Gender is defined by sexual roles, not sexual objects, but never so much as it is in Tonga. Men go to the bush, farm, make the umu for cooking, build houses, drink kava, mow the grass, do household repairs, fish, drive and preach. Women weave, cook, clean, sweep, take care of children, do the laundry, [...]

The Peace Corps has five levels of color-coordinated emergency action plans, kind of like President Bush’s trusted terror alerts, but these plans have been enacted more and more recently as the world seems to be disintegrating into natural disaster. A few weeks ago, the big event was a cyclone. We were on stand-fast for a [...]

Monday. The first day of school. All the students sit in the assembly hall singing hymns in perfect harmony, boys on the left taking accompanying parts and the girls on the right doubled in number singing melody. Visa, the head tutor, stands outside the entrance chain smoking, ignoring the law of no smoking on campuses [...]

What have I been doing? It’s a good question. For two weeks, it’s been very little really—going to the beach, watching movies, working out, sleeping, going to church, eating a lot whether at home or at feasts, and fighting bugs—although the dominance of church, eating and sleeping make it a very Tongan schedule. The bugs [...]

Every conversation I have with someone in my community, after formal introductions, begins with, “Osi mali?” “Are you already married?” “No, no I’m not,” I reply. “You will marry here,” they tell me assuredly, and then point out every girl who will be my future wife, which becomes every girl that walks by. “She is [...]

It has actual been a month since I last emailed, although this is the premiere entry as a blog! No new pig killings or castrations to report about. Well that’s not really true, I’ve probably seen about ten now—baby pig stabbed in the neck while in a bag, another gunshot to the head, machete to [...]

I thought killing a pig was an unparalleled event, but here is an activity the whole family can enjoy: pig castration. A pig is tied tightly around the waist with a rope as the forty or so other pigs my host family owns scream at the animal, even biting it almost cannibalistically. The entire family—Kelepi [...]

So I was in a really bad mood missing people, and all of a sudden I heard a gunshot. The shot itself did not so much disturb me. This is a place where kids from first grade on often bring a machete to school, but I had not seen a gun since I’ve been here [...]

So Ha’apai has one Internet cafe and I found it! Which was a quick hitchhike away from where I’m living (not too dangerous as there is only one road, but the road is awesome—it connects two islands with this massive land bridge that sometimes doesn’t exist at high tide during the rainy season). Hitchhiking is [...]

The weather has been consistently in the 70s. I went to church yesterday as I have to in my tupenu, a long skirt men wear, and the king of Tonga was there! You can only go to church, eat and rest on Sunday, the last two being all I ever do anyway, so not too [...]