The Road Less Traveled : April 2013

I expected many things from my trip. An amazing time with my family. A fascination with hot showers and food. An addiction to fast internet. And a desire to do anything, and I do mean anything, on Sundays. I was even expecting a bit of a let down when I returned, not because I would be sad to come back, but because I would have to readjust myself to a different life style. As is usually the case, I never expected what happened – to be rejuvenated.

Part of this was just leaving Tonga for 10 days and being able to reconnect with the outside world and think about what I am doing as pcv from a more distant perspective. The other part was that at this point, this is my life. Things are not new anymore. Washing my laundry in a bucket is no longer a cultural experience, it is a routine. Wearing a skirt every day is not showing respect to the people, it is my formal attire for work. Burning my trash in the backyard is simply house cleaning.

I have become used to Tonga. This can be a good and bad thing. The bad part is that it is making writing these blogs and providing interesting material to my faithful readers much more challenging, as I now have to wait for something unusual or embarrassing to happen to me – not a rare thing I must admit - as I seem to have exhausted many of my cultural subjects (don’t worry, however, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve).

It is also a good thing. Last week, all of the volunteers and I spent a week training on the main island of Tongatapu. It was a fantastic transition of moving from my family to the friendly atmosphere of the group. We talked about the successes and challenges of being a volunteer and enjoyed some of the food in the big city (Tongatapu’s population is 66,000 while Vava’u’s is about 12,000) that we cannot get on our friendly island, like roast chicken and Chinese food.

I digress, however. As I was saying, I feel like I have an understanding, if an imperfect one, of Tonga so that I sometimes forget that after almost 8 months, I have been here longer than most people I meet. Before our flight to Vava’u last Saturday, a few of us decided to check out the market. As we walked to the market, we saw a gigantic cruise ship dominating the wharf a few blocks away. It was as large as the Carnival Cruise ships you see in the US, and it seemed completely out of place in Tonga. I had heard that cruise ships came to Tonga, and some times Vava’u, but it was ridiculous seeing it in person. It wasn’t just the largest boat on the island, it was also the tallest building in the country. For some reason, the image that came to my mind was seeing King Kong on top of the Empire State Building. It was that out of place.

About an hour after the ship came into Nuku’alofa, the city was swarmed with tourists, all wearing the ubiquitous blue lanyard and nametag that would allow them to re-enter the ship. As we walked through the market, one of the tourists became stuck in the middle of a conversation I was having with another volunteer, and her eyes lighted up when she realized that we both spoke English and seemed to know the area. With a thick Australian accent (I later learned the ship embarked from Sydney), the woman asked me, “Where is the nearest Walmart?”

I tried to hide my grin. I really did. I, as did the others, unfortunately failed. I just couldn’t fathom the idea. Sure, Tongatapu has some larger stores you could call markets, but the idea of a Walmart seemed ridiculous. Seeing our poorly hidden smirks yet pleasant demeanor, the woman backtracked quickly, saying, “Someone on the boat told me there was a Walmart.” I responded, “I am sorry, there is no Walmart, but there is store called Molisi over there (pointing the appropriate way I assure you) that is pretty decent.” And so there ended a conversation I’d never thought to have in Tonga.

If this post was less than satisfactory, I hope the pictures more than make up for it. One of the volunteer’s has an underwater camera, and I was able to get from him the pictures from my trip to an outer island. Some of the pictures in Mariner’s Cave are hard to see because of the odd lighting of the underwater cave, but the rest I believe came out pretty well.

As always, thanks for reading, enjoy the photos, and as I’m living in this part of the world, Happy ANZAC Day!

Attempting (and failing) to spearfish in the reef

Inside Mariner's Cave - as you can see, the lighting was quite odd inside the cave

The hole is the way out of the cave - going out into the light is much easier (and much less scary) than coming into the darkness

One of the volunteers swimming out of the cave

Leaving the cave (that's me on the left) - this is how the cave looks before you enter, pitch black

Hello Everyone. Thank you all for your patience the past few weeks with my infrequent blogging. Between my broken charger, which is now no longer an issue, and my traveling, it was difficult for me to write many posts, but I am happy to say that those sad days are now a thing of the past.

