After School Activities

After abusing my position as chief, a.k.a the sole, writer of this blog and writing epic long posts in my last two entries after a long absence, I have decided to return the basics and give you all a bit of a break with a much shorter post this week. So sit back, relax, and know that it will all be over relatively soon.

I last left you in ‘Eua where I was about to board a three hour ferry to the main island of Tongatapu with my home stay brother Sione. I, after acquiescing to Peace Corps’ request, returned from my trip a day early so that I could be on the main island with the majority of the volunteers to face the first cyclone of my Tonga tenure, Cyclone Ian. For a quick piece meteorological information, cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons are the exact same thing, they just spin in different directions and have different names depending on what part of the world you’re in.

On the main island all of the volunteers clustered together in the guesthouse, as we were not allowed to leave and waited for the storm to hit. For most of the night there was some rain, a bit of wind, but nothing that I haven’t seen from normal tropical storms here, or my experiences with hurricanes back in Florida. The morning after the storm, I was happy to hear that the main island received very little damage, and that though my home island of Vava’u felt the storm more strongly, the only damage was a few trees and power lines down, nothing major.

Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the island group that lies in between Tongatapu and Vava’u, Ha’apai. The damage there was extensive, as the eye of the storm passed directly over the small group of islands. In some villages, up to 90% of the structures were destroyed. Schools, houses, and churches were flattened. Water tanks blew up. Tongans and tourists took shelter in Mormon Churches (the safest structures and by far the most technically sound buildings in Tonga) across the island, luckily saving many lives. Sadly, one woman was killed in her house by the cyclone.

A week later, after my training, I and the other volunteers took the 24-hour ferry ride back to Vava’u, which stops in Ha’apai on the way. Having an hour to walk around the regional capital, I felt like I was in one of those towns in the mid-west after it was devastated by a tornado. Power lines were everywhere. Trees with seemingly impenetrable roots were lying on their sides. Houses were flattened, and people were living in Red Cross supplied tents. It is a terrible situation, and there are links to donate to the cause if you Google Ha’apai Tonga and the Red Cross.

To end on a lighter note, the week of training was uneventful other than the fact that I met the rest of the new volunteers on the other islands. Though I won’t see many of them again, it was nice to put names to faces and get to know the new crop of volunteers.

Now – to get the name of this post – a funny event occurred last week. Monday through Wednesday all of the teachers, the volunteers, and the Ministry of Education officials met for the annual teacher planning meetings. I don’t have much to report from this week, except for one comical, and more than slightly awkward moment.

On Tuesday, the teachers were separated by their sexes, and a male ministry official spoke the male teachers, while a female official spoke to the women. Normally during these long meetings I tend to zone out a bit. My Tongan is somewhat decent conversationally, but I am pretty lost when I am listening to an hour-long speech, so I normally let my mind wander. This time was no different, except that I kept hearing the Tongan word for “sex,” being repeated over and over again. At first I thought I was mishearing the word, but the more I listened to the conversation the more I realized sex was definitely being discussed.

I was confused. Our primary school students are too young to learn about sexual education, so I didn’t understand what was going on. After the meeting, I asked one of my teachers what the talk was all about, and he explained to me that too many teachers, most of them married, had affairs with each other last year and the Ministry had said that had to be stopped. Apparently it was a rather large number, though I was relieved to hear that at least these affairs were not occurring at the schools.

It was an interesting moment, made more so by chuckling of the teacher telling me this story, but I guess I continue to prove the old adage that I learn something new every day, regardless of whether it is worth learning. Well…at least I can say there’s never a dull moment in Tonga.

Thanks for reading. I suppose my promise of a short post didn’t really come out true. Sorry! – I’ll try harder next time. Enjoy the photos and have a great weekend.

P.S.  Tonga made the news and the Winter Olympics...though the name change thing is a bit weird.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/07/sports/olympics/lugers-name-matches-the-one-on-his-waistband.html

enjoying the cliff views in 'Eua

makeshift ping pong at school