When joining the Peace Corps you are expecting to have experiences and adventures that will stay with you for the rest of your life and even change the way you think about certain things in this world. You are expecting to make an impact in the lives of the people you are being sent to help, that you will forever be remembered. In the end, however, you always end up leaving with the feeling that they made a larger impact in your life than you would ever be able to make in theirs. When your two years is over, you get on the plane to head back home and your Peace Corps experience is just that, an experience. You arrive back in the US and decide what you are going to do with you life now. Your Peace Corps service becomes a small part of who you are, but mainly becomes some of the stories you share at dinner parties, reunions or during the holidays about all the crazy things you have done and seen. On April 17th, 2010 at about 5:30 in the evening, my “Peace Corps experience” dramatically changed to real life in a matter of seconds with just a phone call. A phone call I hope that none of you will ever have to receive. My boyfriend’s sister called to tell me that he died during his rugby game. Not wanting to believe it herself, knowing we were inseparable, kept asking where he was. It was the first time I was not able to attend one of his games. And even to this day I do not want to believe it is true, he might, just might, walk through the door at any moment.

Viliami Kapa ‘i Matangivale Finau was 25 years old, the youngest of 12 children, from the island of Tungua in Ha’apai; a very skilled spear fisherman, rugby player and coconut tree climber, a true free spirited, fun loving and light hearted island boy; studying General Engineering at the Tonga Institute of Science and Technology, patiently preparing and planning to start a life and family with the love of his life.

Viliami returned to the island about a month after I arrived for my two year service. From the first moment I saw him I was intrigued by him: his personality, his care free spirit, his physique. I could tell he was unique and different from all the other guys I had met, here in Tonga and back in the US. The next day Pila came over to my house with his best friend, who I had already come to know, and invited me to go on a short boat ride to the other side of the island to get coconuts with his family. After that he took me on a horse ride through the village, along the beach and into the ocean, which turned into us going swimming – all the while trying really hard to speak in as much English as possible even though I could speak more Tongan than he could English. Everyday after that, Pila would come over to talk and help me study Tongan, play cards and just hang out. Everything came so easy and natural with Viliami. From that first day we met, there was never a day we did not see each other or at the very least talk on the phone, many times a day, if one of us was traveling. We were literally inseparable. We spoke different languages from birth, though we communicated better than most born of the same language. Our extreme exotic differences in culture and way of living are what attracted us to each other. Our shared interest in each other’s way of life and culture and our ability to unconditionally love, accept and support each other is what allowed us to become so close so fast. Our understanding and love for each other grew stronger with every passing day. We grew together, learned from each other, helped and supported each other and just genuinely enjoyed doing everything with the other one at our side. Our relationship did cause some issues; many people here in Tonga could not understand why we were always together. They could not comprehend that this was not a crush, a fling, lust, just out of convenience or just because I was a palangi providing an opportunity for a better life – what we had was true unconditional love that transcended culture and language. All the challenges and hardships we encountered only provided us with opportunities to grow stronger and closer together. Our time together was too short and I feel cheated. I am left here with many plans and promises that will never come to pass. But Pila has also left me here with his loving, caring and supportive family. I have so many words that I was never able to say to him, so many experiences and people that I will never be able to share with him. I do have a lot of wonderful memories, just not as many as I would have liked to have. It is difficult every minute of every day. I do not have any regrets about coming to Tonga, just regrets about taking moments for granted. Before Viliami had met me on the island, all he lived for was to play rugby. When Pila died, he was doing something he loved very much. Viliami died from an injury to his neck that occurred during the scrum. For those of you who know nothing about rugby, like myself, that is the time when they are in a huddle pushing against the other team to try and get the ball. Pila was very skilled in rugby, fast and unnaturally strong – a true asset to his team. A loss like this is difficult on its own, but being in a different culture, with different customs and speaking a different language has made it more difficult many times but also easier at times. Viliami’s parents and all of his brothers and sisters have been very supportive and have received me into their family with open loving arms. Without their love, support and acceptance I would not have been able to handle this loss in such a different culture. Viliami Finau, ko koe pe si’eku ‘ofa mo’oni! I love you and miss you lahi ‘aupito. ‘Oku feingata’a lahi ‘aupito ‘aho katoa pe koe’uhi ‘oku ikai keu lava sio kia koe, talanoa mo koe, puke ho nima, fanongo ki ho leo, ongo’i ho’o ‘ala pe ‘uma kia koe. I would have been honored to have been your wife and the mother of your children, like we had planned…

There are always random things that happen that actually are not that random to the Tongans, just to the only palangi (white person) on the island. Here are some pictures of those random events and some pictures of just island life.

As I walked outside of my house on my way to go to work at the primary school I see this beautiful rainbow over my neighbor’s house. This is actually the house of my Tongan family.

One day Viliami, my neighbor’s son, came over to my house from the bush with a coconut leaf weaved basket and asked me if he could cook something in my oven. So, naturally I ask, What? He opens up the basket and it is a small dead pig. Pigs stay in the village area because if they get into the bush area they will eat the root crops (the yams, taro, potatoes, etc.). So if a pig gets into the bush it automatically becomes property of the bush and if anyone catches it they can kill it and eat it. This is a mutually unspoken rule by everyone. So Pila (short for Viliami, don’t ask my how) Sinilau (my dog) and a couple other dogs from Pila’s house caught the pig. As I walked back into my kitchen, after giving him permission to cook the pig in my oven, I see this and just had to get a picture of it to share. Not something you ever expect to see happening in your kitchen. Fai Fo!! Doing Laundry!! Tongans do their laundry outside but I just don’t like everyone watching me wash my dirty clothes. Apparently it is quite an amazing thing to watch a palangi wash their clothes by hand. And I wanted to share with you a little of how my house looks.

Here is my vegetable garden in the bush. The only way to be able to have vegetables on a more regular basis, and some vegetables that Tongans have never heard of. From the front of the picture moving back: lettuce, tomatoes, onions, squash, zucchini, broccoli, and more zucchini. Fonu (sea turtle) Some men came back from fishing one morning with this huge sea turtle. It is one of the biggest turtles I have seen yet. The Tongans tell me that they have been bigger but only once. Yes, we ate it, but in Tonga it is not illegal. The church that I attend has a 5am service every Sunday, Monday and Friday (not that I attend that service). One day their generator broke and they started asking to use my kerosene lantern to be able to have their service. Well the last time I was in Tongatapu I bought the church their own lantern. So during the next Sunday 10am service they had me come to the front and hold the lantern while it was blessed. But during all of this they never took it out of the box. When I took the lantern to the minister’s house, of course I gave it to him in the box. He opened it up and looked at it but never took it out, I did not really think too much about it at the time, and than put it in his office until Sunday for it to be blessed. When I walked into church that Sunday, I was very surprised to see that the lantern was still in the box and it was sitting on the front table. If I would have known they were not going to take it out of the box I would not have given it to them in the box.

If you remember in the picture I posted of the view I have from my house there was a boat upside down by the tree. Well the church that it belongs to got new materials, moved the boat to the church and rebuilt it. Here is the village moving the rebuilt boat back to the ocean. One evening sitting outside of my house I heard some kittens crying. I followed the crying to three little new born kittens who’s eyes were not yet open, very cute. All that night and the next morning they were still crying. The mom had never returned and over the night a dog or a pig had eaten two of the kittens. So feeling bad I tried to help the third and last of the new born kittens but despite my attempts at trying to keep it alive it was not successful. Then one day my neighbor, Pila, came over with a kitten hanging from his shirt. Since he saw my trying to care for the little kitten he thought that I really wanted a new cat so he brought me one from his sister’s house. Not being able to tell him that I really didn’t want a cat, I accepted his gift. He decided to name it Cilantro…one time I returned from Tonga with some fresh cilantro I found at the market and made fresh salsa. So now I have a new little kitten that is a pain in the butt. It is the typical kitten, curious, nothing phases it, playful and always getting into trouble.

In today’s day and age a service that us, Americans don’t even have to think twice about. The internet and what we now call ‘snail mail’, is in our everyday life and occurs with as little effort as breathing. When I joined the Peace Corps and first moved to my island it still was something that I did not really give any thought to. Not because I was being naïve but rather it was just a service that you never really have to think much about, it just arrives, everyday. Mail….well mail just comes….somehow….right?? Something that is so basic and in our everyday lives, weather it be the little window that pops up at the bottom right side of your screen or the box you check when you get home from work, it just always occurs with little to no effort from ourselves….especially those bills we would rather not receive at all. Well…how DO you get mail when you live on a little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?? Let me explain….

