being on a plane for almost an entire day. We will spend the next two months in training where we learn all about the culture, language, safety, health and our jobs there. I will be doing Business advisement and Katie will be working in education. We will be living with a host family for those two months. Once training is over we find out what island and village we will be placed in. We will live there for the next two years. We will be in tropical paradise. We are getting scuba certified, so we can go diving. We plan on doing lots of hiking, scuba diving, and snorkeling. Well, that was our first post...we have one month and 2 days before our departure...it's an exciting feeling! We will miss everyone so much, so please write to us and stay apart of our lives. Take care and if you are bored Google Tonga and do some research...it is a very interesting place.