Having my best friend Charissa here a few weeks ago prompted me to think about all of the crazy bugs I deal with on a regular basis. These critters have been a big part of my life for the last year, but it wasn’t until Charissa pointed out how many of them there were, that [...]

Dear Peace Corps Tonga Group 76, Congratulations on making through the application process, receiving and accepting your invitation to serve in The Kingdom of Tonga! We are excited for you all to get here! There are a few packing lists floating around, both John and Blair have great ones on their blogs (http://johnoutsidethelines.blogspot.com/, http://talesfromtonga.blogspot.com) I [...]

This weekend, Todd, John and I decided to take a trip to Ha’ano  to visit Blair. As per usual, we had to arrange a ride from our village to the wharf and then find a boat to take us the 45 minute ride to the island. I am fortunate in that my busy days for [...]

I have returned safely to Tonga. New Zealand is such a lush, green, clean place. If you have not gone, I recommend it highly. I took the trip with Todd, a PC volunteer on my island, Sachi, a Japanese volunteer on my island and Toru, a Japanese volunteer on the main island. Different from us [...]

Living in Tonga as a Peace Corps volunteer has given me a new sense of adventurism. Never before have I camped on the beach, walked to an uninhabited island, scaled fish, taken bucket baths, taught high school, been in a cyclone or been bit by strange exotic creatures. When a fellow volunteer in Tonga decided [...]

Well, I went almost 10 months without being bitten by one of these nasty guys…until last night. I was watching a movie with a friend when he got bit. He jumped up and wasn’t sure what it was that had bit him. The bite had two marks, something I hadn’t seen before. About a half [...]

This week, I attended a Tongan funeral, called a putu. One of the teachers at my school’s father died last Thursday. I had been asking all weekend when the funeral would be. Since I still don’t understand the timing of Tongan events, I was nervous that I would miss it. No need to be nervous. [...]

A Glowing Success Thank you to all of you who have emailed and written asking about how Camp Glow Ha’apai went. We like to say that it was a glowing success. Camp Glow (Girls Leading our World) is a Peace Corps camp that is done all over the world by volunteers and host country nationals. [...]

It seems like about every other month or so, I am able to get out to Ha’ano, a small island Northwest of mine.  My friend and fellow volunteer Blair lives there. She is so kind to open up her home to us each time we come. This was actually a special trip because Blair had [...]

John put this together. It gives you an idea what my world looks like.

Ok, I had to post what happened at the governor’s office yesterday…. I was in the back room helping a co-worker with some antivirus stuff. I hear my phone beep, telling me that I have a text message. I didn’t think much of it, I would check it when I was done. I finish what I [...]

Well, I did it, survived my first day of school as a teacher. I will say that it’s not what I expected, but a great day none the less. First off, the staff agreed that we would all arrive at school at 8:10 each morning to pray together before school starts. Getting all of the [...]

One of the cool things about being here a month before school started was the time I had to discover my small island. One of the nuns I live with, Sister Sina knew one of the prisoners that was in our prison here in Ha’apai. I was surprised to find out that there was a [...]

The Post Office Mail is my favorite thing to get in Tonga. It’s so much fun to get pictures, notes and packages from the States. I know how much work it is on the stateside to write letters, put packages together and go to the post office. I want to share what going to the post [...]

On December 17th, I flew from Tongatapu to Pangai, Ha’apai. I live and work at St. Joseph’s Community College. It is a Catholic High School (they call them colleges here) where I will be teaching English and some business classes. I live in the Convent on the school grounds with 2 nuns. 2 priests live [...]

From the 4th of December until the 8th, we moved out of our host family homes and were attached to various current volunteers in Tonga. I was attached to Alicia in Ha’apai with the other trainees Alyssa and Dominica. We enjoyed a few days of relaxing, cooking great food (with food items from Fiji like [...]

In Ha’apai, I lived with a host family from October 12th-December 3rd. I lived in the village of Faleloa on the North edge of the island of Foa. Words to describe Faleloa and homestay: Village, pigs, ocean, bush, dirty feet, white clothes turning blue, bells at 5am, churches, roosters outside of my window, bugs, cockroaches [...]

Malo e Lelei! Welcome to Tonga: The little group of islands in the South Pacific that even I had to look up when I was invited to serve as a US Peace Corps Volunteer. I have now been in country for almost 3 months. Since internet was not reliable or available at times, I chose [...]

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