The post office system here is a lot different, it is not run by the government it is a private organization. Not everyone here can receive mail. To get mail you have to buy a post office box, which does not sound that far fetched except for the fact that is a little difficult to obtain or maintain if you do not live on the main islands. But that is where family or friends comes in handy. But of course for us Peace Corps Volunteers it is a little easier for us. So, how it works for me…once the Peace Corps office receives a box for me they will give me a call and let me know that they will put it on the boat, Pulupaki, the next time it leaves. Once they pay to have to package taken to Tungua they give me a call to let me know which crew member will be taking care of the box.

So ideally when I head out to the boat when it arrives in Tungua I just find the crew member and he hands over my box. Yeah, well….not exactly!! Majority of the time my phone service does not work so I don’t really know that I have a package on the boat until I am sitting in my house working listening to the radio and an announcement comes for ‘Hina, Peace Corps in Tungua to get your box off the Pulupaki when it arrives in Tungua.’ Oh! Okay!! Or...when the boat arrives at 4am, in the dark morning, and you find the crew member who is supposed to be ‘taking care’ of my box really has no idea what I am talking about. So I just have to go find it myself. Which really is not at difficult as it might sound since Tongans don’t have boxes that are red, white and blue and say ‘US Post Office Service’.

So how exactly do we get out to the boat? Well that is a good question…there is no wharf on the island that the large boat is able to dock due to the coral reef around the entire island. So what happens is that when we see the boat arrive on the horizon we get into the little fishing boats and head out to the deep sea to meet the Pulupaki.

Technically, the boat does not ‘stop’ in Tungua. We are just in their path to Ha’afeva and the captain’s wife comes from our island, so we get a special ‘stop’. The reason I have quotes on ‘stop’ is because it is not really a real stop. The boat just stops its engines in the middle of their path and we only get 15 minutes. There are usually anywhere between 5 to 10 boats that head out to meet the boat. When the Pulupaki comes to a full stop they open the doors on the bottom deck and it is a race to get everything unloaded arriving from Tonga and reloading things to head up to other islands.

As you can see here, there are people that are getting onto the Pulupaki while someone else’s luggage is being passed down for someone who is coming to Tungua. Typically the boat leaves the capital island Nuku’alofa at 10pm and arrives in Tungua about 4 or 5am. In this picture the boat was off schedule, but usually all of this happens in the pitch black of night. So once I get my packages off the boat (just to put your minds at ease, I have always received all of my packages) and travel back to the island…I get to sit down and feel like it is Christmas morning. =)

It all started from one determined child. One day I was watching my neighbor's five year old granddaughter trying to write with a dried up marker on a piece of cardboard. As I was observing her I realized how much you could tell she had a desire to learn. So one afternoon I invited her over to my house to write, on paper with a working pencil. The next afternoon I heard a little voice calling out my name. I went outside to see who it was. It was my neighbor's determined granddaughter wanting to practice her writing. This went on for about 3 months.

Then some other community members got wind of this and saw how much this determined little child was progressing. Two different families had their five year old grandchild return from the main island to our isolated little island in the middle of the Pacific to come learn with the Peace Corps Volunteer. As time progressed three little girls turned into eight little boys and girls which quickly grew to 12. And what first started as simply writing in a notebook has progressed to a positive structured learning environment.

As of now, 13 boys and girls come running from all different directions, with pen and paper in hand, to come study at Hina's house for two hours everyday. Through a positive supportive environment, these children gain confidence and knowledge in the Tongan alphabet, numbers and colors in the midst of learning to listen, work together, being patient and sharing. And each day before class starts they practice some important basic hygiene habits of washing their hands and brushing their teeth. Thankfully, it all started from one determined child, who got the ball rolling. I dedicated one wall in my house to the Kindergarten’s Calendar Time. Here is a picture of the children practicing their writing on their personal chalk boards. Thank you to Mojave Elementary for pulling together and donating some of their unused supplies. It is greatly appreciated and makes a huge difference in these children’s lives. Malo ‘Aupito!!

My church had a camp for the youth of the church and the village. The camp was for three days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, where they talked about God, alcohol, marijuana, tobacco and sex. It think it is a great program is theory but it actuality I don’t know how big of an affect on the youth that attended. The reason that I say this is because during one session we were talking about marijuana and tobacco and as soon as the session was over almost all of the youth walked outside to smoke. All in all it was a fun weekend.

Group picture after the Sunday morning service. (Where’s the palangi? Are you able to find me?)

Of course after the Sunday service we had a kai pola (banquet) and during the time we eat people stand up and lea fakamalo, give a thank you speech. It is no one in specific just anyone who wants to stand up and say something.

So here is a picture of me giving my fakamalo.

I am working in my house one evening when a little kid come over telling me that I needed to go take a picture of a fish the fishermen just can back with. So I grab my camera and follow the kid to where the fishermen were unloading their boat. Not quite sure what to expect yet knowing that it has to be something unusual for the fishermen to tell the kid to come get me. As the crowd of villagers part I see 6 men trying to pull this HUGE fish inland. As they finally get it inland and lay it down, I realize it is the fish from those stories when we were little. The big fish that imparted wisdom. It really looked like some pre-historic creature. I don't really know if these pictures do it justice.

The mouth was so big that a child could have sat inside of it. We acutally tried to get some of the kids to sit inside but they were all too scared. The man to the right, in the first picture, is the one who caught the fish. It was not meant for food but rather to sell. After they spend hours trying to cut this fish up into littler pieces to weigh it, working against the setting, it weighed in at 145 Kilos (320 lbs). And that was after they had removed all the insides, so acutally the fish was probably over 350 lbs. Now keep in mind, Tongans don't let anything go to waste, so all the insides were taken home and cleaned out. The things that were inside the stomach of this fish were absolutely amazing. It was the types of things the fishermen typically return with from the sea. There were lobsters, craps, sea turtles and a big porcupine fish among other fish. No, they did not eat the things that was inside of the stomach, just the stomach itself.

The 'Uesiliana Church has a conference each year at the end of June. It is a huge celebration. People from all the island groups come down to the main island Tongatapu and even people from New Zealand, Australia and America. The purpose of this conference is for all the leaders in each church, however, all the church members come to the conference to perform during the different masses that happen 3 times a day for two weeks.

This is the church where all the masses are held. It is huge inside with a big balcony, of course for the Sunday service is when it is most full. There is a picture of the second Sunday of the conference and you can see all the people outside because everywhere inside was all ready full. It was amazing at how many people were there.

Here is the other side of the church. If you look closely you can see that they set out rows of seats on the patio of the chruch as well as stadium seating just outside (the right side of the picture) and yet there were still people sitting on the ground everywhere you looked.

On Tuesday of the last week of the conference the District of Lulunga (5 islands - including Tungua) performed for everyone. Here is a group picture after the performance. The people wearing white were in the performance and the people wearing green were in the choir. I was in the choir, you can also see the married couple - Eric and Melanie from Ha'afeva the island one hour away from Tungua.For two weeks straight, three times a day after each chruch service there is a kai pola (big feast). As you can see the line of table there are two rows like this and all the table are going to FULL of food.

And it is amazing at how much the Tongans will eat at each meal. You would think after a day or a couple of days of eating meals like this 3 times a day you would be sick. But not the Tongans, it is AMAZING!!!

Here is the family that has adopted me. Their last name is Finau (fee-now) and actually this is only about a quarter of them. They had 12 children 6 girls and 6 boys, however, one of the boys died when he was 4 years old. All of the girls are married and only the oldest boy is married. So in the picture: there is only 4 children of the 11, 1 spouse of the total 7, and only 7 grandchildren of the current 26.

From the left back: Melelose(daughter), Viliami (son, youngest of all 12 children), Pomana (father), Saane (mother), Melape (daughter), 'Edimoni (son, oldest of all the children), Mele (wife of 'Edimoni). Mele is holding their youngest child of 6, Tevita.Front row from the right: Sivi and Kilisitina (children of 'Edimoni), 'Ana, Siulanga (children of different daughters not pictured), Lea'aengalu and Saane (children of Melape).

