-The adventures of Ryan & Abby Kloberdanz as they serve as Peace Corps volunteers in the Kingdom of Tonga-

Friday, October 31, 2014

Plane Gone East

On the album ‘The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan’, Dylan writes about a ‘train gone west’. The imagery has always stuck with me and given the impetus to seek out adventure. Two years and some months ago that imagery helped inspire Abby and me to accept our invitation to Peace Corps Tonga. It also helped me make my case for this blog’s name, which, after much cajoling, my wife finally agreed to. (BTW, her suggestion of ‘It Takes Two to Tonga’ was summarily dismissed, although she did get points for alliteration.)

It excites me, pains me, and mostly just weighs heavy on my heart to now write about a ‘plane gone east’, as in our return to the States. We will touchdown at Des Moines International around 10:30ish on November 6th, completing a journey that took two years, two months and about 4 days. I am not sure Abby and I are wholly prepared for what’s to come, but I can tell you we are damn excited to find out.

Before I get too mushy about this whole to-do, let’s first take a walk through out last week in our beloved village of Tu’anuku.

It started on Saturday, when I went to town to run some errands and help our local women’s committee clean-up the bridge (it was Tu’anuku’s turn). Person after person from town, most of which I did not know, came up to me, shook my hand and wanted to say hello. It was very nice, and a little weird.

Then came Sunday, our final Church service. It was attended by Tonga’s Minister of Finance and his wife, which was exciting for everyone. At the end he came up to Abby and me and said ‘Oh, so this is the famous Peace Corps in Tu’anuku, so glad I finally got to meet you.’ Again, very nice, but a little weird!

Finally I grabbed Tuki and asked her why on earth someone in the Tongan cabinet would be calling us famous. “What? You don’t know?” she asked, “You were on the radio!” This we did not expect. It turns out that our village’s noble, no one less than the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Tonga, decided that it was time Tu’anuku got a little shout out on national radio. Every Saturday the national radio does a ‘Get to Know a Village’ hour and Tu’anuku was the first village ever from the island of Vava’u to be featured on it. What did they talk about? Apparently us. Well, mostly Abby. The people of Tu’anuku wanted to explain how happy people were here and what a happy village this was. To make their point, they told the story of us. Our work in Tu’anuku, our work with the kids, our time at church and in the Tongan culture. Then they talked about our goodbyes and how Abby could not stop crying because she didn’t want to leave! They said there wasn’t anything better than a blubbering Peace Corps Volunteer to describe how happy of a village this is. It was very touching!

Our farewell tour continued on Sunday when we were invited to eat with our Tongan family. After church we were escorted to Tuki’s house by all the young girls and women of the congregation. We were blown away to see Tuki and Lolohea had made a full- blown feast for us! We were thinking it would be a quiet family lunch! All the women kissed and clucked but then decided we should eat with the young ladies and Tuki’s family only. Lunch was a roller coaster of tears, words of thanks, and jokes about us bringing men back to Tu’anuku for all the girls to marry.

We spent the next few days carefully sorting all our belongings to try to give the people what we thought they would want and need. This ended up being a very personal and quiet affair. We were able to thank families individually one last time, joke with their kids, and show our overall love and appreciation for all they had done for us. And before we knew it, our house was empty and everywhere we walked we saw kids sporting our clothes.

And then came our second to last day. Tevita called us and said to come up to school at 10:00. We figured we would say good-bye and that would be that. We arrived to see the kids all sitting in one classroom with two thrones up front. They had Mark and Alissa’s CD ‘Hiva a e Fanau’ blasting from the player so we could remember our friends as we took our seat. Over the course of the next hour, we were showered with beautiful thank you speeches from the kids and the teachers (in English)! Then came the singing. Oh the singing. Viola wrote a song for us in English to the tune of a Tongan farewell song. The song was slow and sweet….the words so touching. And the kids, oh the kids. They must have practiced this song a hundred times, because they sang it perfectly. And all the while tears streamed down their face. I looked over at my wife and out came that famous blubbering. But I could barely hold it in either. After we said our good-byes to the kids, we ate. The teachers had roasted a pig for us. It was a wonderful lunch, eating our last pig with our staff.

