Another year, another
Thanksgiving celebrated in Tonga. In an interesting twist, we celebrated on the
same day as my birthday. In the US my birthday can never be on Thanksgiving as
the 28th is the latest the holiday can possibly fall on, but as we
celebrated on Friday the 29th, I was fortunate enough to enjoy my
birthday by eating my fill on one of my favorite holidays with many of the
friends I have made during my time here.
Hosted at Don and Norie’s, it
was an international affair. Eleven of the 13 Peace Corps volunteers were able
to attend, including all 6 of the new recruits. Three of the Australian volunteers
attended as well, one arriving with her Dutch boyfriend and her visiting
mother. Last but not least, a Japanese volunteer celebrated her first
Thanksgiving with us, a 20 year old American friend of ours who lives in Vava’u
came, and a Tongan girl about my age who is leaving on her Mormon mission to
Idaho in a few weeks joined to finish the party.
The food was plentiful and
delicious – it was as if we combined the American need to overeat on
Thanksgiving with the Tongan culture of food that has inevitably rubbed off on
us. We had many of the Thanksgiving staples. A turkey that we had brought from
the main island, stuffing, mash potatoes, and cranberry sauce. We even added
our own twist to the staples with spaghetti and meat sauce, salads, green
beans, latkes, pumpkin soup, vegetable fried rice that I had made and so much
more. As tradition would have it, I ate way too much of the food, especially
the turkey which I hadn’t eaten since last years Thanksgiving, and was
absolutely stuffed.
We didn’t say what each of us
was thankful for but it still felt like a true Thanksgiving. Just with a Tongan
twist. One of the volunteers even made place cards with each of our names on
them. Due to the heat and the lack of space, we laid down mats outside of the
house and sat on the floor Indian style. We laughed and we joked, a bunch of
people from all over the world bonded together through their lives in Vava’u.
To finish the night, and in a moment that surprised and deeply touched me,
Norie, who is an amazing cook and baker, brought out a chocolate cake for me
with 24 written in candles. Not expecting such a celebration, I was profoundly
happy and thankful for the new friends I have made in Vava’u and their ability
to surprise me even after all this time.
Now, in a short list, here are
some of the things I am thankful for:
1. The incredible way Tongans say goodbye. When you say bye to a person
you say their name then shout eeehhhhh!!!! Afterwards. They reply with io but it sounds more like yyyoooo!!!
And then they do the same for you. It goes something like this. Sifa
eeeeehhhhh!!!!!! YOOOOOOO!!!! Soni eeeehhhh!!!!! YOOOOOO!!!! It is spectacular
and I am totally bringing it back to America.
2. The ease and safety of hitch hiking – it makes not having a car no
problem and I meet someone new every week
3. The Tongan use of umbrellas – always as shade in the sun but never in
the rain
4. Living in a tropical paradise
5. Continuously seeing the phrase “twerk” online, but being blissfully
ignorant of the dance move as the internet is too slow to download youtube
videos
6. Roast pig severed over a skewer
7. Tongan generosity, my school, and the three villages I reside in
8. All of my friends and family back home who have supported me so much
since the moment I left for Tonga
In others news, this week was
our school graduation. As is the Tongan custom, many of the parents attended
the ceremony that included a short prayer, a welcome speech by the principal,
and the lining up of the kids from the best performing student to the worst in
each class. I was hoping we would just announce the best student, but in the
end we decided to reveal their exact class placements. As the kids’ names were
called, parents would come up and tuck dollar bills into their shirts or place
a necklace made of candy over their heads, a Tongan staple. It was a somewhat
brief and anticlimactic finish to the school year, but I did feel a sense of
pride watching my students complete my first year of school.
Also, this will be my last post
until possibly mid-January. Next week, Monday through Thursday, will be Camp
GLOW and GROW. The next day on Friday I am flying to the United States. When I
return to Tonga in January and after I attend a training on the main island, I
promise to write about what I hope will be the success of the camps and
anything else interesting that had since happened to me.
Thanks for reading and see you
all in America soon.
The birthday cake
Thanksgiving Tongan style
Good morning, how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately, it is impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are very small countries with very few population, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this, I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Tonga? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Tonga in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally, I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez
Emilio,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your incredible comment. I am sorry for how long it took me to respond to your message, as I am currently on vacation in the US for the first time in 16 months.
I was truly inspired and touched by your words and I am already a huge fan of your blog. It seems like we share a lot of similar interests, and I am very impressed with your idea and how you have been able to receive so many letters from different countries all over the world.
I would be extremely happy to send you a letter. I am returning to Tonga next week, and it might take two months or so for a letter to reach you in Spain, but I promise to send you a letter when I am in Tonga.
Thank you again for your comment and happy new year to you, your friends, and family.
All the best,
Harrison Siegel