After the boys come home from the ocean it is time to clean up the fish for dinner. From left to right: Pomana, Saane, Viliami, Melelose, 'Edimoni, Mele and standing up in the back is Sioeli (one of the sons that has not been pictured yet). Filimone, Sinilau and a tuna. As some of you have heard how I have to get my mail, I thought I would post a picture for you to better understand. If you see in the background a bigger boat, that is the boat that comes from the main island, next you can see the little boats that we take out to meet the big boat, and in the foreground you can see an example of how most things get done in the island, jsut man power. We not only get mail off that big boat but anything else we need for the island. You can see Sioeli pushing a drum of gasoline onto the beach for the church generator. Tokelau (son of one of the daughters) and Filimone holding a bat, yes, a bat!! I guess it some how got holes in it wings and was not able to fly back home. The kids saw it in the tree and decided to climb up the tree and get it. Peka - bat or flying fox, technically Some of you have heard that I have a cat and a dog so I thought that I would post a picture of them to share. They are not allowed into my bedroom since they play outside with all the other animals. So, one cold night, I was laying in bed reading a book and when I looked over to check on them I saw them sleeping like this. Too cute to resist, I had to take a picture of them. My cat's name is 'Ivi, which means energy, power, strength. My dog's name is Sinilau. The reason I named him this was because there is a story about Hina and Sinilau. Long story short, that was her boyfriend and later her husband. The people in my village would always ask me where is Sinilau, especially if they had seen me walking on the road with any of the male youth. So I decided to have a little fun and give this name to my dog. So now when they ask I just point to my dog. =D

As I am sure you can imagine living on a small trpical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean there are a lot of coconuts and in turn we end up using the coconut milk in a lot of our cooking. So I thought I would show you guys how they make the coconut milk, and also a good way for you to get introduced to 'my family' here in Tungua.

First if you look to the right of the picture you will see a sharp stick. That is what they use to husk the coconut (take off the outside), you can see the outside parts on the round (sorry the picture is a little dark). In the picture you are see Saane (the mother), Viliami (the youngest son), and Tevita (the son of one of the daughters).

Now that the coconut has been romoved from the shell, Viliami opens up the coconut by hitting it with the muchete to let all the coconut water out.

After all the water has been drained out the coconut it is split in half and the meat of the coconut is shaved out of the coconut. The thing that Viliami is sitting on actually has a sharp serrated blade at the end. In this picture: The woman behind Viliami is one of his sisters, Melelose, and next to her are two of her children, first Tevita and than Kulisitofa (in English David and Christopher) which is holding my dog Sinilau. The women to the left of Viliami is his oldest brother's wife. And the two children are children of two of his sisters.

Here I am helping to shave the meat of the coconut. They let me do this every once in a while but they let me this time because they said my family would like to see a picture of me doing Tongan things. =)Once all the coconuts are done being shaved now it is time to start squeezing out the milk. From the inside of the shell of the coconut Viliami has taken out the 'coconut hair' to use like a cloth to squeeze the shaved coconut meat.You can see him packing in the shaved coconut meat. (Sorry the picture is really dark.)And the last step is to squeeze out the coconut milk. You can see it running down his hands. You squeeze the coconut hair with the coconut meat inside just like you would squeeze out a dish towel. Once you have squeezed the milk out from all of the shaved coconut milk you are ready to start cooking. The main use of the coconut milk is to be used like of like oil or butter when boiling the root crops or fish. Just like of adds some flavor and fat to them. I will actually use all of this coconut milk to bake the banana breads for the Fakame celebration. It is used instead of butter or oil in the baked goods. =)

There is no direct translation for the word fakame, so I will just have to explain to you what it is. It is a celebration, it is always the first Sunday in May. The purpose of the celebration is to celebrate the children. May is kind of like the family month. The first Sunday is for the children - Fakame, the second Sunday is for Mothers (just like in America) - Aho Fa'e, and the third Sunday is for Fathers - Aho Tamai. They only have a big celebration for Fakame and of course when I tell you there is a big celebration I mainly mean that there will just be a huge feast. So I made sure to take some pictures of all the preperation for the food. We actually started the evening before prepareing some of the food. There were a lot of animals to die for this celebration. They killed and gutted the goat and the pigs at night so I could not really take pictures of them. And besides it is not really exciting to see the dead animals hanging from the trees with the blood and guts, when it is pitch black out side. They hang the animals from the trees while they are preparing it because of all the dogs, cats, chickens, and pigs wondering around. And of course they don't really have a table big enough and clean enough to do it on. So needless to say it was very creepy and I just could not bring myself to take pictures of it. Anyways, in the morning we started preparing everything to be cooked in the 'umu (if you remember from previous posts, that is an inground oven).

Here is Mele (the wife to the oldest son in 'my family') preparing lu. The lu that she is cooking has fish, hopa (a type of banana, really sweet), and coconut milk. It is wrapped it in a banana leaf and cooked in the 'umu.

This is Viliami (the youngest son) preparing the pigs for the tunu (bbq).

There is a lot going on in this picture. In the background you can see the mother, Saane, covering the root crops with foil. The pile of meat you see on the palm tree leaves is their goat they killed the night before, than you can see the three pigs we will roast. The boy standing by the pigs, Filimone - he is the oldest son's son. Than you can see Viliami playing with the fire. He is acutally moving all the wood pieces to a different pit to cook the pigs and all that will remain in this pit will be the hot stones for the 'umu.

Now that all the burning wood has been removed, 'Edimoni (the oldest son), places' the goat meat on top of some wire, which is placed directly on the hot stones.

Next, Viliami and 'Edimoni place the lu on top of the goat meat.

Now 'Edimoni is placing banana leaves on top of everything.

You have to look closely but they have places a sheet of metal down and then another layer of banana leaves.

Over that Viliami and 'Edimoni placed about 3 or 4 blankets to help keep the heat in and now they are working on moving the mound of dirt on top of the blankets. And in the botton left corner you can see where all the burning wood was moved to to cook the pigs.

While everyone else was in church, and the children performed a play, Filimoni, Viliami and I tunu the pigs. So this is the view we had for three hours while spinning the pig.When church was over and all the food was cooked we brought it over to the church hall. There were three other place settings like this one and a little later some more food was added to this one from one of the sisters. Now, remember this is just once church in my village. There are 6 churches for a village of about 200 people. We had enough food to be able to feed the entire village but only about 30 people or so came to this celebration. Then after the evening church service we just had a light meal of bread and cakes. My family made two different kinds of bread and I made the banana bread. Six of them actually =)

I don’t think I have explained what type of work I do here in my island. When I received my description of what I would be doing…my main job was to help the youth develop their business skills. I would also help teach at the school, help the local fisherman with their businesses and help the weavers sell their mats. My work seems to follow that description somewhat. You have to keep in mind that we work on island time, so something that would normally take me a couple of days to accomplish now takes me a couple of weeks. When I first arrived here it was summer time for them. So school was out and there were a lot of families visiting and lots of things to do night and day and of course….no work. It was really nice because it gave me some time to get to know the community, work on my language and get used to island life. My work really started in the beginning or middle of January. I started at the school for just an hour everyday half an hour with grades 1, 2 and 3 and half an hour with grades 4, 5 and 6 helping them with English. The rest of my time was filled with just hanging out with the youth and doing all the chores round my house. Like doing my laundry...by hand takes about an hour or so and that is just for a small load. Some of the other chores are: bringing water into my house, washing dishes, and sweeping. Everything here seems to take twice as long to accomplish. So far working with the youth…they have decided on a business to start, I helped them write up a business plan and apply for a grant to help with the start up costs. Right now we are just waiting on the grant committee to meet and approve our grant. The youth want to start a ‘gas station’. But of course there will be no pumps like we are used to seeing when we think of a gas station. There will be 205 liter drums full of the gas and oil for their boats and lawn mowers and kerosene for the lanterns. This will not only help our community but also the neighboring islands that are inhabited.

I have also helped a man in the community who wanted to start a store write up a business plan. I have also started what you could call a mini kindergarten. One day I saw one of the little granddaughter’s of my family writing on a piece of cardboard and asked her over to my house to help here practice her writing. Well that has turned into having 3 little girls from the community, all will be going to grade 1 next year, come to my house for about 2 hours and we practice writing, recognizing and singing the Tongan alphabet and numbers.

Currently, I am trying to get a first aid training here for the community. When ever they have a cut, a head ace or something wrong they always come to my house looking for me to help them. I am not supposed to use my Peace Corps medical supplies to help them so I try and do my best with their requests. I am usually able to help them at least until they can get to Ha’afeva to see the doctor. Here in Tonga going to the doctor and all supplies are free to them. So it is just a matter of getting the knowledge on how to best care until they can get to the doctor.

Here is what my typical day looks like:

6:30 – 7:30 am Wake up

7:30 – 8:30 am Getting ready for the day

(showering, bring in water, eating, if doing laundry get it ready)

8:30 – 10:30 am Helping teach English at the school

10:30am – 12:00 pm Do chores around the house or prepare for the Kindy class

12:00 – 2:00 pm Kindergarten

2:00 – rest of day Study Tongan, go to youth meetings, go to weaving group meetings,

work with the youth if they are mowing lawns, play basketball or go running, cook, read,

chores, go to community events, or just hang out with the youth or at the family’s house

that helps me, oh yeah, or watch movies if someone turns on their generator.