Our last morning started at 5:30 a.m. People came over to sit and pray with us. It was emotionally exhausting to have so many personal, heartfelt good-byes. Tevita and Taniela and 5 of our favorite girl students escorted us to the airport. Right now, I don’t have the words to describe how Abbs and I felt as we drove out of the village the last time, a whole community waving in the rearview. A part of our hearts (and our poor baffled dog) will always be in Tu’anuku.

A big malo (thank you) and even bigger ‘ofa atu (love to you) to all of you, dear readers. In the highest of our highs and lowest of our lows, all of you—family, friends and causal readers—have given us the strength to endure during this journey. Your love, your thoughts, your prayers, not to mention your care packages ;) have fueled us at every turn. We honestly could not have done this with you and your blessings mean more than you will ever know.


Hard to think we won't be watching Ine walk by our house each Sunday...

Or Loa.

Our last mean at Tuki's house.

Tuki's daughter Ane made this for Briel!


Kaloni brought over our dinner for our last night. They were still alive when we got 'em straight from the sea  and so, so ifo.


The teachers.

The song, part 1

Part 2

One last pig.

And one last face-stuffing faka-Tonga!
The hardest goodbye of all. Wish they would smile as their tears almost broke us! We will never, ever, ever forget them.









It’s hard to know what to say to close this thing out. There simply aren’t words to capture the sheer, unmitigated love and gratitude that Abby and I feel for this place, these people or our Peace Corps experience.

Given my lifelong desire to be seen as an American cowboy, I thought about channeling my man Roy Rogers and letting loose a ‘happy trails to you, until we meet again.’

Of course my favorite band, Gaslight Anthem is in play when they say something like ‘turn the record over, I’ll see you on the flip side.’

And Mr. Sinatra always makes a good point when he sings ‘thanks for the memory.’

But I think a job like this is best left to the old raggedy beer sign that sits outside of the Fua’motu airport in Tongatapu:


Farewell thy Kingdom.

Thursday, October 23, 2014

One last week

Well, Ryan and I finished our last full week in our village. I can’t even believe I just wrote that. Last full week. I don’t think it has really hit Ryan and I yet that we actually have to leave this home soon. I don’t think it will really hit us until we take that last ride out of our village.

After having our big good-bye ceremony, we were a little worried about how we would fill time this week. This turned out to be a non-issue. This week was actually one of our busiest weeks to date. Here are some pictures of what we have been up to.

Breast Cancer awareness day at school:

Students were able to dress out of uniform in pink if they brought $2 dollars to school. All proceeds went for breast cancer treatment in Tonga.

Started the morning off with a cricket match.

Ryan says Le'o went to the 'Cassie Kloberdanz' school of in-game focus.

The school.

My girls!


House Clean-Up:

The committee that is in charge of preparing for the new volunteer came to the house to clean up the outside. They brought 20 or more so people and started working at 6:00 a.m. sharp. When they were done, we all sat together, sang, prayed, and ate cake for breakfast.

The boys cleaning up the water tank for the new Peace Corps...if only there was water in the damn thing!

Helping or hurting Siteli? :)


Malama Honua:

These two old style Polynesian canoes are sailing around the world from Hawaii to raise awareness about environmental issues and showcase Polynesian traditions on the open seas. Our school was one of several who were invited to go interact with the crew and see the boats at the wharf in town.



Class 6 with Tevita.

Tevita trying on a life jacket.

This is how they go to the bathroom on a Polynesian boat. Maleta tries it out! 

One of the boats.

Doing a science experiement on plankton. Very cool.

Flags they have collected from around the world.

Reason 100 we love the Big Dog: while the other principals hemmed and hawed and waited for the kids, Tevita got right in there and made a boat and participated in all the activities.

Me, Toutai and Tukuafu showing off our skills!

Raising the sail!

See you all soon!

Lowering the sail!

Tevita pulling the sail.

The Big Dog found some friends.


Celestial navigation is not an easy thing to learn about in a foreign language!

