Sharing is Caring

The concept of private property is interesting in Tonga. Tongans own their own land, and many Tongans possess enough acreage to have farms and have all the members of their family live in one compound. The concept of private property is well understood. That is his land. That is her pig. That is their house, etc.

Yet, at the same time, private property is flexible in Tonga. My neighbors have chickens but they are always in my yard. No problem in Tonga, as I still know they’re my neighbor’s chickens and I won’t touch them. My cousin borrowed my bowl and never gave it back. That’s ok, I never gave back the plate I took from my friend two months ago, and on it goes. One’s personal property in Tonga is also communal.

The different values of private property, I believe, stem from the traditional role and use of the land in regards to the king, the nobles, and the peasants. Though I do not know everything concerning this matter, the Tongan people, while controlling the land, understand that they are more in fact stewards of the nobles’ and the king’s land rather than owners in their own right. Tongans are in fact leasing the land from the nobles, and the taxes they pay on the land are more like rent than property taxes. Further, Tongans are not allowed to sell their land since they are leasing it, and land is passed down through the oldest son. Tongans therefore operate the land under the structure of tenant famers, though in reality their private property seems and exists like any property in the US.

I do not know if this is why Tongans’ view personal property as communal, but I think it has something to do with it. Before going into further detail, I want to mention an allegory that one of the volunteers who has served in Tonga for the past two years shared with me regarding Tongans’ view of property that I think explains it well.

I have a water bottle sitting on the table. I am not thirsty, so my water bottle is just sitting on the table, slowly evaporating away. In America, no one would think of touching that bottle. People know that that is my bottle and that even if they are thirsty, they would not touch it without my consent.

In Tonga, that doesn’t make any sense. Tongans think to themselves, “Why let that water go to waste?” So, if no one is drinking the water, they will take the bottle of water for themselves, regardless of who actually owns it. The person who took the bottle had his thirst quenched, and the person who owns the bottle doesn’t care because he would have done the same thing in the other person’s shoes and is happy his friend is satiated.  In America, the person whose bottle it was would be very upset, but that is not the case in Tonga.

This may sounds noble and very communal, which in some ways it is, but in practice and having grown up in and liking our system of private property, it can be very annoying as well. In Tonga there is no such thing as borrowing, yet if someone asks for something it is rude to say no. If someone asks to use your plate, there is a chance you may get it back. Or, they may also lend that plate to someone else or just keep it forever, and you will never see it again.

In a more personal example, when I drink Kava I leave my sandals by the door so as not to bring in mud and be culturally respective. However, when I looked back one time my sandals were missing. After fretting for 20 minutes, a man brought back my sandals, as he just needed to walk to the store and his sandals were farther away than mine. He knew they were not his sandals but that doesn’t matter in Tonga. They were there and, in that moment, he needed them more than me. I have since learned to keep everything as close to me as possible to ensure nothing is permanently “borrowed.”

Overall, the concept of private property and borrowing is not black and white in Tonga. Tongans are an extremely generous people, and they are willing to give you anything you ask for. At training, they warned us not to tell someone you like their shirt because they will then literally take off their shirt and give it to you. They know you like it, so why not? It is incredibly rewarding to work in a community and culture that is so generous and values friendship, family, and community above everything else.

On the other hand, I like my stuff. I do not want to lose my ipod or my sandals, and it is tough to say no without being rude. Yet, at the same time, this is the beauty of working for the Peace Corps in any country. Your job is to integrate – in my life that means wearing a tupenu, a ta’ovala at work, doing nothing on Sundays, and much more – but you are also supposed to share American culture as well.

Thus, the process of giving, sharing, and private property is a blend of cultures for me in Tonga, and one that I am still trying to learn my way through. It is awesome and annoying, cool and surprising at times, but these are the idiosyncrasies that make my life interesting here in Tonga.

The Tongans protecting themselves from the sun (From Left - my host mom Faiana, Peter's sister Baby, Jeff's sister/mom Vika on the bottom right, and Peter's mom Mehi on the top right)

Me and Baby (real name Margaret) at the beach and enjoying a coconut

at the blowholes in Houma (it is hard to tell but the ocean water hits the rock walls and shoots into the air out of wholes like geysers - it is awesome)

me and Lose (the head of our language training)

Vava'u!

I am very happy to announce that I will be spending the next two years of my life in the beautiful island of Vava’u. Unfortunately due to Peace Corps regulations, I cannot tell you the name of my site in this blog at this time, but I am very excited and I can tell you a little about my site (if you want to know the name of the site email me or ask my parents).

I will live in a small town of about 60 people, and commute about a km to my school every day. The school is in a town of about 100 people, and consists of students in the town I’m living in and another town that is roughly the same size. Since the town is so small, I am really hoping to integrate into the community quickly and actually learn everyone’s name.

