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.