Faiva and a Tongan birthday

After the class 6 exam, which occurs in mid-October and is extremely important as it decides whether or not the class 6 students graduate and which high school they will attend, nothing much happens. It is very similar to what happens in America after high schoolers take the AP exams and then watch movies for a month. The kids sing Christmas songs, play cards and sports, and, most importantly, practice their cultural dances.

At the end of the school year, every region has to put on a faiva (which in this case means dance and show, but the term can also refer to movies, concerts, or other forms of entertainment) for officers from the ministry of education. It is a pretty big deal and all of the schools practice for months to make a good impression in front of the ministry.

My school, GPS Houma, is part of the East region and took part in the faiva with GPS Ha’alaufuli, GPS Tu’anekivale, and GPS Kaloa. The faiva took place in GPS Ha’alaufuli and was a massive production. There were gigantic speakers that blasted the music, food for the officers and teachers, and hundreds of Tongans in attendance – the kids, the teachers, and many of the parents. As the only palangi (foreigner/white person) in a sea of Tongans you can imagine how much I stuck out, but everyone was incredibly welcoming.

Each school chose different dances. The first school, GPS Kaloa, performed the traditional Tongan dance, the tau’olunga, which is usually only danced by virgin, or unmarried, girls, but in this case was performed with an interesting twist. Instead of girls, the dancers were all boys wearing girl outfits and lime-green colored wigs, as you can see in the photo below. The Tongans loved it. For many reasons that I do not fully understand, homosexuality is illegal in Tonga and is not discussed as even a possibility for Tongans, but cross-dressing in this manner is completely acceptable and has long been practiced traditionally.

Next came my school, GPS Houma, who I have seen practice their dance dozens of times but never in their traditional costumes. They were dancing the kailou, or Tongan war dance, but all the words of the song were in Fijian, which I found interesting because the title of the faiva was “Tongan Culture Day,” but oh well. In the pictures below, the class 1 to 3 kids, parents, and teachers sing in the background, and the class 4 to 6 students dance. They were great, and in my highly unbiased opinion, the best of all the schools.

The last two schools continued to dance the traditional Tongan dances and were quite good. The last school, GPS Ha’alaufuli, had students dancing the ma’ulu’ulu in the sitting position, which you can see in the last photo.

Overall it was a very interesting day and revealed to me the mixture of tradition and modernity that represents Tonga’s culture today. I feel that with each day I am continually learning and understanding a little more of a culture that I had never even heard of just a few months ago. It has really been a fascinating experience for me so far.

As for me, I celebrated a very nice first birthday in Tonga yesterday. After school, my principle drove me into town, and I had a great dinner – a much needed burger and fries!- with some of the other pcvs and had a few beers during trivia night at Tonga Bob’s. I even convinced the group to go for a midnight swim in the harbor afterwards, my first time in waters of Vava’u, which was a lot of fun.

It was low-key and exactly what I wanted. I felt very lucky that even with my friends and family so far away, the other volunteers made me feel as if I was home.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes I have received from many of you through email and facebook – you’re support has made this transition much easier for me.

Some of my Class 6 and 5 students in their traditional costume

The boys from GPS Kaloa wearing women's clothing and wigs, while dancing the tau’olunga.

My students dancing the kailou

Also my students. The man in the back left wearing a blue shirt and flower necklace (kahoa) is my principle Sione. The women in red is the Class 1 & 2 teacher, Fei'ofa'aki, and the man in the blue shirt and sun glasses is Paea, the Class 3 & 4 teacher.

The students of GPS Ha’alaufuli dancing the ma’ulu’ulu. The man in the red shirt wearing the flower necklace is their principle and he is playing the drums on the top of a garbage can.

An old photo (maybe from 2 months ago), but a nice photo of the entire group at the Ministry of Education in Nuku'alofa.

The Little Things

Some of the most surprising aspects of my life in Tonga are the little things that I never expected to deal with. There are certain things that I took for granted in the U.S., things that I believe all of us accept as logical, obvious, and do not even think about during the course of our daily lives. It is these things, the small minutia, which make up the routine or grind in my life (as they do in everyone’s life in every country in the world), that take up most of my time.

Some of these things I expected to experience when I joined the Peace Corps. I knew that I would probably have to wash my laundry in a bucket and dry it on a line outside. I do and it is not a big deal.

I knew that I would have to learn how to cook in order to feed myself. I have no idea what I am doing in the kitchen, but somehow it all works out and I probably won’t starve.

I thought that I would not have access to running water and would have to bathe in a stream or with a bucket. That has not been the case, however, as there is plenty of water in the rain heavy, South Pacific Tonga, and though I showered with a bucket during home stay, I have a shower in my house now.

