The Final Countdown

In all likelihood, this past week was my final one as an English teacher. I have to admit that I am not entirely unhappy about that prospect. While, I have great relationships with my three teachers and I love all of my kids – well, most of them at least – I would be lying if I said that I really liked teaching. I enjoyed working with immigrants and refugees in the US, and as I was assisting as an English teacher, I assumed that I also enjoyed teaching. However, after two years of teaching here, though I have gained an enormous amount of respect for the teaching profession and now truly understand how difficult the job really is, I have discovered that neither my passions nor my future profession lie in teaching.

My final three weeks may be the busiest of my time here in Tonga. While this is in some ways a blessing as I am not constantly thinking about my date of departure and all that leaving Tonga really entails, I also have to remind myself to step back once in a while and soak in the incredibleness of this place and all that it has meant to me. My schedule looks something like this: From the 22^nd to the 26^th, during school break in between Terms 3 and 4, I will be completely focused on the running of Camp Grow and Glow. The following week we are back at school for last minute test prep to prepare the kids for the Class 6 Secondary School Entrance Exam, and administer a South Pacific Study Exam that is being used by New Zealand to observe the varying education levels of primary school students across several countries in the South Pacific. And finally, the week I leave we have the actual Class 6 exam, a possible farewell feast in my honor, and the packing up of my house and the distributing of all that I am leaving behind for the people in my village, before leaving on a plane the next morning for the main island.

But for this last week, I was still teaching. In fact, we handed out report cards to the parents on Friday, so I had to assess the kids, give them letter grades, and think of what comments to write for their parents. While doing so, I looked around at all the children and realized how much I will miss them. I have already jokingly, and maybe not so jokingly, told them that they cannot like the new volunteer better than me, and that they need to promise to cry on the day I leave. Many of them have pinky promised – yes, that is a thing here too – me to do so, but I genuinely wonder if due to their young ages they will remember me in the years to come. I hope so. Tongans love Facebook and I would certainly enjoying seeing an ex-student friend me 5 years from now, assuming of course that they remember that my real name is not Soni.

For the most part this past week was simply about finishing up. I had to collect data for Peace Corps to quantify how many of my students have improved by at least 10% in their speaking, writing, and reading of the English language. Though I am by no means a particularly impressive teacher, I am happy to say that almost all of my students greatly surpassed these benchmarks and I could not be more proud of them. They often drove me crazy in the classroom, and I’m sure at times they had no idea what I was trying to get them to do or learn, but in the end this experiment was a success for both them and me. I may not love teaching, but I could not be more impressed with my students and have been so fortunate to work at GPS Houma.

Thank you for reading. Only a few more posts to go before I shut down this blog for good and am back in the US. Please enjoy the photos below.

Some of the kids playing beside my house

Mele, 'Ana, and Mele weaving

Teli and Toua coming back from sweeping (Tongans don't rake they sweep) the leaves at school. And Lisa, my class 4 student, in between

Mandy serving Kava to two men from my village, my neighbor Mana on the left and 'Ofa on the right

Our Kalapu (when we raised money for the camps by serving kava)

Whales in the Wild

I have been fortunate enough to have experienced some incredible adventures over the past two years living in Tonga. Few of these experiences, however, if any, can rival the time I swam with the humpback whales last year. Last Saturday, after weeks of anticipation and heightened expectations, I again swam with the whales. I, of course, wondered; could I truly replicate one of the best days of my life? I soon found out that I could do even better, as my latest adventure was even more remarkable than the first, and I now suppose swimming with the whales has become a twice in a lifetime experience.

On the morning of September 6^th, three volunteers and I  (Mandy, Joey, and Jeff) were joined by four tourists to embark on a swim with the whales. We met our Whales in the Wild boat at the main wharf at 7:30, eager for what we all expected to be an incredible day, and quickly made our way out of the protected harbor of Vava’u, thanks to the boat’s massive engine.

With speed I had yet to experience on a boat in Tonga, we zoomed past all of the islands, until we reached even the farthest uninhabited ones. Early on, I was relaxed, thinking that it would be some time before we saw our first whales. Last year, it took us four hours to find 2 whales – a mother and her calf that we would eventually swim with – and they were the only the whales we saw the entire day. Though I of course had no complaints at all and was so happy with our swim, even if it was only a few minutes long, I have heard in the time since that last year was a relatively poor season, with very few whales having arrived in Vava’u. This year, on the other hand, has apparently been an incredible season, one of the best in recent memory. No one knows why, as some people suggest the weather, the temperature of the water, or even it being an el Niño year. Regardless of the reason, I could not imagine how amazing a good year could be if last year’s “bad” season was so unbelievable for me.

