The Road Less Traveled : There and Back Again

After spending 15 and a half months in Tonga, with a 10 day sojourn to Asia as my sole time spent out of the country, I was finally coming home to the US. As I stepped onto the first of several flights, numerous thoughts flashed through my head – was I ready, had I changed, will other people have changed, what will it feel like?

I soon happily discovered, within minutes of landing in the San Francisco airport, that culture shock is overrated. I was back. I was home. When I returned to Florida and saw all of my family and friends, it was as if I had never left. If anything, Tonga felt like a world away, as if I had dreamt the last 15 months and that the Peace Corps had happened to someone else. Have I really been gone for so long? It sure didn’t feel that way.

My time in the US was amazing. I spent two weeks in Florida spending time with my family, hanging out with friends, eating all the food I had dreamt about for the last year, especially Chinese food, going to the movies, and studied and took the GMAT. It was an incredible time, and I was continually blown away by the support I was given by everyone back home and the impressiveness of the questions I was asked. It was truly a meaningful homecoming.

I spent the last ten days in New York City, meeting up with all my best friends from college, having an incredible New Years Eve, and seeing family that wasn’t in Florida. One of my biggest fears before leaving for Tonga and joining the Peace Corps was losing touch with the people that I cared most about, but it has been extremely rewarding to see that in a world where you can video chat with someone from thousands of miles away, that even if you haven’t spoken in over a year you can still pick up just where you had left off.

Volunteers are often warned that returning to America during your service can have two effects; it can reenergize you or it can make you more homesick and wish for your time to end. I am absolutely in the former camp. Coming home was the perfect experience, and though I was sad to leave everyone behind, I was excited to return to Tonga and the home that I have made for myself here. I still feel that I have unfinished business to attend to over these next 9 months.

When I returned to Tonga, I had a few days to kill before our mandatory PC training, so my host brother Sione and I hopped on what is claimed to be the world’s shortest flight – only ten minutes! – to make the 60 km trip to the nearby island of ‘Eua to see Sione’s sister and my host sister Kalo. Kalo is the only doctor on the entire island and we stayed in her house across the street from the hospital. My first act upon arriving, after already having given my host mom Faiana presents of pictures and picture frames, and Sione the slippers he had requested, was to bring out the gift that Kalo had asked for from America – two bottles of tequila.

The first few days we wandered around, watched a lot of movies on Kalo’s computer, and attended two church feasts. On the last day, Friday, Kalo took the day off from work and we journeyed around the entire island. Before I get in to where we went, I first have to mention some interesting facts about ‘Eua. Though it is only 60 km from the main island of Tongatapu, ‘Eua is by far the most unique of all Tonga’s island groups. While the rest of Tonga was formed 10 million years ago, ‘Eua was formed over 40 million years ago and is therefore completely different. Its topography is almost mountainous, it is much cooler than the rest of Tonga, and it is the only island that remains mostly natural forested. Walking around ‘Eua it’s hard to believe you are still in Tonga, as you drive under pine trees and listen to the chirping of the birds flying by. Only a few thousand people live on this absolutely gorgeous island.

Our first stop was to the far southern tip of the island to Maui’s archway. The archway is a giant cave the opens up into the ocean, creating a land bridge and a stunning view. Legend has it that the Polynesian god Maui formed the archway by thrusting his spear into the side of the island. As you can see in the photo below, it is pretty spectacular. Unfortunately we did not see any of the wild horses known to roam the area, but our next stop was to this forest clad, prehistoric-looking sinkhole. No one knows how deep the sinkhole goes into the island, but I like to think if you followed it far enough that it would take you to a world where dinosaurs roam (Note: My theory has yet to be scientifically proven).

Next, we traveled to a large Ovava tree that is over 800 years old, and has massive roots extending in every direction like a labyrinth of snakes from its enormous trunk. Like the giant Redwoods and Sequoias of California, the Ovava tree inspires awe that any living thing can be that big and that old at the same time. Our last stop, before heading out on a 3-hour ferry ride to the main island, was to the northern edge of the island for a spectacular lookout view. As Tonga is the first nation west of the International Date Line, the lookout claims to be the first sport to see the sunrise every morning. Each year, numerous tourists come to the spot on January 1^st, to be the very first person to welcome the New Year into the world, and the location was said to be quite crowded when we all awoke to the new millennium over a decade ago.

As this post is already too long, I will save my time in Tongatapu and my first week in Vava’u for next weeks post. All I can say is that it was an amazing host family reunion – I see Sione periodically but I hadn’t seen Kalo in over a year – and my continuing relationship with my host family has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my service. We had a great time hanging out and exploring, and I’m still trying to convince them to come up to Vava’u for a visit. Thank you all for reading and please enjoy the beauty of ‘Eua in the photos below.