Other things I never even though about. Take trash disposal for example. In America, I completely took trash for granted. When I had garbage, I placed the garbage in a trashcan. When my trashcan got full, I emptied the garbage into a dumpster or left it outside for the garbage man to pick up. For those of you who are environmentally conscious and recycle, you probably place your recyclables in the correct buckets and place them outside, which similarly gets picked up by unseen men and women. Trash disposal in America follows a very logical and consistent process, and because of that, I never truly considered life without such a system.

I, and I would think that I am not alone in this, never really thought about this process. The entire time I went through the Peace Corps application process I never thought to ask about trash disposal. Internet, yes. Running water, yes. Assignments, yes. Waste management, no.

I knew waste management was a problem in many countries, as is evident in those horrible photos of trash clogging up rivers and destroying ecosystems, but for some reason I never though that it would affect me.

As you may have guessed, however, it does. There is no waste management system in Tonga. There is recycling in Tongatapu and it might exist in Vava’u, but it is not feasible in the village where I live. Most Tongans, in all the islands, burn their garbage.

A few days ago, though I consider myself to be environmentally friendly and do not like the idea of burning my trash, burned all of the trash I had accumulated these past two weeks in my backyard. There is a pit in my yard, dug for this purpose, and I burned the trash as you can see in the photo below. I am sorry to report this, but I feel it is these kinds of little things, the experiences that I never expected, that make up some of the most interesting aspects and details of my life in Tonga and I feel compelled to share.

In other, less depressing and ecologically distressing news, I find two things about my life interesting.

First, Tonga is very small. While the territory of Tonga, with islands spread over 700,000 sq kilometers of ocean, is roughly the size of Texas, the actual land mass of Tonga, when all the islands are added up, is the only about the size of Dallas according to my guide book. I have also heard the size of Tonga’s land mass compared to the size of Memphis.

This means that nothing is far. One third of the land resides on the main island of Tongatapu, and since I live in Vava’u I live on an island that is much smaller then several U.S. cites. I am therefore very close to Neiafu, where I can go to buy vegetables, eat a good meal, and use the Internet.  My village in all probability is only a few miles from Neiafu, and yet this distance is much greater than it seems.

In Vava’u there is no public transportation. There is no bus to take me to town. The roads are in bad condition, worn away and with many potholes, so that the cars can only travel 20 km/hr in many places. When you call for a cab in Vava’u you do not call a company, you call an individual person. I think there are ten “cabs” in Vava’u at this time.

I biked to town in my gearless bike in hilly Vava’u last week and it only took me about 30 minutes. I was drenched in sweat but 30 minutes is pretty reasonable, and proves how small the island really is. Thus, to finally get to my point, even though I feel very far away from everything, and even though I am, in terms of mileage, ridiculous close to Neifau and “civilization,” i.e. Internet, I am actually kind of far.

In America 5 miles is nothing. If I were a volunteer in any country in the world 5 miles would seem like nothing, when I expected to be days from such amenities. Yet, in Vava’u, I am incredibly close, but strangely far from town. It is an interesting phenomenon that I can only solve in three ways – hitchhiking, biking, and walking – and shows how easily the concepts of time and space are alterable just in personal lives.

Secondly, I have strangely experienced three Thanksgiving dinners in Tonga. Since everyone is terrified that we won’t get to have a Thanksgiving dinner in Tonga, we have had many of them. My first was two weeks ago when the Country Director (the highest ranking Peace Corps staff in country) of Tonga, who is retiring in a month, cooked us an incredible meal with all the Thanksgiving staples – turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing – and a delicious pasta with pesto sauce. We even went around the table and said what we were thankful for.

My second Thanksgiving was during my swearing in ceremony when the hotel where we were having the ceremony decided to serve us turkey, potatoes, and stuffing as well. Last but not least, I enjoyed a delicious Thanksgiving with all the volunteers in Vava’u and some other expats living in Vava’u yesterday. It was a great first third Thanksgiving dinner in Tonga.

That’s it for me today. As always thank you for reading, and happy Thanksgiving to everyone in America!

Burning my trash. Sad to do but if I didn't do it, another Tongan would just burn it for me.

My first attempt at laundry

View from the bush

Wandering in the bush

Some of the kids of G.P.S. Houma practicing their Tongan war dance

Real Life…sort of

I am, for the first time, writing this post from within the friendly confines of my new house in Vava’u. Since I lasted posted, I have undergone a whirlwind of activity, left the camp-like atmosphere of training in Tongatapu, and embarked on the day to day life that will encompass the next two years of my time in Vava’u.