So, within an hour of leaving the harbor, we found three whales, a mother and her calf being escorted by a male. As only four people can swim in the water with the whales at one time, the tourists graciously allowed us to swim first, and we quickly prepared our masks and fins in anticipation of entering the water. We followed the whales, at times as close as 15 yards away, but they were moving too fast for us to get in the water and swim. Still, the sight of these large, majestic animals gliding through the surface to catch a breath before again submerging was truly awe inspiring. To add to the ridiculousness of the scene, a pod of perhaps thirty bottlenose dolphins, which are known to socialize with humpbacks, then started swimming around the boat. So, with my right eye I could see dolphins only 5 feet away, and with my left see whales only a little further off in the distance.

As quickly as they appeared, the dolphins left us and we continued to follow the whales. After some time, our Tongan guide told us that we would be leaving these three whales as they were moving too quickly to swim with and find others. I was initially surprised by this, as I had already seen more whales than I did all of last year, but I trusted the guide and off we went.

Within 30 minutes he seemed prescient, as we came upon two males fighting over the attention of a female. In what can only be described as a gentle battle between two behemoths, we could see some slight stirring beneath the water and the relaxed flapping of fins on top of the surface. Unfortunately, after some time we again had to leave the whales, for they were similarly moving to quickly to offer a quality opportunity for a swim.

We reversed course and sped out south of all the islands, traveling farther way than I ever had before. Amazingly we could see whales in all directions. A sprout of water being blown in the air a few hundred yards to the right. To the left, the large blue backs of two whales gliding atop the waves. In front, a flick of a too big to believe flipper flashing through the air, indicating the dive of a massive humpback. Astoundingly, right behind us we saw two males breaching, jumping several times out of the water to land with a deafening splash. I couldn’t even fathom the power of such a creature that could launch such a large mass so high out of the water. Their raw power combined with their innate gentleness is truly remarkable.

Yet for all the whales that we saw, few according to our guide were good candidates for a swim. At one point our boat flew off to follow the path of 8 males moving somewhat less quickly in the water, in what seemingly appeared to be a game of follow the leader. Our guide, Sione, told us to get ready and that we would be in the water in any second, as we would get a chance to watch the whales pass us by within the ocean. Ready, I watched in awe as the males moved through the water so close to us, eager to join them. Every time we were about to hop into the water though, the whales would turn in a different direction. After some time, Sione decided that we again needed to find a different set of whales.

Now, I was getting nervous. The morning had been great as we had seen as many as 20 whales, but we had yet to get in the water for a swim. It was 1 pm and we had already been out on the water for over 5 hours, so I have to admit that we were all a little anxious. Sione, undeterred, started moving us past all of the islands, taking us all the way from the South to the North of the main island of Vava’u. Unknown to us, the company’s other boat had spotted some whales to swim with, and had radioed the information to Sione. While I was sitting and imagining what would happen if we didn’t get to swim, we were rushing to a very important date.

We arrived at the whales right as the other boat was finishing up. The conditions were perfect. A calf was swimming with it’s mother, while a huge male, recognizable by his large white belly as opposed to the all dark blue of the mother and calf, had graciously acquiesced to our desire to remain in one place. The whales seemed calm and somewhat acquainted with having people in the water around them. Without losing a second, the four of us jumped into ocean and instantly were within several feet of all three whales.

I can hardly describe my feelings. After thinking about this all year, I was suddenly staring directly at two enormous humpback whales and a third that was so huge it was hard to believe that it was only two months old. They are so gentle and graceful, playful yet still somehow a little intimidating due to their jaw dropping size and bulk. The whales were completely indifferent to our presence for all the care they showed. We were simply insignificant, quiet observers viewing them from the shadows.

The whales were so calm and slow moving that we were able to swim with them several times for as long as maybe 20 or 30 minutes. It was absolutely incredible. The male and mother can hold their breath for much longer than the calf, so they would remain 30 feet below us, while the calf would come to the surface every few minutes or so for a breath of air, emerging so near that I could see it in perfect clarity in the transparent waters of the South Pacific. In perfectly cute form, every time the calf submerged it would nestle itself under the neck of its mother, as if hanging on for the ride.