The school has three teachers and 54 students. The description of my assignment, as written by the principle at my school, is as follows:

* Co‐teach English lessons for classes 3 ‐ 6 for 4 days a week and Fridays will be used for teachers development
* Lead teacher training workshops for teachers at school based on expressed needs
* Help establish library

* Help conduct sports activities.

I am incredibly excited about the description, as it covers everything I hope to accomplish in Tonga. I feel very strongly about organizing athletic events and establishing a library, and I particularly wanted to teach every class level. Further, I am looking forward to having an entire day each weak to focus on teacher training so that I can make my project sustainable by working with my fellow teachers to develop new teaching strategies. I also hope to establish some secondary community projects, but that will mostly likely remain separate from my teaching assignment.

To top it all off, the primary school I am teaching at has never had a pcv and the town has not had a volunteer since 2000 – he worked in agriculture which is very different from what I am doing - so I can really put my stamp on my site from day 1 and not be restrained by previous volunteers successes and mistakes. As far as site placement goes, I am extremely fortunate, as I could not have picked a better site to match both my skill set and desires.

Overall, I am very happy with my site location and I cannot wait to get there and get started. I still do not know a lot about the site, but I am heading up to Vava’u from October 31^st to November 3^rd, and I will then hopefully know more and relate it to my faithful readers.

Until then, however, I have posted a description about Vava’u (courtesy of Lonely Planet via the Peace Corps), a map, and some recent photos below.

Vava’u is a paradise not only for sailing but for year-round diving and snorkeling as well. The tranquil islands have a population of about 16,000 scattered throughout the 50-odd thickly wooded islands of the group.

To many Vava’u is Tonga’s most scenic region. It’s an uplifted limestone cluster that tilts to cliffs in the north and submerges in a myriad of small islands to the south; most of these are wholly or partially surrounded by coral reefs. In Vava’u one superb scenic vista succeeds another, all so varied you’re continually consulting your map to discover what you’re seeing.

Geography:

Where: 275km north of Tongatapu (the main island and where I live now)

Size: 21 km east to west, 25 km north to south

Islands: 34 elevated thickly forested islands/ 21 inhabited

Area: The main island is 90 sq. km

Group Photo

My family - my sister Kalo, my mom brother Sione, and my mom Faiana

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.

Kava

For this post I want to talk about the South Pacific phenomenon that is Kava.  Kava plays a huge role in South Pacific culture, and Tonga is no exception. There is alcohol in Tonga and Tongans do drink it, especially younger Tongans, but for most men kava is a social gathering and the drink of choice all in one. For those of you who don’t know, kava is made by mixing the powdered root of the kava plant with water. Kava looks uncannily similar to muddy water, and slightly numbs your tongue when you drink it.

Though some Tongans work and many don’t, all Tongans have plenty of free time, and that time is usually spent drinking kava. Whenever I walk around the villages, I can almost always see the men drinking kava in one of the halls, especially at night and on Sundays. They sit around in a circle, with one man mixing the kava in the kumete (a big bowl of kava) and pouring the kava into individual cups. The kava is then passed out to each of the men, who are sitting cross-legged on the floor.

The men spend several hours a day drinking kava, and consume a ridiculous amount of it. To give you an idea how much kava they drink, I drank 5 bowls in an hour sitting last week and that was with the men only giving me every other bowl to drink. Those who are wondering what happens during kava that makes it so awesome, the answer, I’m sorry to say, is nothing different from hanging out in America. All you do is drink, smoke, watch tv, snack, and gossip (Actually…now that I write it, it does sound pretty good). It is a great way to practice my Tongan and get to know the people in the community, however, so I try to go at least once a week.

If this post seems heavily male centric, that is because it is. Women, with few exceptions, are not allowed to drink kava. The only time a woman takes part in kava circle is when she serves as a tou’a and hands the cups of kava to the men without drinking it. Though I have not seen a tou’a yet while I have drank kava, I have heard that the women are often made fun of and flirted with, which is why they rarely agree to do it. Sometimes a woman will serve kava as part of a fundraiser, or a girl will serve kava for her boyfriend as a kind of date.

Further, kava is particularly different from alcohol in one interesting way. The more alcohol you drink, the more you build up a tolerance, and the less each individual drink affects you. Kava is the opposite. The more you drink kava, the more easily it affects you. When I mentioned earlier that I only drink 5 bowls in one sitting, it is not because I feel a buzz from the kava but because the water in the kava can make me sick if I drink too much.

Kava is definitely an interesting experience and I expect to take part in many more kava circles over the next two years. If any of you come to the South Pacific, I would highly advise joining a kava circle to experience it for yourself.