I promise to only mention the more important points to keep this post to a manageable length for both the writer and the reader, but first I must backtrack and reveal what I have done before I can fully explain my thoughts and feelings.

At the uploading of this post, I will have been in Vava’u for almost two weeks, yet just arriving here was an adventure in itself. Since the plane that flies to Vava’u is small and could not accommodate all of our luggage and the supplies we bought for our homes, we traveled to Vava’u on a 22-hour ferry ride. With a cautious optimism, I was excited for the ferry and what was sure to be an interesting day.

Unfortunately, the ferry was smaller than I expected (see the photo below) for such a journey, and I found out the hard way that I do get seasick. Imagine taking a 22-hour flight but you could not read or watch anything due to the motion of plane, and that was how I spent most of the journey – huddled in a corner trying to stay warm or sleeping.

It was not all bad, however, as I was at least rewarded with an opportunity to see the island group of Ha’apai, where the boat docked for an hour on the way to Vava’u, and observed some spectacular views, including a hammerhead shark sighting, as the ferry circumvented the numerous islands of Vava’u to enter the harbor. Cruising past dozens of islands, small and large, with villages or uninhabited, and one that Survivor even tried to use as a venue for their show, was special and made the journey worth it in the end (unfortunately in this case photos cannot do the scene justice).

Upon arrival in Neiafu, I was met by my town officer and principle at the wharf, who came to transport me and all of my belongings to the village and my new home. Since then my life has consisted of meeting everyone in the three villages that make up my school district, going to school, playing soccer, and getting my house in order.

So as not to bother you with all of the details, here are some highlights concerning the most important or interesting aspects of my first two weeks:

1)    My town officer told me to consider him my Tongan father and invited me over to his house for lunch on Sunday. The food was overwhelming (but delicious) – for four including Havea (the town officer), his wife, and son – there was lobster, roast pig (an entire pig that is), lu, potatoes, and pasta. It lent credence to a very popular Tongan joke and saying, “Kai lahi, kai sino, kai mate,” which means. “Eat a lot, eat until you are a fat, eat until you die.”

2)    My Principal, Sione, my counterpart, Paea, and Fei’ofa’aki are incredible. Sione teaches class 5 and 6, Paea class 3 and 4, and Aki class 1 and 2. Since there are only three teachers, the classes are taught compositely, which means they are taught together. All three of the teachers speak English and since not much happens in school, as it is almost the summer break, I have been able to get to know them pretty well.

3)    There was an empty classroom that was in disrepair and I asked Sione if I could make that classroom my own so that I could teach English to each class separately, which is what the curriculum I am supposed to follow requires. He said sure and then we did not talk about it for a week. I then asked him the following week how I should clean out the room, to which he replied with a few Tongan words, and in rapid succession Tongan kids were all over the classroom – sweeping, tearing, picking up, hanging from the windows and ceiling beams, and washing the windows – and within 30 minutes the room was clean. It was amazing. The room is still pretty much barren and I still have a lot of work to do, but it was a much-needed boost.

4)    The generosity of everyone in the village continues to astound me. I have been given more food then I know what to do with. My fridge (which thankfully I bought so I can store all this food) has been stocked with chicken, beef, fish, mangos, pineapples, papayas, and bananas that members of my community have given to me. In another example, a Tongan man who was exhausted from working in the bush all day and does not speak any English, saw me trying to figure out where to attach my second clothes line after connecting the first line to the only two trees in my yard, walked over to me, chopped down a branch from the bush, dug a hole, placed the branch in it, and tied the other end of the line for me.

As you can see it has been an eventful two weeks, but I am excited to start my real life (as far as my normal routine) and I could not be happier with my village. My house is still not finished, I do not yet have electricity (I have one outlet that I receive from a wire from the hall next door), my Tongan is still poor, and I do not start teaching English (my real job) until the end of January, but I am happy, healthy, eager to face and overcome these challenges, and have some fun in the process.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the photos.

The Ferry

Our sleeping accommodations

The view from the ferry entering Vava'u

Entering Vava'u

It's Official

On Friday, I officially swore in as part of the 77^th Peace Corps Group in the Kingdom of Tonga. I took the oath of office from the US Ambassador to Fiji and accepted my Peace Corps Tonga pin from the Prime Minister of Tonga. In attendance were the Tongan Minister of Health, the Japanese Ambassador, diplomatic representatives from China, New Zealand, and Australia, and the President of the Tongan Free Wesleyan Church.