10:00 – 11:00 pm Go to sleep

I am sorry that is have been doing a bad job of keeping you all up to date on what has been going on here in Tungua since I got here. It has been hard to type up my experiences since there is no electricity and I don’t really like taking my laptop over to different people’s houses to have it charged.

Last week I was thinking of some stories that I could share and as I was walking around the village it occurred to me how quickly we come desensitized to the things around us. I tried to put myself back into the mind set of when I first got here to Tonga. Here is what I saw….

~A little naked boy carrying a knife and a coconut

~An eight year old carrying a one year old to church (the parents were still getting ready)

~Kids of all ages, one to 21, just wondering around (I am pretty sure the parents don’t know

exactly where their kids are but I guess you can do that when you live on such a small

island and half the island is your family)

~Kids and adults alike not wearing shoes to church, school, or around the village (including me,

for a little while, since my flip-flops broke)

~Swimming with all your clothes on

~The men coming back from the sea with 80lb fish, sea turtles, and sharks

~Men wearing girl clothes (clothes are clothes to them it doesn’t matter)

~Men walking around carrying a machete

~Having pigs, goats, horses, and sometimes cows right out side my house

Life here in Tungua has been good to me. There is a family that has adopted me. They always take care of me. Now when I say a family it is almost half the village. The parents are in their 60’s and they have 12 kids. The youngest is 24 and 8 of their children still live here in Tungua with their family. The WHOLE family takes care of me. When the men in the family come back from the sea they always come over and tell me it is time to eat. I now go over there and help them de-scale, gut, clean and cook the fish. Some of the women in the family are teaching me to weave mats. Weaving is a very big source of income for most of the people of Tonga. It is a very long process to get the loakau (type of tree) ready to be weaved, maybe one month. And then actually weaving is a very slow process, maybe three months. I will try to get a picture of very point in the process to share with you all. My language gets better everyday. I am still not able to understand everything people say, just basic conversation, but if they talk really fast forget about it.

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. After two months of living on my island I have finally made it back to civilization and the internet. =)

I am sure the first think you are all wondering is: how my island is? Simple answer….I love it!! =D The people are really nice and have welcomed me into their lives with arms wide open. On the island we do not have electricity or running water. Almost all of the houses have solar power that provides them with light at night. My house does not have solar power, but I was told that my house was on a list to get solar power installed maybe in March. (I guess it is a government funded project to provide all the outer island houses with solar power and they will be coming back through to all the houses that did not get it installed the first time through.) All the churches and about 10 families have generators that they use to watch movies and charge their phones. It is actually a really funny event when they watch movies. When one family turns on their generator every one knows about it and will go over to watch the movie or just bring their phone to be charged. So you will walk into the house and it will be filled with about 20 or so people watching the movie. Oh, and you can’t forget all the people standing outside looking in through the windows. The one plug now has about 3 or 4 power strips plugged into it and each slug is filled with cell phones and there is a line of phones to be next. But I always get special treatment…no matter whose house I go to, once I walk in the door they always magically find an empty plug for me to use. At my house I have two kerosene lanterns that I use to do everything from cooking to taking a bucket bath at night. The youth that I work with have a generator that I can use whenever I want, but gas is very expensive so I have not used it yet. With that being said, I have not really been able to use my computer to write down my experiences. So I am sitting here in one of the other PC Volunteer’s house on a Sunday finally have electricity without having 20 or so Tongans around. I will do my best to account for all the exciting experiences I have had so far. The first couple of weeks on my island was full of hanging out with the community, playing volleyball with the youth, lots of eating, and getting to know everyone. During the Holidays a lot of family from all over Tonga and the ones who moved away to New Zealand come back home and spend about a month or more with their family. For the first month I was kept really busy, there was always something to do or some type of event to go to. One day we took a boat ride to a neighboring island to have a kaitunu (picnic). A bunch of the youth and I just get into a boat and head over to a different island. It took about 45 mins to get there and as soon as we got there some of the boys went out to go fishing. Below is a picture of what the boys brought back. So no need to bring food with us on a picnic just go out and catch some fish. =)

Here are some of the youth cleaning the fish getting ready to cook some of it and preparing the rest of it to eat ota (raw). Oh yeah, no need for napkins, plates or anything of that nature...that is what the trees and leaves are for.

So being the only single girl on the island who is not related to anyone on the island the youth always want me to tou'a (serve kava) for them. Well this time I just took picutes for you all to see..no serving this time. As you can see in the picture the kava bowl and the cups that are used. If you look in the background of the picture you can also see a couple of the men with guitars. All the men will sing while about 3 or 4 of them play the guitar. I really love it when they sing...I always tell them that they need to sing if I am going to tou'a...it is the only form of entertainment for me. =)

My island being so small (about 1 mile by 3/4 of a mile), you are able to walk around the entire island in about less than 2 hours. Below is a picture from the first time I walked around the island with a couple of the youth from the island. It was high tide when we decided to go and I took my camera of course so there was some points where unless I wanted to get wet we had to do some climbing. Which was fine until....I got stung by 2 wasps: one on my left big toe and the other on my hip. Oh man did it hurt!! This picture was taken on the opposite side of the island from where we live. The beaches have a lot more rocks. If it is low tide you are able to walk around the entire island without getting wet.

Sports Day!! There are about 4 other inhabited islands along with Tungua. Once a year they have something called a sports day where the other islands come and the women play basiketi bolo (basketball) and the men play volleyball. Below are pictures of both sports, volleyball is played just the same as it is in America. Basketball on the other hand is very different. As you can see below there is no court and the hoops are completely different. Once the girl with the ball is in the half circle no one can block her but she cannot move from the sport she caught the ball.

Funny story about this picture. Right after I took that picture I felt like the ball was going to hit me so I moved a little to the right and the ball hit me on my left arm. I was so thankful that it did not hit my camera.

Our only source of water on the island is rain water that gets collected from the roof tops and put into a simivai (cement water). When I arrived my house did not have a simivai. I had just been using the simivai at the church hall next to my house. The youth told me that they would move one of the unused simivais from around the village to my house. So about 6 weeks or so of being there they finally organized themselves and moved a simivai to my house. The picutes below kind of show the process it took to do such a thing when you have no equipment just man power. First you have dig it up so that you can fit palm tree trunks underneath it to be able to roll it.

Next you need the man power of....oh lets say about.......the whole village!! and the only truck me have on the island. It took us about 2 hours or more to move the simivai about 50/60 yards. It was a slow process since each time you moved it just a little you had to take the tree trucks from the back and place them in the front and then move the simivai. It was such an amazing site to see and the teamwork was absolutly amazing!! I am very thankful that everyone came to help, men, youth, women, children and even some of the elders. I was really touched! Sorry that was not able to be as detailed in my stories as usual and there are lots more stories I was not able to write about this time. I will try to be a little more disciplined in writing some of them down after they happen and just type them up when I come into town. I am glad that I was able to post the pictures for you all to see. Thank you for your support, love and prayers. They mean more to me than you know. Hope all is well in your lives. I will be back into Nuku'alofa in about a month for training so look for some more pictures and hopefully lots of stories. =)

Here is my island!! This picure was taken from a neighboring island that I went to with the youth of my island to have a kaitunu (picnic). Here is my house!! =)The youth made this sign for me so when i was arriving in the boat I could see the welcome sign from the water. I was really touching! Here is the front of my house. My house used to be the town clinic built by the U.S. Army about 7 or 10 years ago. For whatever reason the clinic closed and now it is my house. It is really nice inside...very American...it is two bedrooms, a storage room and the bathroom and shower are inside.

Here are some pictures that I tried to upload before I left for my island but the internet was not cooperating. They are picutes from during training and our swearing in ceremony. Enjoy! =)

Susana and Ana - two girls from my village in Tu'anekivale

The boys from my village in Tu'anekivale. They were really excited to have their picutes taken while they were jumping. Right after they jumped in the water they would come running to me to see the picture.

A sunset in Tu'anekivale

My first homestay family in Tu'anekivale. This is about half of the family...everyone else was at work.

The children from the family. Just a bunch of cute little energetic kids!

At my host family's stores before they took me to the airport.

Ana and Me. She is the little girl who would just walk with me no matter where I was heading to in Tu'anekivale. She was always very quite but always smiling. =D

Ha'ano - staying with Grant (another volunteer) for a week during training. This is his view from his house.

My second homestay family: Kei and To'a (both wearing black). Another volunteer and her host mom.

