The Road Less Traveled : The Coconut Wireless

Tongans love to gossip. This should not come as much of a surprise, as gossip seems to play a prevalent role in almost every culture. Without television or internet to captivate them, and very little desire to exercise or read, gossip is one of the few affordable, sustainable, and exciting activities that the men, women, boys, and girls have left to them. As such, stories and rumors spread like wildfire in Vava’u. A man caught cheating on his wife four villages away, that might take 20 minutes to reach my village. The son of the church minister is flying to America in a few weeks. The entire island knows that before the flight is booked. I could come up with more examples but I think you understand the point. With or without phones, the spread of gossip in Tonga is incredible. There is also a name for it. Here, the Tongans and palangis call it, the coconut wireless.

The gossip is rarely mean spirited. It is merely a person repeating what they heard. Then another person repeating their version of what was told to them. And onward and onward it goes. My life is a perfect parallel to this. My village, and to be honest, probably the entire east side of the island knows who I am and what I do. My life is in some ways familiar to a fish bowl. I will come back from town on a Friday to hear, “Hey Soni, how was town?” Only to of course find out that their 3^rd cousin’s brother’s friend’s wife saw me buying bread at the bakery. On that note, in an island of roughly 12,000 people everyone is related which makes the gossip that much more potent and rapid.

I don’t mind it. It is simply a facet of life. Sometimes, however, it can lead to interesting conversations. A few months ago there was a strange rumor going around Vava’u that someone must have read on the Internet regarding President Obama. On a Monday, one of my neighbors came over to my house to ask me a question. He looked somewhat distraught so I was a little worried. He hesitantly looked at the floor, avoiding eye contact, until after a long pause his eyes slowly drifted up towards and asked, “Did Obama make a deal with the devil? Why would he do that? I don’t understand that.”

Quick Note - Fear of the devil is strong component of Tongan culture, dating back to pre-Christian Tongan society and remaining strong today. When children are misbehaving, their parents will often say you better behave or the devil will come and get you.

Now, unaware of any recent political news that could serve as a even a remote metaphor for the devil, and carefully assuming that Obama did not in fact make a deal with the devil, I assured my neighbor that it was not true and that, “President Obama would never do that.” I decided it was easier not to tackle the impossibility of the claim, and save that issue for another day.

The next day, I was just coming back from a run when a different neighbor’s high school aged daughter waved me down. She asked, barely waiting for me to take off my headphones, “Did the President of America get a 666 tattoo on his forehead….um, that’s what my friends told me.” Once again I assured her that no it was not true, and as I finished she flashed a triumphant smile and in a tone that would have made any teenager anywhere in the world proud, said, “I knew it. I told them they were being dumb.” I would not have wanted to be her friends the next day at school.

After two such requests, I decided to investigate and see if this was a rumor all over Tonga or if my village had gone crazy. I texted the other volunteers and found out that yes, they all received questions concerning Obama and the devil, and no, they had no clue why. Our only guess to this day is that someone saw a rumor on the Internet, and that rumor spread through the communicating marvel that is the Coconut Wireless.

Thanks for reading. Tomorrow I am heading out to the island of Kapa with my principal and her family, and next week I am returning to the outer island where the two pcvs live. I promise to come equipped in the next two posts with outer island adventures. Enjoy the photos of the evolution of my classroom below and have a great weekend.

My class room Day 1 - this was actually after it was cleaned. It was far worse before

The first week of school was spent white papering my classroom - think glueing a lot of white, computer type paper to the wall - and putting up the map I brought from the US. I also had the kids color strips of paper and used the paper to boarder the blackboards and windows.