The Good and The Bad

There are many good things about Tonga that I enjoy; unfortunately, the food is not one of them. Not all the food is terrible, though. I really like the lu and the clams I get on Sundays. The clams are cooked in the umu with a coconut curry sauce and they are as good and fresh as any clams I’ve had in the US. For the most part, my dinners are satisfactory and even occasionally enjoyable as I just eat meat (sheep, chicken, or beef) with rice or root crops. The sheep, especially, is pretty solid.

That being said, there is plenty of food that I have not been able to enjoy in Tonga and I have certainly experienced days where my diet consists of water, coke, cookies, and rice. Below, I have listed some of the most interesting meals (i.e. worst) I have eaten (i.e. tried one bite of) in Tonga so far.

1.     Spaghetti and Spam sandwich. Yes, there is a third incarnation of the spaghetti bread sandwich that I have recently discovered. In this rendition, a piece of spam is placed on top of the spaghetti bread sandwich, much to the delight of all the Tongans who I give away this lunch too.

2.     Corned Beef soup. Corned beef in Tonga is not like corned beef in America. It is canned beef. Imagine canned tuna fish, but with beef, and you kind of get the idea. When I first heard I was getting soup I was incredibly excited, as I have heard from several volunteers that Tongan soup is amazing and I have yet to try it. Sadly, I believe the soup component in corned beef soup is the liquid that comes from the can so this meal was not a winner.

3.     Spamburger. My host mother asked me what my favorite kind of food is and I naively answered hamburgers. Since then I have been greeted many morning by a boxed lunch of bread, lettuce, tomato, and spam.

There are many good things, not counting the food that I experience as well. During my home stay, the people of Ha’asini have been incredibly welcoming to me. I feel very lazy because everything is done for me. Faiana cooks my meals and does my laundry. The villagers welcome me into their homes, invite me to their kava circles, thank me for just being there in their churches, and greet me warmly whenever I see them. I am often overwhelmed by their kindness and generosity and I wanted to give back something in return for their hospitality.

Fortunately, two events came up this week that have allowed me to help in a small way. The first was that a man who belongs to the church I go to asked me if I could help his daughter prepare for the Form 5 exam – this is roughly the same as 10^th grade. I said of course, and the next day I helped teach her how to write a persuasive essay in English (a ridiculously hard assignment that I hope I helped explain a little bit).

For the second event, one of the men in the village who teaches high school in Nuku’alofa asked me if I could help him write his essay for his application to graduate school in New Zealand. I helped him brainstorm some ideas, and I told him to bring me his essays when he finishes them so we can review them together.

Both of these events are extremely minor, but it made me happy to contribute something to my village. It also helped show me that the affect I have on Tongans as a volunteer is very difficult to quantify as a teacher, but just helping one girl pass her exam and one teacher get accepted into his masters program offers the little successes that make my Peace Corps experience worthwhile for myself and the Tongans I live with.

On a different note, I have been on the lookout for funny signs that always seem to be prevalent in developing countries.  I have finally been able to capture one, as you can see below. The photo was taken at a school library (check out Commandment 10).

The next photo is a picture of a goody bag that the current volunteers made for us because they know that we have been stressing out about finding out our site attachments. Two more days! (but whose counting). It was a great surprise, and the bag was filled with much needed candy, an American flag, a photo of our arrival, a bracelet, a necklace, a shell, and a bunch of other things.