All the girls of Group 74 at Swearing in. We all had our traditional formal clothes on that our hostfamilies made us at some point in our training. The swearing in ceremony was at a beautiful resort west side of Tongatapu. Peace Corps Tonga Group 74 - Our whole group at the swearing in ceremony with the prime minister.

Currently we, all the trainees, are back at the guest house in Nuku’alofa. We are here for our last and final part of training before becoming volunteers and heading out to our villages. Over the next couple days we have lots of final interviews and tests on all the material we have been learning for the past two months or so…everything from language to medical and safety. On Wednesday we will be having our Swearing in Ceremony, where we become official volunteers. Yay!! Finally!! It is actually going to be a big deal here in Tonga. The Prime Minister is going to be there along with some other really important international officials…but not the King. =) The rest of our time will be filled with shopping for items and food for our houses. Those of us on outer islands are really going to be living up the palangi food choices and vegetables here in the big happening city of Nuku’alofa. On Saturday the 20th all the new Ha’apai volunteers will be leaving the big city. I will be taking a vakapuna (airplane) to Pangai (the main city in Ha’apai) then a vaka (boat) for about 2-3 hours to Ha’afeva, then a smaller vaka for about an hour to my final destination and my new home for two years – Tungua! =D

Not sure when I will be able to get to the internet, maybe about once a month, but I will just continue writing down my experiences on my laptop and posting them later. Please keep me in your prayers as I travel and get adjusted to my new home. I will be keeping everyone in my prayers as the holiday season is here and everyone traveling.

Contact infomation:

Monica Hamilton, PCV

Peace Corps

PO Box 147

Nuku’alofa, Tonga

SOUTH PACIFIC

I know a few of you have my number…but I actually had to change the service to the one that works on outer islands better. My number now is… 011 (country code) – 676 (area code) – 46-898 (my number). I would love to hear from all of you, I know it is a little expensive to call. =( If you are having trouble you can call my Mom, Jove, or Mel (I don’t think they would mind helping out).

Sunday, December 14, 2008 @10 pm

As we get off the plane all the other trainees were there and the PC staff with vans to take us to the next village we will be staying in for two weeks. We all load up into the vans and hit the road while exchanging our unique and amazing adventures we had during our attachments. We arrive at a church hall where there our next host families are waiting. We all take a seat in the hall, PC trainees on one side and the host families on the other. All of exchange smiles across the room anticipating which people will become a part of our lives for the next two weeks. The names are announced and the families meet their new short addition to the family. As quickly as we arrived, we get transported into our new host family’s car and head onto our new homes. I hop into the van with an older husband, Kai, and wife, Toa. Kai is the minister at the local church, so my new home is right next to the church. (I am really excited it is not a Mormon family!) The typical small talk of Tonga is exchanged of how old are you, if you are married, where you are from, and how many kids are in your family. Once all of that is discussed it is timi malolo (time to rest), they show me my room and give me some time to settle in a little before it is time to ‘eva (wonder around – or better put in this case: go explore the new village).

My two week experience can be summed up into three activities (apart from trainings and language all day of course): Lotu, To’a and Puke – Church, serving Kava, and Sick. Living with a minister and his wife it is obvious that I would be going to church a lot. I knew that I did not have to attend all the masses but I wanted to. Well I did not go to the 6am masses but all the other ones during the week and the 10am and 4pm on Sunday you could find me. The husband and wife were really nice and understanding when I chose to do something else. They knew that I am Catholic and really appreciated that I participated so much in their church. The church participates in a lot of the traditional Tongan events…including KAVA. (If you don’t remember what Kava is: a drink that relaxes your body that is make for the root of a plant). The kava culture in the church is of many different types. Only the men drink it…they can drink it in a formal setting before and/or after church called ‘fai kava,’ in the evening to raise money called ‘kalapu,’ and the last is in the evenings also called ‘fai kava’ but it is just known which ones are formal. You can find a kava circle somewhere every night of the week and they usually last until 3am or even 6am or later. Where I come into this picture of kava…only single women are able to serve the kava while the men make passes at her. It is kind of like a bar scene but there is only one girl and about 20 men all giving her attention…but they give the palangi women even more attention. Depending on the type of kava event plays a big part of how much the men really hit on the to’a, the single women serving the kava. Having my host Dad be the minister he would usually ask me to to’a whenever they would have a formal fai kava or a kalapu and of course viewing it as a great language, cultural and social opportunity I would always say yes to him. Of course, I also just found it hard to say no to this sweet little old minister. On a side note, just because the men keep the kava going until early in the morning does not mean that the to’a stays that late. I would usually head home between 12am and 1am.

During this second home stay I also got really sick! =( I still don’t know what it was from: food, a bug, weather, etc… Last Sunday afternoon I really did not feel that great so I went to take a nap around 3pm and almost slept the entire night. The only reason I didn’t was because, well besides a phone call from Mom, I had a really high fever. I was sweating but had the chills so I was curled up in a blanket and I had a pounding headache. And to make things better my stomach was really mad at me. I just tired to rest and sleep the rest of the night and see if I was okay to make it to school the next morning. In the morning not feeling really normal but okay I toughed it out and went. When I got home I went straight to bed and did not move from there all night. I had another even worse fever, chills and headache. My host Mom was so worried about me. She took really good care of me. She made sure I took my pills every 4 hours, gave me wet washcloths, and tired to feed me but my stomach just would not have been able to handle it. Tuesday I decided that I would just stay home from training and language classes to rest. It helped a lot! The fever has not come back but my stomach is still not back to normal. But I think that is just part of traveling to a different country.

Saying good-bye to this host family was just as hard as the first one even though we only spend two weeks with them. It is amazing how much someone can really have an impact in your life in such a short period of time. As I was saying good-bye to my host Mom she told me that her husband never had any daughters and she can tell that he really views me as his daughter and that it is really hard for him to let me go. And I noticed it too saying good-bye to him, his eyes really spoke wonders. He knows who the minister is in Tungua so he wrote a letter for him to watch over me and keep me safe. I am really going to miss him and his wife!!

For the week of attachment I will be staying with a current volunteer named Grant. He lives on an outer island named Ha’ano in the Ha’apai group; so it will be very similar to what Tungua might be like. He is only one year into his service. Also staying at his house will be Melanie and Eric, the kick ass married couple. That is the only reason that a single girl would be able to stay at a single male’s house. It is very culturally inappropriate for the single volunteers to have someone of the opposite sex be an overnight guest. But I guess since there is a married couple with us it is a little better.

As we get off the airplane the current volunteers are waiting there to take us to our new homes for the next week. We start off by all eight of us pilling into a taxi van with all of our luggage (how we all fit….I still will never know), dropping four of the volunteers off in Pangai where they will be staying for the week with a different volunteer. The rest of us staying with Grant continued on to the meat store (which was a little shack in someone’s yard off the side of a road) to get some moa (chicken) for the week, than on to the PC office to pick up his three Tongan friends who drove the boat into Pangai and also get some food from a little store in the same building. Once we are done shopping for our food for the week we headed over to a neighboring village where we drove to a wharf and loaded up into a small little fishing boat; in the boat was Grant, his three friends, Melanie, Eric, me, all of our luggage and of course our food. The boat ride was about an hour. It was really interesting to experience since that is about the size of the boat that I will have to take over to Ha’afava. If you put your hand on the outside of the boat and reached down about 5 or 6 inches you could touch the water. While we were heading over to Ha’ano it started to sprinkle on us…no worries about our stuff because it was covered, it was just us who got wet. =)

Grant’s and his village are great!! His village is a little smaller than mine, he has about 34 house holds but there are also about 3 or 4 other villages on the island, so the island itself is larger. He also has running water and electricity from 7pm to 2am. The day to day experiences that we had with Grant were priceless. Just to be able to see a current volunteer in his community really taught us a lot. Grant is a school teacher so the job will be a little different though. Grant also showed us some really important skills that we need to use while living on an outer island. Everything from cooking delicious meals with little supplies (not sure I mentioned that Ha’apai does not get any veggies from about December to about March/April), fishing, eating raw fish right out of the ocean (oh man…I have a really great story about that), gutting and scaling fish, husking a coconut, making coconut milk, starting a fire using coconuts to cook dinner with, to understanding how to be accepted in a Tongan culture and community without sacrificing your own culture and views. All in all it was a really great experience and I also made some good friends there that I will go back and visit.