For those of you who don’t know, I left Tonga on April 4^th for the first time in 7 months. I met my parents in Bali and traveled with them to Singapore and Japan. I do not plan on saying much about the trip, as I want this blog to reflect my Peace Corps service rather than any traveling I may do. However, I have uploaded several photos to this post for you all to peruse at your pleasure, and I will relate some aspects of the trip as well as comment on a few of my highlights in Vava’u since my last post.

To start it was incredible seeing my father, mother, and brother and be able to spend time with them. 7 months is a long time, and I very much needed the break from Tonga and I could not imagine having a better vacation.

The best parts of the trip ranged from the trivial (hot showers and fast internet) to the substantial (not sweating every second of the day, eating food I hadn’t seen just killed, and of course being in such spectacular locations) to the somewhere in between (having something to do on Sunday and seeing so many people in one place).

It was an unbelievable break from my real fake life as a pcv and I hope you enjoy the photos, but first….

Some Recent Highlights:

1. After weeks of training my East Region (Vave Hahake) warriors, i.e my Tongan primary student athletes, we finally had our all GPS – primary school – sports day. I am overly proud to admit that, partly thanks to my palangi (foreigner) training, or so I told every Tongan I could see in my gloating hubris, my region came in first place, defeating the other 5 regions. As I have often mentioned, Tongans love to joke, and I had a particularly good time joking with my old school principle, who is now teaching at another school, about how he missed the chance to play for a winner by moving to the Town Region. He gracefully acknowledged his mistake, laughing heartedly in the process.

2. After my faster kids finish their worksheets during class, if the other kids are still working they have to read a book or look at the world map I glued to the wall. Their worksheets finished, two of my better Class 6 students walked to the poster, looked at me, and said, “USA…?” with the obligatory head tilt to the side accompanying the question. I responded, “Amelika,” as that is the only way America is referred to in Tonga, and they nodded their heads knowingly. After this episode, their eyes ventured North to where I heard, “Canada?” The two kids repeated “Canada” to themselves for a few moments and I could clearly see they were contemplating something. Each murmur of “Canada,” became subsequently louder, and more of an exclamation than a question. Rapidly, after 3 or 4 of these mutterings, they turned to me incredibly excited and shouted, “Soni…Canada! Celine Dion?” I was blown away. If not for the fact that I had heard my kids several months ago singing My Heart Will Go On from Titanic, my face would have literally hit the floor. Stunned, I just responded, not really knowing if I was telling the truth or not, “Io (yes),” to which their little faces beamed with a sense of pride and pleasure. They then ecstatically interrupted the rest of the class by yelling, “Hau sio (Come look). Canada! Celine Dion!” and thereby creating a shocking level of excitement within the class. I am still amazed. My kids might not know what the US is but they sure know that Canada holds the honor of birthing Celine Dion. Well done Canada!

3. The Monday after Easter was a national holiday and school was canceled, so my neighbor invited me to eva pe (wander) with his family across the main island of Vava’u. We drove West to the villages of Longomapu and Tu’anuku, seeing the only fresh water lake in Tonga, Lake ‘Ano. We then traveled to the Southern tip of the island to Pangaimotu, which is large island connected to the main island by a causeway. It was an incredible way to spend the day, as – and I know I often forget to relate this – the island is stunningly beautiful and truly a tropical paradise, and with my sojourn to the West and South I have now seen the entire main island. I am very lucky to have such a welcoming neighbor.

4. Several weeks ago, my counterpart Paea asked me if I could draft a legal document for him. He told me he was renting a house in Neiafu to a Tongan couple and wanted to give them a document reaffirming what they had agreed to pay him each month, and other such details. After making sure Paea realized that anything I wrote would not actually be legally binding, I agreed to write the document. As the son of a lawyer, I naturally assumed that some of those skills were genetic and I was curios to see what knowledge I had absorbed from the 5 episodes of the tv show Suits I had seen almost a year ago. After exhaustive work researching the Tongan legal system (just go along with that remark please), I returned my “legal document” to Paea, which he had the renters sign. And with that my professional legal debut was finished.

As for my life at this moment, I am currently training with the other pcvs on the main island of Tongatapu. I am returning to my home in Vava’u on Saturday and will restart teaching on Monday. I promise to share anything interesting that happens in my next post.

Thank you everyone for reading. I promise to post more frequently in the future.

Also, in the wake of what happened in Boston, I hope everyone is safe and doing well. My heart goes out to everyone back home and especially those affected by the tragedy.