In other news, next Friday, October 19^th is a very big day for me. During our lunch break, they are going to tell us which village we are going to live in for the next two years. Though I will be happy wherever I go, I am both excited and nervous to get my placement, as this will encompass the core of Peace Corps experience. My village is my entire world for the next two years, and there are several sites on the island of Vava’u, due to what I would be doing in the specific school and community as well as the location, that I would definitely prefer to get. For now, however, it is out of my hands, so I am just going to sit back and anxiously wait for the 19th. I will do my best to post my placement here when I get it.

Language Class

The Ha'asini language crew

My Tongan teaching pose

Pigs vs. Dogs / Puaka vs. Culi

A skirmish broke out a few days ago that reminded me that I have not yet

talked about the interesting aspects of living with animals in Tonga.

 

I am sorry to tell all of you dog lovers out there, but dogs in Tonga are not

treated well. Dogs are wanted as guard dogs and not pets, and thus they are treated cruelly. Dogs are never allowed in the house and have to scrounge around for food. Tongans see nothing wrong with hitting dogs, and kids often throw stones at dogs as they walk in the streets. Growing up in this environment, the dogs in Tonga are particularly tough and can be dangerous.

 

The pigs and chickens are treated much differently by Tongans. They are not touched and are fed every day to fatten them up. However, like dogs, these animals have complete freedom of movement. I see pigs and chickens wherever I go, and no one cares if someone’s chickens or pigs are on their property or in the middle of the street. Having been here for over a month, I am already completely used to seeing these animals everywhere I look.

 

The pigs and dogs often interact with each other and are constantly in the vicinity of the other without anything happening. The pigs and dogs always just leave each other alone. This changed one day, though, as when I was walking to the next town I saw a pack of 5 dogs chasing a small pig, who was frantically and literally running for its life. I was very surprised because I have never seen the pigs and dogs have any problems before, and while the pig was small and young, it was not nearly as small as the baby pigs that are everywhere and would offer easy prey for the dogs.

 

A Tongan, not wanting to lose his valuable pig, chased after the animals to try to save the pig. Catching up to them, he picked up the pig by its snout and hind legs, while the dogs still tried to jump into his arms and bite the pig. At the same time, I noticed a group of Tongans trying to control the massive mother pig from running away from the house. Not able to be restrained, the large mother pig broke free and slammed into the dogs, chasing them away. One of the dogs still remained and the Tongan, who had previously worked so hard to save the pig, actually used the small pig as a club to knock the dog away.

 

It was a bizarre scene and showed me that I still have a lot to learn about Tonga and its animals, especially this uneasy truce that exists between pigs and dogs. It was also further proof that there is never a dull moment for me in Tonga.

 

A sunday stroll on the beach

The beach in the nearby town of Nakolo

 

 

Crystal clear water

I am not the only one

In the course of this blog, I have so far mentioned two embarrassing stories that both happen to revolve around me inappropriately using the apparently numerous Tongan words for “vagina,” in front of small children and old women. Judging from the feedback I have received from many of you, it seems like you particularly enjoyed these posts. Thus, for both your enjoyment and to show you that I am not the only pcv who has had their share of embarrassing moments, I give you three embarrassing incidents that have happened to three guys in my group so far in Tonga.

One of the male volunteers, who is 28 and married, heard a weird sound outside of his bedroom at 4 in the morning. Getting out of bed – it is also important to note that since there are not many lights, Tonga is pitch black at night – he walked to the kitchen towards the source of the sound. Shining his flashlight onto the table, he saw a large pig on top of one of the chairs devouring the leftover food.

The pig, startled, rushed at the light and the volunteer, who freely admitted that he let out a high-pitched girlish scream at this porky attack. He rushed to the bathroom hoping to escape the onslaught of the hungry pig. Feeling safe in the bathroom, though it was completely dark besides his flashlight, a lizard fell from the ceiling onto his head and he screeched another self described unmanly scream and, momentarily forgetting the pig, ran back into his room. Embarrassed and having woken up his host family and wife, he had to explain in his limited Tongan that he had just ran for his life from an attacking pig.

As may be evidenced from my previous posts, the food in Tonga can be kind of tough. I have been one of the lucky ones so far, as though I may not love the food, I have not gotten sick from it. One of the male volunteers, however, who is also a recent college graduate, was not so lucky.

Living on the second floor of his house – a rare thing in Tonga – the volunteer felt himself getting nauseous and sick. Having only been at our home stay for a few days at this point, the volunteer did not want to alienate his entire family by throwing up in the house on the way to the bathroom. Making a split second decision to not risk this embarrassment, the volunteer decided to projectile vomit out of his second floor window into the yard below, to which his host family came outside to observe the pigs enjoying a tasty feast. Trying to learn the Tongan language as quickly as possible, the volunteer soon discovered, rather ironically, that the Tongan word for being sick, though pronounced quite differently, is puke.