The story about eating raw fish right out of the ocean…as those of you who really know me, I don’t eat raw fish! I don’t like the smell, the texture, and of course the whole mental thing about it being raw does not help. We were all swimming at the wharf one day after school with the children in the village and this man from the village comes up to Grant and just hands him this raw fish. The man had just been cleaning out the nets they have placed a little further down the beach. Grant tells one of the kids to go get a knife. Meanwhile, Eric, Melanie and I are getting out of the water curious to know what we are going to do with the fish…some what knowing that he is going to have us eat it, but still hoping that he might have something else planned. The kid returns with a knife and Grant guts the fish, scales it and puts three slits on each side of the fish. He then takes a bite out of the meat that is now showing and hand it off to Eric. Eric takes a bite, has a hard time ripping a piece off but finally gets it and his consensuses is that the raw fish is ifo (delicious). Grant then bites off another chunk of raw fish meat and hands it to me, while I give him a really nasty look I take the raw fish. Not wanting to go anywhere near this raw fish but at the same time taking the piece knowing that I should at least try it because this is a very common way that fish is eaten on an outer island. And since I will be on what is considered an even further outer island than Grant’s, I figured there is no better time than the present to give it a try. I go ahead and bite off a little piece from the chunk that I was given, try and forget exactly what I am eating and just taste it. My consensuses…..It is not that bad…I actually kind of like it and I finish eating the chunk in my hand. Melanie tried a little piece too but did not really like it. It was really crazy to think back on the event and know that I…I of all people just ate a fish that was just alive and swimming just a few short minutes before. Definitely an experience to write home about! ;-) **with all of these new and unbelievable experiences that saying has a whole new meaning!!

For Thanksgiving Peace Corps provides a turkey for each island group and all the volunteers and trainees on that island group get together and try to make a traditional dinner with the available supplies. Since everyone else on Ha’apai where already on the main island it was just us on Ha’ano who needed to find a boat to take up into Pangai. Grant informed us, that like most of the other parts of Tonga, everything runs on island time and we should pack and get everything ready the night before because we don’t know exactly when the boat will be leaving. It could be 6am or 10am, just whenever people feel like leaving. So in the morning we wake up at 6am all packed and ready to go, talk with some of the locals to see who is going and when they might be leaving. After a while of talking with different people in the village we find out that no one is going into Pangai do to the shortage of fuel for the boats. So needless to say, we get to spend one more day on the beautiful island of Ha’ano. All of us are really fine with the change on plans and make the most of the day. For dinner we ended up sharing a really nice simple ika mo e moa (fish and chicken) dinner with just the 5 of us: Grant, one of his really good Tongan friends, Eric, Melanie, and myself. Even though we were stranded on a beautiful tropical island, we all really enjoyed ourselves and had plenty of things to be thankful for.

We were able to find a boat going into Pangai the next day, caught our flight back to Tongatapu and headed onto our second home stay and the final leg of our training schedule.

Sunday, November 23, 2008 @ 3pm

We had to say good bye to one of our fellow trainees. For curtain reasons one of the trainees in Tu’anekivale is being sent home. It is a very sad time for all of us to see him go…but things always happen for a reason. He really had a great impact on his fellow trainees here in Tu’anekivale as well as his host family. The night before we were going to take him to the airport, his family planned a really big feast for him. (Thankfully no pigs were killed for him!) And of course it being a Tongan event…there were thank you speeches given not only by us (the fellow trainees), but also our language teacher, his host father, and his host sister. His host sister delivered such a touching speech that I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house. The broken English accent added a little emotional touch. It is really amazing how much of an impact you can have on someone else’s life in such a short period of time.

Just a few short days later it was time for the rest of us to head onto the next leg of our training. We will be spending one week with a current volunteer to get a better idea of the day to day life a volunteer. As much as I am excited to go see what it is going to be like on an outer island, I know it is going to be hard to say good bye to my host family. The night before I leave the family holds a ‘family meeting’ for them to all say thank you to me and good buy. It was also an opportunity for me to express my thanks and appreciation for all they have done for me. Just picture…about 22 people sitting in a circle on the floor of a living room all focusing their attention on one key person. It was a little overwhelming with the language barrier to really understand what they where trying to express to me. I could understand a few words here and their but their body language and tone of voice really helped me feel the emotions they were trying to share with me. It was really a totally unique experience of just an overwhelmingly strong circle understand of love that was able to break through a language barrier. Once everyone who wanted to speak was done, including me, Sione said a lotu (prayer) and then of course…it was time to eat, but what we ate was the most unique part. We had ice cream (which is a really really big treat!) and we ate it with….BREAD!! Yes, that is right we ate our ice cream with bread. It was actually good…it was chocolate ice cream and it was a little melted so you just use the bread to soak up the melted ice cream. You should all at least try it! =) The rest of the night was filled with just everyone staying at home together and watching movies. It was a really nice last night with the family.

The next day was filled with me trying to get everything to fit back into my suit case plus all the new things I got since I was at the home stay (everything did end up fitting…thankfully!!), taking family pictures and lots of pictures of the kids, and saying good bye to everyone in the village. It was somewhat of a really depressing day! When it came time for us to leave for the airport we first headed to town to go pick up the twins and Mapo and than headed to the airport with a car full of people and all of my belongings. When it was time to go into the boarding area was really hard. Saying good bye to so many people and the emotions that they all showed did not make it any easier. Once I was done giving everyone a hug everyone started coming around to give me a second hug…needless to say I was the last one to go into the boarding area. As we walked out to the plane, my family yelled from the gate on the side of the airport building “Bye Hina!!” “’Ofa atu (love to you)” over and over again. It is a memory I will never forget!!

Today we found out where we are going to spend the next two years of our lives!! =)

My assignment will be in Tungua. It is a small village in the Ha’apai Island Group. It is the only village on the entire island. Now when I say the entire island…the island is only about 1 mile by a little less than 1 mile. =) I am being sent to one of the farthest most islands of any current volunteer or any of the other trainees. The village has a population of about 230 and has about 42 households. I will be working primarily with the youth group to help build the businesses that they currently have. (Side note…in Tonga when they use the word youth it has a different meaning. Youth is considered anyone who is out of school and is not married.) I will also be working with the fisherman, the weavers, and the school. What it sounds like is that they want me to help with everything. I am really excited to have such a variety of jobs that I can help with. I am most excited about the rich cultural experience I will have living on an outer outer island. I will have access to the internet when I go into the main city Pangai in the Peace Corps office. However, I hear it is really slow…but it will be free. To get into Pangai I have to take a small boat to a town called Ha’afeva (where their will be a married couple stationed) and then change to a little bit bigger boat for about a 3 or 4 hour boat ride into Pangai, so I will not be going into town all that often…maybe once a month for food shopping and catching up with you guys!! =)

I am told that my house used to be a clinic...which means that there is not a clinic in our village anymore. ;) I guess it is somewhat of a big house and very close to the matatahi (beach – literally: face of the ocean). YAY!! I will have to take pictures of my house and my view to share with you all. I do not know if I have running water or electricity for certain yet. I am fairly certain that I will not have running water, so that means bucket baths for the next two years! =) And as for electricity I might just have it at night, which is perfectly fine for me since you don’t really need it during the day. I am sure my view of the ocean will make up for everything!!

Today was such a great day!! I am really excited about the experience I will get living on an outer island…and to make the experience even better the closest PC volunteers to me is a kick ass married couple. I am sure that I will be hopping over to their island when I need to get away. It is funny how things play out. Within the first week of arriving in Tonga the wife and I really clicked on a lot of levels and we were both hoping that we would be placed really close to each other. =) Look how things just seem to work out…we are going to be seeing a lot of each other. YAY!! After finding out everyone’s sites…we had an amazing day out on a boat. One of the current volunteers set up a boat to take all of the PC volunteers, trainees and some staff members around to some of the different site seeing places around Vava’u. It was so much fun and a great ending to a day that was filled with so much excitement…since everyone was excited about where they got placed. We swam into some really cool caves, went snorkeling (amazing and colorful fish Art…it was like I was looking into your tank), and spent some time on a beach that we had all to ourselves. It was really relaxing and the views were so faka’ofo’ofa (beautiful). On the boat ride home one of the staff members and I climbed up onto the very top of the boat (above where the captain’s cabin is) and just enjoyed the ride home. It was that moment…as the sun was going down reflecting off the water, the beautiful islands and cliffs, the slight breeze in the salty air that I realized…I am so lucky….I was sent to paradise!! =)

Saturday after I came back from being downtown using the internet, Kasi (another volunteer in my village) and I were invited to attend our town’s misionale feast. A misonale is a church function where once a year the families donate money to the church. But they make it a really big event. They call out the families names and say how much they donate. Some families really want to look good so they give a lot more money than what they have, sometimes taking out loans. After all the donations are done they head over to the hall to have a huge feast.