It was a humbling experience. The US Ambassador, Frankie Reed, a former Peace Corps volunteer herself, spoke to us of the importance of our mission. The Tongan Prime Minister relayed a discussion he had with his grandson the night before when he was asked, “Are the Peace Corps armed?” to which the Prime Minister replied, “Yes, they are armed with wisdom and that is how they can best help us.” Cliché, maybe, yet when spoken by the Prime Minister it lent credence to my decision to join the Peace Corps.

The ceremony itself was very nice and reminded me of graduating from college. Everyone got all dressed up and had to wear ridiculous outfits – in college it was the gowns and caps, while in Tonga I had to wear a special ta’ovala made by Faiana that was covered with leaves and flowers. As I told another volunteer, and as you will see in the pictures below, I felt like a walking rainforest.

My official training is now over, but I still have much to learn. I am excited and anxious, scared and confident, but most of all ready to integrate into my new community and to start teaching in my school. That is later, however, as of now I am proud to say that I am officially a Peace Corps Volunteer in the Kingdom of Tonga.

Enjoy the photos below

 The Ha'asini crew - (from left) Jeff, Wren, Taua, and Peter



With my favorite Tongans - Noa (left) is the head of our overall training and Lose is the head of our language training

The Prime Minister of Tonga and U.S. Ambassador Frankie Reed on the right

Faiana and I

My ceremonially attire made by Faiana

With Mike (middle) and Peter

The Ha'asini group with our families

Accepting my Peace Corps Tonga pin from the Prime Minister

Group 77

The Tongan Economy

I have no idea how people pay for the things they buy in Tonga. This is not me being facetious or using hyperbole. After living in Tonga for 2 months, I still have literally no idea where peoples’ money comes from. It is almost like magic. I never see money, yet somehow items like food and clothing that cost money just magically appear. 

Yes, you may all be wondering how this is possible when I already explained how the Tongan economy works – foreign aid and family members sending back money to Tonga from overseas. And yes, agriculture and construction exist in Tonga and provide people with jobs and money. In theory and practice this is how it works, however, the money still does not add up. Further, before I came to Tonga I assumed that farming and fishing would play a large role in the economy, but most Tongans I know just fish and farm to provide some of their food and do not receive any money from it.

Take my host mom Faiana, for example. I have been trying for weeks to understand how she pays for everything and I still cannot figure it out. Over time, I have noticed several ways she receives income, but every time I think I am close to a solution I realize that I am wrong.

First, I thought Fusi, the woman who lives with us, paid for all the expenses. Fusi works at the hospitable nearby cleaning the labs, and I know Fusi gives Faiana some of the money she makes to pay for the food. This is, however, a small amount of money that may possibly cover the food Fusi eats, but since Fusi eats a ton I doubt if it even covers that.

Then I thought about the Peace Corps. The Peace Corps pays Faiana 35 pa’anga a day (about $22) to pay for my expenses. This is more than enough to cover my bill and I am sure it helps defray some of Faiana’s costs, but this is also only a two-month source of income.

Next, I know Faiana receives some money from the store she, along with many families in the village, owns a small part of, but it is not nearly enough to cover all of her costs.

Finally, I noticed Faiana spends most of her days making tapa, which is a type of weave used as blankets and mats at weddings and funerals. At this point I thought, “Yes!” I have finally discovered the source of her income – she makes tapa and sells them. Basking in my intellectual triumph, I asked Faiana where she sold her tapas, so that I could confirm my theory. Deflating my triumph in a single sentence, Faiana assured me that she does not sell her tapas but just keeps them for when her children will get married or when her parents pass away.

Therefore, I still have no idea how Faiana pays for anything. I know that she does not receive aid, and I do not believe she has money sent to her from family overseas, as only one of her sons lives abroad in New Zealand.

I do, however, know her costs. She pays for Sione’s college tuition and his food. Her daughter, Kalo, is now a resident at the nearby hospital and I do not know if she receives money from this, but I do know Faiana paid for her to go to medical school in Fiji for the past 6 years. Faiana’s parents also live across the street and are retired, so I am pretty sure she pays for them as well.

Somehow all of these costs are covered and, from my point of view, covered seamlessly. I still have no idea how the money comes in, but I do know it goes out. This is one of the great mysteries of Tonga. It is a very poor country, yet it really does not seem poor. No one ever has money, but people do not seem to ever be living without the major necessities of life – food, water, clothing, and shelter.

I will have to continue my investigative work to figure out how people pay for their purchases in Tonga. It is a mystery, however, that I feel I may never fully understand.