The last embarrassing story I’m particularly partial too as it is quite similar to my own “vagina” story, and it happened to one of the guys I am good friends with. This week in class we have learned the names of all the vegetables and fruit. Trying to show off his knowledge, the volunteer was pointing too and talking about various fruits and vegetables using his newly acquired Tongan.

He pointed to a pepper and sad, “Potu.” His host mom began to laugh, but like me before, he thought nothing of it and kept saying it. When his host father came home his host mom told him about “potu,” and he began to crack up as well. At this point the volunteer thought something was off, but he still did not realize it was about potu.

The next day the volunteer was talking to the head of our language training, Lose, who is really cool and fun to talk too, and casually mentioned the word potu while discussing what he learned the day before in class. Lose turned to him and said, “Do you know what that means?” to which the volunteer replied, “Of course. Potu means pepper.” Lose laughed and explained to the volunteer that the Tongan word for pepper is polo and that potu means penis. Thus the volunteer realized that he had been repeatedly using the Tongan word for penis in class and at home all day yesterday, and therefore unwittingly joining me as the only volunteers to mistakenly reference male and female private parts while tying to say the Tongan word for a fruit.

These are the embarrassing stories that have occurred so far. I am sure more will come, which I will try to relate to you, so that you can rest assured that this stuff does not only happen to me.

Tongan Dancers

Mandy's first Tongan dance routine

Mark and his backup singers

‘Oku ou faiako

I am a teacher. This week I had the opportunity to teach four classes in my local primary school. The idea was to gain some experience lesson planning and being in front of a class of Tongan kids, so that we have something to draw from when we go out to our sites.

I was hoping to regale you with stories and funny anecdotes about class and the kids, but unfortunately the kids did not acquiesce to this plan. A ten-year-old girl winked at me. The kids in class 3 gave me a necklace of flowers before I taught their class. Yet, besides these brief moments, the class was pretty tame which is why I have a funnier post accompanying this one, and will mostly just discuss what happened in one my classes this week.

In four days I taught 4 classes, class 6, class 3, and class 5 twice. The grades are roughly equivalent to 5^th grade, 2^nd grade, and 4^th grade respectively. The experience was pretty fun overall, and it was nice to finally get up in front of the kids and see if I am at all qualified to teach them English. There were some bumps in the road, but it went pretty well for the most part and I feel like I was successful.

I won’t go into the details of all my classes, but my best class by far was when I taught class 3 by myself. My first Tongan friend and frequent blog subject, Hausia, is in the class so she definitely helped me by answering my questions and making sure everyone paid attention.

My assignment was to teach punctuation to class 3, so my focus was to have them learn, recognize, and repeat, in English, periods, exclamation points, question marks, commas and apostrophes. I separated my teaching in 3 tiers.

First, I wrote down all the punctuation marks into the phrase “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom,” which is part of a popular kids book. For the apostrophe I changed the Chicka to Chi’a, and I added hand signals to all of the punctuation marks, so that their learning was simultaneously auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. I taught the kids how to say each phrase with the particular hand motion that accompanied the punctuation mark. They slowly started to get it, and it was really fun to watch 20 8 year olds yelling Chicka Chicka Boom Boom with my hand motions.

After they got the hang of this, I upgraded to simple sentences like, “I like the dog. Do you like the dog? I love the dog!” The students would repeat the sentences after I said them, while still using the correct hand motions. Every so often I would stop and ask, “What is this?” pointing to a punctuation mark to see if they could tell me which one it was. By this point they were slowly getting it.

My next strategy was to read a kids book to them about a mouse, a strawberry, and a hungry bear. I forget the exact title but it was simple and had a lot of punctuation so it was perfect for the class. I made all the kids get out of their desks and sit by me on the floor while I read the story. As I read from the book, the kids and I would use the hand motions when they appeared in the story.

I then read the book a second time, but this time I would stop, point to a punctuation mark, and ask, “What is this?” By this point they totally got it, and I definitely felt a strange sense of pride hearing all these Tongan kids shout out together, “Exclamation point! Apostrophe!” I was really happy because the kids had fun and they learned what they were supposed to, so I felt like I had accomplished my goal for the day.

I apologize if this bored you to tears, but this will be the majority of my life for the next two years – lesson planning, teaching primary school kids, and teacher development – and I wanted to talk about my first experience teaching kids in Tonga. The lesson planning is tedious, but being in front of the class is awesome, and I love how excited the class was to have me teach them and I feel a kind of odd sense of accomplishment.

So far teaching has been a success, and I only hope I continue to feel this way as I officially begin my occupation as primary school teacher in Tonga.

The concert in Fotuma