We headed home changed into appropriate wear and walked down to the church. As we were being lead into the hall…we realized they were going to seat up at the front of the room with all the ministers. This is a very great honor. It means that you are a very special guest and should stand up at some point and thank everyone for having you, the food and of course inviting you to sit in the front.

As we sit there in the front of the room listening to one of the ministers speaking (in Tongan of course…so we really don’t know what he is saying), I sit there and take in the atmosphere around me. There is so much food on the table that it has to be stacked on top of each other in about three or four different layers…when I look out into the rest of the room I feel like I am hiding from everyone behind all the food piled up. There was enough food just on the front table to feed a starving nation. There were about 10 pigs on our front table alone, crabs, lobsters, tons of different side dishes, fish, shellfish, fruit, lots of soda, candy and so much more. After the prayer is done, I sit there looking at the matrix of food in front of me not sure where to start, not wanting to cause an avalanche. As I am eating, I realize staring right in front of me is the butt of a roasted pig! =) A whole pig…just for me to eat since there are about 10 pigs on the table and about 10 people (I ate none of it though). Just when you think there is no way that you are even going to make a noticeable dent in the food….they bring the front table more food. Well…ice cream…and of course you have to eat that since it is a really big treat here!! ;-) It comes time for Kasi and I to stand up and show our appreciation for having us at the front table. So…in Tongan we introduce our selves, tell them we work with Pisikoa (the way Tongan’s say Peace Corps), thank them for the food, tell them that we really love our village and the people, say thank you again and sit down. Now, one thing to mention is that in the Tongan culture they are always standing up and saying thank you to everyone and for everything. So when Tongans stand up and talk people don’t really stop what they are doing, they just kind of listen. But when Kasi and I stood a big hush went over the room, everyone stopped, and gave us their undivided attention. Oh great!!...just don’t mess up the pronunciation! =)

The rest of the ministers at the table finished talking, the last one said an ending prayer and it was over; all the people who were outside come rushing inside. The food was divided between all the families in the community, whether they were from that church or not. Within an hour all of the food was gone and the hall was all cleaned up. You wouldn’t even be able to imagine such a giant feast had just taken place such a short time earlier. Amazing!!

I wanted to post more pictures but it takes a while to get them loaded. Hope you all enjoy!! I will try to post some more of my fellow PC volunteers...and is their anything else you guys would like to see??

Keitahi Beach. This is one of the other beaches by my village. It is almost like a view from Lost. =)

Samiu, my 15 year old host brother, jumping!! We have so much fun at the beach. And the children love to look at my pictures when we get back home, especially pictures like this one! =)

Here is part of my Tongan family! The parents on the sides, the twins, Leseili and 'Anunciai, Sina and her children. This was after church...the children did a performance so everyone was dressed up. =)

The twins graduated from high school...they invited me to attend their ball. So here I am in the traditional Tongan dress they has made for me.

Siousi...my 2 year old host brother...modeling at the beach. (the rock in the background is the one I fell from.)

Here is Siousi sleeping in the back of the truck we take on Sundays to the beach.

Leseili, 'Aunuciai, Setita, and Tu'i in the background. You can tell they are a fun family! =)

This is at the special complimentary dinner/performance we had down at the beach in our town. This is a traditional Tongan dance, she is wearing coconut oil so that you can stick money to her. =)

This was our welcoming feast...and this is only half of the food!! And the food for only for 8 of us!

Leseili and Mapo getting mangos on our way down to 'Eneio beach. =)

Tu'anekivale!!! This is the main road in my town I live all the way and the end. I am standing in about the middle of town taking the picture. This was a few minutes before I helped the older man who gave me my Tongan name. =)

'umu....here is a the 'umu that they cooked the root crop in and the coconut tree leaves basket (to the left) they put it in to carry.

I am really enjoying myself here in Tu’anekivale. I live near some beautiful beaches and I am like a celebrity here. Whenever I am walking down the street to school the kids always call out, from places you didn’t even know of, Hina! Hina! Hina! When I walk home from school for lunch, it is also the primary school lunch time, and the kids come down the hill running to me. The boys I give high fives and the girls I just give hugs to. They are all so cute, they get a little shy and then head home. I always walk home with my little homestay sister, either holding her hand or riding on my shoulder. Whenever I get home from school I love playing with the kids in my house. I have kids that are there just hanging out or actually live here from the age of 20 to 1. The young kids here don’t really play with the adults so I think they really love it. I pick them up, hang them upside down, chase them, tickle them…and it goes on for hours. It is funny to watch the kids because they always look at you with this big grin hoping they will be the next kid I pick up.

After playing with the kids for a while I either go kaukautahi (swim in the ocean), go for a jog with another PC volunteer or head to the basketball courts. Other PC volunteers are usually there and our two language teachers too. The games are really fun and it is a good workout. Oh, I should mention that they really don’t know what basketball is here. They have something called neti polo (net ball) that is the closest thing. The ball, court lines, rules and hoop are all a little different but we just use the neti polo ball and play basketball. =) After basketball or jogging it is time to come home cuz it is getting dark. I come home play with the children some more, take a shower, eat dinner (every so often they will actually let me help make the dinner), do homework/study, and hang out with the family. Who could ask for a better schedule!! Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that I also go to the dance practices and my oldest host sister, Leseili age 20, likes to pull me up with them because it is the song about Hina. =) So I am learning a Tonga dance, it is a lot of hand movements and you don't really move your feet but you have to keep your knees bent a little bit. I think the whole town enjoys watching me make a fool of myself trying to keep up with moves. These kids have been around these dances their whole lives so they really don't teach you the moves. I just have to watch someone else and just kind of pick up on it. It is a lot of fun though! =D

Today we had coconut survival skills training. Which consisted of watching my language teacher climb a coconut tree (without any shoes of course), open a coconut with a machete, husk a coconut, and start a fire without a flame. It was really cool to watch but not like I would be able to do all of that if I was ever stranded on an island.

I have not really run into any major challenges, yet…I know they will come. I have not really gotten sick either. My stomach at times is a little upset…but I am sure that has nothing to do with the food preparation cleanliness. I do miss seeing/talking with my friends and family but how excited everyone is to see me here and talk with me helps keep my mind busy, Thankfully!!

