The Road Less Traveled : A Secret Beach and a not-so-secret School

My 2^nd grade teacher always told me that every good story starts on a positive note, so that is exactly what I am going to do. My charger, for the moment, has been reborn and I am cautiously optimistic it will remain alive until a new charger arrives in the mail. A New Zealander who owns a café in town generously taped up the exposed part of my chord in conductor tape, and so far so good. Thus, I will continue to post as much as I can, and I even have some pictures of myself in them at the end of this post.

This post will focus on my first three weeks of school and the particularly fun weekend I just enjoyed. Since three weeks is a long time, I will limit myself to the highlights as best as I can.

The first week was all about preparation. My classroom had not been used in years so it had to be cleaned, swept, have trash picked from the walls, and nicely white papered over. The first day was very simply taking attendance and seeing how many students we have this year – it can change quite often – and we finished early enough to allow me to watch the Super Bowl in town, something I was sure I would miss.

The rest of the week was an odd combination of jobs, fake teaching, and meetings. We had a PTA meeting on Wednesday where the teachers and I shared what we needed for the upcoming school year. The wish list was the typical Tongan staples: chairs, desks, mosquito coils (literally life savers), carpet (it’s not actually carpet but rather thin sheets that cover the floor), blackboards, and many other items that we may receive in the somewhat distant future. Also, the PTA took a quick vote concerning who would be chairman of the PTA this year, and every hand shot up when my name was “randomly” selected first. It was mostly in jest but I now may or may not be the Chairman of the PTA.

The rest of the week was interesting for a few reasons. First, one day an army of Tongans from the 3 villages that make up my school district descended upon my school to mow the lawn and cut back the vast hordes of vegetation that had grown during the break. I, along with my students, also spent two days gluing large pieces of white paper to the walls to cover the filth, and cutting and coloring slips of paper to decorate the borders and provide some life to the classroom (I have before and after shots of the classroom I will post eventually). I am still waiting on color paper so I can make signs for my classroom, which will brighten up the room, be instructive, and is mandated by the Ministry of Education, but I am still waiting for those to arrive.

The past two weeks have been quite the learning experience. Having never taught before, I do not really know what I am doing, but so far the students have not rebelled. The classes are still picking up steam, and I hope to continue improving each week.

One interesting side note, however, is disciplinary action. I have not mentioned this before, but Tongans use corporal punishment. They hit their kids. Parents do it. Teachers do it. Anyone in the village can hit anyone’s kids and it is seen as a completely acceptable teaching strategy. They are not hit particularly hard, I would compare it to old school Catholic nuns with rulers or 1950’s America, but it is still hard to see.

Last week, there was a day where one of my classes was misbehaving. The kids are great, but their kids, and wanted to test the boundaries for their new Palangi teacher. Since I obviously won’t hit them, and they know that, I had them run laps around the school. My principle, a very nice and little woman in her 40’s asked me why they were running and I told her it was because they were being bad. She looked at me and said, “Why don’t you just hit them?” I explained that I don’t really hit kids, and she looked at me, totally understanding, and said, “That’s ok. Just flick their ears then. Like this..” and demonstrated on a nearby kid. I just smiled and said, maybe next time I will have them clean the classroom.

Now, on to the weekend. This past weekend was a rarity for me – an event-filled three days. Friday night started with a birthday party, as one of the pcv’s was turning 29. We all met at an American owned restaurant, ate some delicious pizza, and had our first taste of beer in weeks. It was great to see everyone, especially the three outer island volunteers who I hadn’t seen in weeks, and have some American time.

After dinner, we went to the only bar in Neiafu, Tonga Bob’s, to kick back, dance, and have a few beers. Noting worth mentioning happened here, except that we left at closing time, so around 12:30. Randomly, after the bar closed, we were invited to drink Kava at the field by the police station where some of the men drink Kava every night. At this impromptu Kava ceremony was the Minister of Finance and the outgoing and active Police Commissioner of Tonga. It was a surreal experience to drink Kava so randomly and with Tongans of such importance. It was one of those moments where I had to just shake my head and laugh, “Only in Tonga.”

Not content to be done for the weekend, a few of us decided to go camping on Saturday. I was extremely excited to go, as I have wanted to go camping since I arrived in Tonga, and I had still yet to swim in the Ocean in Vava’u with the exception of at the wharf on my birthday.

For our destination we chose the Secret Beach (how could a beach with that name be bad?), which is quietly tucked behind a village on the northern end of the island. The beach is called Secret Beach – at least by the volunteers – because there is a bit of a hike to reach the beach, many of the Tongans don’t go there and the tourists don’t know about it. It is a small beach, but it is quiet, empty, and there is actual sand and little coral so the swimming is perfect.

There were 8 of us. 3 pcvs, including myself, two Australian volunteers, an American who lives in Vava’u with his family, a former Australian volunteer who now works in Tonga, and her Tongan boyfriend. For food we decided to roast a pig. We literally bought a pig, put it in a sack, took it with us to the beach, killed and roasted it, and ate it on the beach. It was delicious, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

The Saturday and Sunday morning we spent there were perfect. The swimming in the clear and unmatched beauty of the waters of the South Pacific was stunning. The sand, something I haven’t felt for months, was periodically cool and hot beneath my feet as the sun moved back and forth between the clouds. We, and by we I mean mainly the only Tongan in our group, killed the pig, took out its organs, washed it, removed the hair, and placed in on a spike to roast it. For our appetizers we gorged on cooked lung and stomach. It was actually pretty good.

We feasted at sunset, just feet from the ocean. We roasted the pig for hours. We threw potatoes and hopa, which is a type of banana, into the fire for side dishes. We even added some salad and cookies for desert for good measure. In a “Why Not,” type mood, a few of us even tried a little pig brain. It tasted ok, neither good nor bad. The entire meal was delicious.

At night we built a large fire and just sat around and talked. I would often lie on my back and just gaze at the stars. It is often cloudy in Vava’u, so while I definitely see more stars than I am used too, I see less than you would think. On this clear night, they literally lit up the sky. Everywhere I looked I could see the Milky Way and constellations I could not recognize.

When we left the next day, we took a quick detour to the lookout to gaze at the cliffs of Vava’u, the beach below, and the vastness of the Ocean. It was a terrific end to a weekend that I won’t soon forget.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed this post, as I will not able to post another one for two weeks. I promise, however, it will be worth the wait. Next weekend, I, along with the other pcvs, are heading to an outer to celebrate a birthday and explore. It will be my first time visiting one of the outer islands, and I hope to regale you in the next post with tales of the island and more pictures of your favorite author.

Enjoy the photos! (I know they’re overdue)