Backtracking - Oct-Nov, 2006

October-November, 2006

Hello everyone!!

I know I've been writing so much (much more than I had expected!), but we have some extra time again today so I thought I would send out an update.First of all, here is a brief re-cap of all that we have done:

Sat, Oct. 28: PC Group 72 (that's us!) arrived in Tonga, Welcome Kava, BBQ, and settling in at Sela's guest house

Sun, Oct. 29: Church (I went to the King's Church), Uma (traditional Tongan cook-out/feast after church), walk back to town and walking around town with other group members

Mon, Oct. 30: Classes all day (Classes include language class, culture class, teacher training classes, sessions about our secondary projects - health and environment, diversity training, safety and security and health), Go to Ha'atafu for our first homestay

Tues, Oct. 31: Classes all day, time with homestay family, Sarah Kate and I had a long talk with our trainers (Noa and Jacinta) about different site placements and their efforts to rescue some volunteers that became stranded on an island during a big storm which resulted in Noa and Jacinta becoming VERY sea sick - the volunteers were fine.

Wed, Nov. 1st: Classes all day, Good-bye feast for the bride (the sister in my host family) that night

Thurs, Nov. 2nd: Drop-off day - they dropped us off in pairs somewhere on Tongatapu and we had to find our way back to Nuku'alofa - I was dropped off with Kate and we hitched a ride to Nuku'alofa with a nice gentleman, his elderly father, a nice lady who gave us Tongan lessons, and his sister who is studying at the theology school; then we had time to check email and do other things in Nuku'alofa before going back to Ha'atafu for lunch and afternoon classes; I went to extra language class that night

Fri, Nov 3rd: Classes all day; walking on the beach and swimming at night; and just relaxing at home

Sat, Nov 4th: Sarah Kate and I walked about 4 miles trying to buy phone cards but everything was shut down because it was a holiday (Constitution Day); then a big group went to the beach and I tried to help with the feast at night but preparations really didn't start until 3 or 4 in the morning

Sun, Nov 5th: Church in the morning where we saw the bride and groom get blessed; then we went to Noa's sister's house for the Uma and into town to check email and go to the bakery; then back home to hang out with the family, study and eat more

MOn, Nov 6th: Classes all day, run/walk with Adrienne and extra language class at night

Tues, Nov 7th: Classes all day, run/walk first with Sarah Kate and then with Karen and then I ran on my own; first placement interview with Soraya (i told her I wanted to go to an outer island but one that is big enough to run on and has internet access somewhere and/or some way of communicating with the outside world. However after events later this week I may be staying on the main island - more to come)

Wed, Nov 8th: Classes all day; after classes a bunch of us walked abut 2.5 miles out to go see the Flying Foxes in Kolovai - they are giant bats that look like monkeys - their wing span is about 2 feet. We also met up with another Peace Corps volunteer named Valerie who has been here for a year and LOVES it. She is a teacher in Kolovai and seemed really positive. AND we saw her house and it was really nice - indoor shower and bathroom (although the water wasn't running due to the current drought), really nice living space and bedroom, really good size. AND she had a refrigerator and everything!! it was great!!

Thurs, Nov 9th: Classes all day; long walk with 2 other volunteers - Karen and Adrienne; running by myself; dinner with my host family; and THEN the BEST PART - a town dance (concieto). It was sooooo much fun. The whole town went (except my host family because they are rather anti-social and Sarah Kate because she was tired). It was a fund-raiser for one of the churches in town because that church was holding the annual choir competition on Sunday and therefore had to provide tons and tons of food to all the participants and needed money to buy it all. The way it works is that each family's name is annouced for a set of songs and the family usually would perform a talunga (hula dance) but becuase we were there they mostly just let the Peace Corps volunteers and little kids dance around the whole night. The way the talungas work is...either the family or someone they ask to perform for them performs a traditional dance, like a hawaiian hula dance. The dancers wear a traditional outfit - usually a printed flower strapless wrap dress and a kiekia (decorative woven belt with dangly things is the best description I can give) or a printed tapa cloth wrapped around them with the kiekia or something like that, of course, with a flower lei and other things. The dancers are covered in baby oil or coconut oil and they perform the dance in front of the kava circle (the men all sit at the front of the room in a half circle and drink kava and watch the dancers - the kava drinking is done in a certain ritual and where they sit in the circle and everything reflects rank, etc.) and as they perform the men from the circle and other people watching the dance stick money to the dancers. I know it sounds wierd, but it is actually very tasteful and not at all sexual. For our dance though, we all just danced around with the kids and people stuck money on us anyways. And three people in the group performed traditional dances - one girl all by herself - isn't that brave!! she also made this incredible costume out of leaves! All in all the church raised 1400$T (tongan dollars - about $700 US). It was really fun!!

Fri, Nov 10th: Classes all day; then they announced our next site placements - I am going to be in the village of Koulo in Ha'api. All the placements are on the main island (still VERY small), but my particular village is about a 30 minute walk from town. THere will be 3 others in my village and I am really excited because they all said they would like to start to run and walk a lot with me! :) That night I also went on a long walk on the beautiful beach and then helped a bunch of volunteers clean the town puppies and pick fleas off of them so that they aren't so sick. Then we just rested at home.

Sat, Nov 11th: We went into town at 7 am and I read some email (but didn't have time to write too much) and then we went to the Tongan Naval Base and had swim and rescue instructions from the Navy officers and had to practice swimming in our life vests and huddling in a circle in our vests and swimming backwards in a row in our vests and then (this was sooo cool!) we got to jump off the navy ship into the little bay area, then we practiced some rescue moves and then they took us in a boat out into the ocean a little and we had to swim back to shore. It was soooo much fun!! i love swimming!! Then we just had time to hang out in town and then we all went back to Ha'atafu and just spent time with our families

Sun, Nov 12th: We went to church with the family and they dressed us all up in traditional tongan wear. I was wearing a long yellowish-orange skirt with a red and black print and a shirt that was much too big in the same print. Then i was wrapped in a big woven mat around my waist and hips and then a stylish kiekia was put on - it was black with black twirly swirls coming down and red and white beads on it. At church we learned that our whole host family sings in the choir and the brother was an excellent singer and the choir director. who knew!! then we had the uma (feast) and then slept and did homework the rest of the day

Mon, Nov 13th - We had classes and someone from the Ministry of Education came to talk to us about a new Special Educaiton program he is starting and he is interested in having me work with the new teacher in order to train her to work with Special Education students!! Cool, right!! That night we also had a BIG BIG BIG feast and all the families and townspeople gave really nice speeches about how much they enjoyed having us and we ate tons and tons of food.

Tues, Nov 14th - We are back in Nuku'alofa today before we go on our 10 hour boat ride to Ha'api tonight. TOday we saw a great play done by one of the Peace Corps teachers with his class 6 students. it was Tongan Snow WHite and the Seven Dwarfs - sooo cute!!

Alright, I must go!!

PLease write!!

Cheers!!
-carly