The cliffs in Vaini in Tongatapu

Taua and I in the cave

Vava'u at sunset from Mt. Talau

Vava'u - The island in the distance is Ofu where a volunteer from our group will live

Bittersweet

Leaving my home stay was certainly bittersweet. Before we left for our home stays, the staff told us that many volunteers become very close with their families and maintain relationships with them throughout their service and for many years afterwards. To be perfectly honest, I was extremely dubious of this. I figured that since I would only be living with my family for two months (of a 27 month commitment) and would not be able to speak English with them, there was no way we were going to get close. I was excited about the home stay experience as I studied abroad in London and never had the chance to live with another family, but I did not foresee a profound experience by any means.

I was wrong. In two months, aided by my family’s fluent English and their incredibly generous hospitality, I have become extremely close with them and am truly considered a member of the family. Faina is like another mother to me and I think of Sione and Kalo as a brother and sister respectively. I could not have been more fortunate by being assigned to my family and I plan on maintaining a strong relationship with them for the next two years.

To give you an idea of how generous my family is and how close we have become I wanted to give some specific examples below:

1)    My grandma cried on Sunday that I was leaving while we were eating lunch.

2)    Faiana wanted Sione to travel to Vava’u with me to make sure that I was ok, but since I am leaving during his school year he is planning on staying with me in December.

3)    They offered to pick my parents up at the airport when they visit, and Faiana wants them to stay at her house as guests.

4)    The family was sad that I could not come for Christmas, but I promised to visit when I return to Tongatapu in April for training.

5)    The morning I left their house Faiana was crying and told me she loved me.

These are just a few examples of their generosity. I have had an amazing time getting to know my family, and saying good-bye was tougher than I ever expected. I feel very fortunate that I was so welcomed into such an incredible family.

It is not all bitter, however, as the title of this post alludes too. Yes, I am sad to say goodbye to my family (though hopefully it’s more of a see you later), but I am also incredibly excited to start my service and begin actually making a difference.

This past week, I spent a few days living in Vava’u at the house of volunteer who has been in Tonga for the last two years. The week was incredible. I finally got to see Vava’u after hearing from all the Tongans how faka’ofa’ofa (beautiful) it was, and I was not disappointed.  I saw the school I will be teaching at, met my fellow teachers (all 2 of them), and entered my future home of two years.

Since there is so much to tell, I will try to just mention the highlights and post some pictures of my house and my school below. First, I want to mention how beautiful Vava’u is. When you think South Pacific, it is exactly that – hilly, covered in rainforests, and little islands everywhere. When we flew in I had a bird’s eye view of the island group and I could not believe how lucky I am to live here.

Second, my school and house are great. My school is literally in the middle of the bush and there are 3 towns about a km away. The kids walk to the school every day from their homes from their 3 respective villages. It is really cool and it is an easy walk from my house. My house is very small and cozy, but has more than enough space to live and now I just have to learn how to cook.

Thirdly, the main city of Neiafu has a large expat community of Americans, New Zealanders, and Australians. Some of the expats live in Neiafu (the capital) or the nearby town of Toula, but most live on their private yachts that are docked in the harbor. I think this will provide an interesting dichotomy for me as when I am in my village I will very much live a Tongan lifestyle, but when I bike to town I will hear English and be able to order a diet coke at a restaurant, eat a burrito, and watch an NFL game which is certainly not what I expected when I joined the Peace Corps.

 Some other highlights from my week:

·      I hiked up a mountain and was rewarded with an awesome view of Vava’u (picture below)

·      We went to a fakaleiti (men who dress like women) show at Tongan Bob’s, so I basically saw a drag show in the extremely conservative and Christian Tonga, which was definitely a unique experience. (For those of you who have seen Priscilla Queen of the Desert imagine that but scaled down 100 times).

·      I played – and won – trivia night at Tongan Bobs the next night with some volunteers and expats while eating my first, and very much needed, hamburger that was pretty delicious.

·      To welcome me at my school, the kids gave me a bag of 50 mangos and were surprised when I did not ferociously eat 10 of them right away.

·      I met my first noble, the governor of Vava’u. He was of course no different than other Tongans I have met, but at least now I can say I met a noble.

That was my last week in a nutshell. It was an amazing time and very different from my home stay experience of the past two months. I am incredibly excited to finish my last week of training in Nuku’alofa and then head back to Vava’u and start being a real volunteer.

This next week I will be in Nuku’alofa buying everything I need for site, meeting the new director of Peace Corps Tonga, taking my final language exam, and officially swearing in as a Peace Corps volunteer.

As always, thank you for reading!

The view from Mt. Talau

At the fakaleiti show

My school - GPS Houma

Class 1 and 2 at my school

My house

My bedroom

My common area and kitchen (the man with his back to me is the town officer and the other man is my Tongan counterpart who teaches Class 3 and 4 at my school)

My kitchen