Sunday, October 26, 2006 Well to start off where I left off…the complimentary dinner was great!! They had some really good food…and more like American food too. =) After eating they planned a performance for us. It was really cute. It was some of the local children performing traditional Tongan dances. They did such a great job and they all looked so cute in their outfits. I have some pics…I will try to post them. At the restaurant they also had a bar. It was the first time since we got here to actually have a chance to have a more typical American social activity where it was okay to drink. We had such a great time. It is interesting how welcoming and loving these people are. We are not even going to be helping their community; we are just here for training. But I guess they know what kind of work PC does and they know that we will be helping their people, whether it is their village for not. On Sunday I got to experience a typical Sunday of event. After a 3 hour Mormon Church service, which I couldn’t even understand since it was all done in Tonga, we packed up all the food, that some of the family cooked while we were at church, and headed for the beach. My family wanted to show me Vava’u so we drove around almost the whole island just taking in the amazing paradise perfect views. We arrived at one of the well known palangi beaches (they call it that because it is one of the more beautiful beaches that all the tourists like to visit) and had our ‘umu in the back of the truck and then went swimming. There was about 16 of us…now I am sure you are asking yourself how can 16 people fit in one truck. Well, when I say truck you should be thinking more of like a small 18-wheeler ish type of truck. It is a work truck with a cap and the back is a low sided flat bed. Everyone just hopes in the back of the truck and we go…women, children, babies, elders…everyone rides back there. Well not everyone…PC does not allow us to ride in the back for insurance purposes. =X So the palangi has to ride up front. After we were done eating and swimming we moved onto another beach. One that was a lot closer to our village. This beach is also beautiful and had some cool coral rock formations that everyone was climbing. So after talking some pics I put the camera down and headed out to climb to the top of the rock. And this is where the story begins. =) There is a shorter rock and you first have to climb onto and then climb into the next really big one. If you are familiar with coral it is very sharp and has lots of holes, well at least this one did. To even get to the rock you have to walk out into the ocean a little ways, so you are already wet when you get there and of course I had shoes on (well if you would like to call flip flops shoes) so just start thinking what might have happened. Everyone else in my host family was climbing it so easily, no shoes, like it was nothing. Well between being wet, having shoes on (bare feel would not have been any better), and not really experience at this thing……of course……..I FELL!! OUCH!!! I had it and then I slipped, fell into the first smaller rock and then fell into the ocean. =X As I was falling the thought went through my head “oh shit, I hope I don’t get hurt really bad.” When I came to the surface for air, nothing really hurt and of course my host family is freaking out. They were saying “Sai pe, sai pe??”…which mean ‘okay, okay??’ After a few minutes my family found all the places I was bleeding. I had cuts on my leg, arm, back, fingers, and not until I was out of the water walking back to the truck did I realize that there was a big cut and some missing skin on my big toe, left foot. All the other injuries were just minor cuts and plenty of bruises the next morning, but the cut on my toe looked pretty bad (keep in mind that I just wrote ‘looked’). When we got back to the house and we could better look at the toe, my host family wanted to take me to the hospital. It did not really hurt bad enough for me to think that I needed to go and I think they were just worried about me. I took a shower, bandaged everything else up and convinced them to take me to the PC language trainer’s house in our village first to talk with them…they have a medical kit and the hospitals are not that good anyways. When I got there they had more supplies so I could clean the cut correctly and bandaged it up. The next day I was a little sore all over and walking to class (my house and class are on opposite ends of the village, about ½ mile) was not fun since I could not put any pressure on my toe. A week later, all my wounds have healed very nicely, I did a really good job of keeping everything cleaned and bandaged since I knew how dirty everything is with flies everywhere. I can walk normal now, but the cut on my toe is still sensitive…I lost a lot of layers of skin. All in all I am very thankful that nothing worse happened to me…I am sure the cut on my toe will leave a scar…a story to share. =) (I hope none of you are freaked out (Mom)…it really wasn’t as bad as it sounds. I promise you!) The rest of my week has been pretty uneventful after Sunday’s events. =) Just language and business training during the day, playing with the kids in the evening, eating dinner, doing language homework and watching movies. I have watched so many movies…they watch the really cheesy American movies over and over again. My language is getting better…I just keep working on trying to communicate with the few words I know and filling in the rest with hand gestures. It is really funny when the 6 year old is correcting me when I say something wrong. =) I guess you have to learn some way! On Friday, I attended a high school ball for my twin host sisters. They are graduating from high school next week. The ball is not what you have pictured when you think of the work ‘ball.’ It wasn’t like anything that we have back in the states but I would describe it as a mix between a dance (however, all of your family is watching, all the lights are on and they don’t dance how we do) and an informal presentation of the graduates. Everyone gets really dressed up, the graduates where wearing ball gowns and suites. I didn’t have anything even close to being that formal so they went and bought some fabric and had a traditional dress made for me. It was really nice of them…cuz know I have something formal to wear other places. =) Graduating is a very big deal here in Tonga, for a couple of reasons. First, not everyone gets to go to high school. At grade 6 they have to take an exam and if they score high enough they will attend high school. High school is done primarily in English so that is another challenge for a lot of Tongans. After high school there are not that many job opportunities so most of the graduates will either move overseas (New Zealand, Australia, or America) or get married and start a family. Saturday morning we had a funeral to attend. All the PC trainees attended wearing all black to show our respect and brought flowers for the family. Going to the funeral served two purposes: to experience what happens at a Tongan funeral and to show our support…one of our Trainer’s uncles was the one who passes away. It was a good experience to be able to have while in training so if we had any questions we could just ask one of the trainers. When we got there, there was about 5 full grown big pigs hanging form the tree, some where already cooked and some were waiting to be cooked. Funerals are not just a one day thing here in Tonga. The men were all helping with cooking the animals and the women arranged themselves right outside the house of the deceased and were singing songs. After we went into the house and presented our flowers we were fed. Of course, everything in Tonga is done around food. The difference is that the family of the deceased (not the immediate family members) are the ones serving the food. We only spend about an hour there and then we were taken back to our villages. The rest of Saturday was a day of rest for me, kind of felt a little sick so slept most of the day and night. Sunday was the typical routine of church and an ‘umu at the beach. This time there were 24 of us who went to the beach and there are no injuries to report. =)

Within 5 hours of getting off the plane and meeting my host family….I received my Tongan name. Hina! =D (he-na) My host mom, Sali, and I went for a walk down the street to a store on the side of the road. On our way back to the house an older man was walking with a wheel barrel full of mangos that he had just colleted from the trees. He offered us one….and when he let go of the wheel barrel it fell over and all of the mangos went everywhere. Me being me….I ran over and helped pick them up…not thinking twice about it. The whole time my host mom and him were talking in Tonga…me not being able to understand expect for the word palangi, which means white person. A little later the older gentleman came by the house and gave me the Tongan name Hina. I come to find out that he is the chief of the village. The name Hina is a very proud name to have. Hina is one of the female heroines in their stories. She provides protection for the village if anything is trying to hurt or kill them….or something like that. It is a little hard to totally understand when the stories are told in very broken English. I was later told that she was the most beautiful women in the village. I keep getting told that I should be very proud to have been given such a name. I love the name is sounds really pretty and I am very thankful to be given such a cherished name by the village. It is a little weird answering to a different name than your own after 24 years. But I really enjoy that I was given such a name! =) The homestay experience has been amazing. The village is full of so much culture and hospitality. Palangis are treated very well and Peace Corps Palangis even more so. They feed us first and eat after…to show respect. I keep trying to get everyone to eat together but I don’t think it will really work. They always want you to eat a lot. Fewww…..so much food at every meal…I never finish anything and to them I don’t really eat. The islands are very poor. Almost 50% of the income for the island is sent here from family in America. So you can imagine what type of the living conditions there are. Most of the people in my village, Tu’anekivale, do have electricity and running water with showers…may not be inside though. The family that I am staying with is GREAT. They have five children (age 12, 8, 6, 2, and 1). Also living in the house is the husband’s parents, his younger twin sisters(age 20), and two of their cousins(age 15 and 14). It is really a full house but everyone is really nice. They speak English, so it helps with getting to understand the Tongan language. They will say something in Tongan, say it in English and then repeat it in Tonga. =) They actually let me help with things around the house too. Part of the culture is that you are a guest so you should not do anything. I am really insistent that I tokoni (help) and they try to show me what they are doing or let me help with a little part. I have washed my own clothes by hand, helped prepare some food, and play with the kids a lot. The family I am staying with is Mormon. They took me to a Mormon dance on Thursday night and I will also join them for Sunday service. It is interesting to observe their religion in their culture. The dance was very fun. The mom and older daughters kept teasing me about finding a Tongan moa (boyfriend) at the dance. At the dance they play popular rap music from America that has been blended with a Tongan/island twist. I don’t think they really know what the words are to the songs from America because I don’t think they would be playing them at a Mormon dance if they did know. The dancing is fun too. It is like a middle school dance back in America. When you dance with someone you dance about three feet away from them, don’t really have eye contact and you really just move side to side with the music. You don’t really show off your dance moves or really get into feeling the music. Last night, Friday night, I got invited by one of the other PC homestay daughter’s to go tou‘a at a kalapu. Kalapu is a kava circle but the main purpose is it is a fundraiser. Men are still only allowed to participate in the kava circle, they each pay $5 pa’anga (which about be about $2.5 American dollars). Tou’a is a single female who sits in front of the kava bowl and serves it to the men. A few of the PC men came to drink and me and another single PC girl in my village went to tou’a. It was fun to experience. I am sure it will be more fun when we understand more of the language and can communicate with them better. Kava circle’s are an interesting tradition because it is a bunch of men who sit around for hours drinking kava and just talking. When I say for hours I mean hours. The kalapu started last night about 8pm and lasted until about 3am. The two other girls who were tou’a and I only stayed until about 11pm. Kava is not like alcohol…it has more of a high/stoned feeling and it is only in your body not your head…so you can still think clearly. Women are not allowed to drink the kava except at their wedding. This morning, Saturday, I woke up and headed into town with some of my host family and some other PC people. We took the bus from our village at 7:45am and it comes back to the village at 11am. The main purpose people go into town is to go to the markets and get food. The other PC people and I just walked around to see the area and get some more skirts…men and women. I am not sure if I mentioned it in an earlier post but the men here have to wear a tupenu (wrap skirts) when you are in a formal/professional setting. It has been funny watching the men learn how to sit on the ground cross legged with a tupenu on. They always seem to flash us….good thing most of them wear shorts underneath. Tonight the PC trainees in my town have been invited to a dinner at the restaurant that is located on the beach. The restaurant is only open for the cruise boats when they come in, but the owner wanted to offer us a special complimentary dinner. That will be at 7pm tonight. After coming back from town, the rest of my day has been filled with writing this blog post and sleeping. =) A true Tongan thing to do…sleep during the day. ***Disclaimer*** The views, opinions, and comments made on this page are not that of the Peace Corps; only my personally experiences. **PC told us that if we have a blog we need to put that some where on our page for legal purposes. =X