It was an otherworldly day. After patiently and not-so-patiently waiting to swim with the whales, in the end we were not disappointed. Being in the water with them for so long was an experience I will never forget. Thank you all for reading. I know this was a long post, but I felt the experience needed the justice that only this length could provide.

Please enjoy the photos taken by Jeff with his underwater camera.

The baby

The mother moving to the surface for a breath

Mother and Calf

Chugging Along

This past week marked my two-year anniversary in Tonga. It really is hard to fathom. I would be lying if I said that every day had been easy, but overall I have had an incredibly transformative experience that has deeply enriched my life and helped me grow both personally and professionally. As the cliché goes, the days may have seemed slow at times but the months flew by. While I still plan to save any nostalgia for my final post, I have a little over a month remaining as a Peace Corps Volunteer and I still have so much left to do.

Over the past few weeks and the next several to come, all of my time that has not been spent at school preparing our Class 6 kids for the Secondary School Entrance Exam, has been spent planning for Camp GROW and GLOW. Having created and developed the camps last year, the other directors and I possess a quiet confidence, calmed by the fact that we have done this before. However, we are still working on overdrive to make this year’s camp even better than last year’s with more campers participating in the program and an extra day.

Two weeks ago marked the first of what will be many Camp Saturdays. The other volunteers and I took all 12 of our counselors – 6 boys and 6 girls – to the beach at Talihau for a day of team bonding and camp discussion. I was particularly excited for this day, as several of our new counselors had been campers the year before, and I was eager to see how they would be able to handle the added responsibility and observe how much they have matured over the past year.

We swam and played all the energizer games we use at the camp, like the human knot, Kwa, and animal zoo. We ate a delicious meal of fried fish, grilled chicken, root crop, and pasta salad prepared by one of the counselor’s parents. Most importantly, we talked about our goals for the camp, specifically how Joey and I hope to take a less active role in the running of the camp this year, passing on more responsibility and therefore leadership opportunities to our counselors. All of the counselors asked terrific questions and seemed ready to play a major role in the camp.

Then there was even more to do last week. As part of raising money through the Peace Corps link, we also have to raise at least 25% of our funds locally in Tonga. So last Friday, working in conjunction with the High School Principal Committee, we held a Kalapu in town. Along with food, Kava is at the very center of all things Tonga, and a kalapu is when you invite men (only men can drink kava in Tonga) to come to a specific place to drink kava and donate some money. We had announced the kalapu on the radio and invited the local kava clubs and the men from our respective Peace Corps villages. As an incentive to come, we made sure all of the men knew that the female Peace Corps volunteers would serve as tou’a (the woman who serves the kava).

Joey, several of the male counselors, and I arrived at the hall at 6 to mix the kava and prepare the building. Having finished mixing the powdered kava with the water around 7, I began to feel the subtle nervousness that reminded me so much of when we used to throw parties in college. All I could think of was would anybody actually show up? At 7:30, things seemed gloomy, as only two men from my village had arrived. There were still no changes thirty minutes later, but at least the girls were now at the hall and were ready to serve the kava. Then by 8:20, appearing almost as if by magic, the hall was full with 100 men, as several villages humorously arrived in their school buses, carrying literally a bus-load of men ready to drink kava. All of my anxiousness quickly evaporated, and I spent the rest of the night making sure everything ran smoothly and drinking kava to socialize with our guests. I was really touched that for all the word we had gotten out about the Kalapu and for all of the people who had seen me in town and promised to come, the people who showed up in large numbers were friends of ours from our local villages and officials from the Ministry of Education. In the perfect display of the camaraderie and brotherhood that epitomizes Tongan communities and that I will miss so much, all three of my villages came out to support me.

As this post is getting a bit long, I will just mention that the next day, still somewhat exhausted from the kalapu the night before that didn’t end until 2:30 in the morning, we held a meeting with the parents of our newly invited campers, so that the parents could learn more about the camp and ask questions. We had a pretty decent turn out, especially for our prospective female campers, and the parents and kids seem really excited to come to the camp.

Thank you for reading and please enjoy more photos from the agriculture show.

The Women from one of my villages, Mangia, in their stall

Another village of mine, Houma, proudly displaying the fruits of their labor on their farms

Fish caught by men and women living on the outer islands

The Queen Mother

The Royal Family