One boat is all in the old style while the other has tons of gizmos to help the environment. Siope very much wanted a picture taken with said gizmos!

Martin, a Hawaiian man from the crew teaching the kids!


Family Boat Ride:

One of our neighbor families surprised us one afternoon by coming to the house to ask us to go for a boat ride with them. This was so special as we have a really strong relationship with the kids. They are by far our favorites. We had a wonderful afternoon touring some of the neighboring villages and islands. The kids had such pride of all the things their dad had taught them about the boat, the sea, the islands, and fishing. They literally talked our ear off for two hours straight sharing all these things. An afternoon that will live forever in our memory.

Visiting the caves.

Loa was ready for the picture!

Oh my poor sunburned lips! That's okay, I was ready for Loa this time!

Kaloni, our ship captain.

Oh Ine!

Ry and the gang.

Tita with their kiddos. Kaloni was still anchoring the boat so I stepped in!

Oh these two make quite the pair. Long story short. Ine feels very strongly that he should get to ride Lucky like a horse. Lucky feels differently, hence the other side of the fence :)

Ry and I also had our last day of school this week. The older kids helped us clean up and organize the library. Then, Taniela told them they could spend some time reading books and relaxing with us. While we were reading, one of our kids found this book:

A story about a puppy named Lucky and his 'boy'. Pretty sure I saw Ry shed a tear when he read this one...



They LOVED that they found this book. They listened silently as the book was read aloud by one of the students. Then, they put this book in a special place to read to the new Peace Corps and tell them the story about our dog Lucky. After that, we had a team meeting with Tevita and Taniela. We helped them make the schedule for the new Peace Corps and they asked us to give them a few lessons on things they wanted to know about the computer. We then showed them where we had put all the materials we were leaving for them and that was it. The end of two years of the most special teaching we have ever done (even Ry thinks so). 

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Fakamavae

There are some days that hearken back to the choices you’ve made in the course of your life and bring a sense of clarity and peace about those decisions. Abby and I were fortunate to have just such a day this past Friday, at our Fakamavae (Farewell Feast).

In August of 2011, Abby and I chose to forego a conventional wedding, shotgun the thing a month later in September and apply for the Peace Corps. Three years and some months later, it all feels so worth it. Though this experience has been the toughest thing either of us have ever embarked upon (to say the least), it is by far the most rewarding thing we have ever done.

We were reminded of all this during our farewell feast. The community leaders, in conjunction with the PTA, set it up at school. The kids prepared banners for us, had speakers waiting so we could disco (dance) with them and in true Tongan-style had food-a-plenty prepared. Haeyoon, our fellow volunteer from a nearby village came and volunteered to be our camerawoman.

We were also surprised and grateful for two officials from the Ministry of Education to come out to the feast and speak about our work at Tu’anuku. The Town Officer, chair of the PTA and the Minister from the Wesleyan Church also gave us speeches of thanks. Their words were incredibly kind and touched our hearts.

Abby and I both read hymns to open and close the ceremony and addressed the crowd in the middle of lunch. Giving our final fakamalo to the community was incredibly emotional for both of us and we only hope our words conveyed the gratitude and love we feel for this community, these kids and this place. Tu’anuku is a one of a kind village, even for the Kingdom of Tonga, and it will always have a part of us as it is our Tongan home.

One cool part of the ceremony was when the kids lined up by age and presented us with gifts their families had prepared. To think that subsistence farmers and fishers would spend their time and money making us gifts is beyond belief. Abby and I accepted each gift with the traditional Tongan kiss on the cheek and told the kids thank you. After that, one last surprise where our co-teacher had made a ridiculous cake from scratch and it was served with ice cream. Do these people know me or what? J


Here is a sample of pictures from the feast, enjoy.



Asetta and Mele with us and the banner the kids made us.

With Viola, our co-teacher who made the cake.


Receiving the gifts.



Us with some of the gifts.

My fakamalo.

Abby's fakamalo.

The Big Dog, our Principal Tevita.

Cutting the cake. 

Samiu from the Ministry was so kind to come. The kids loved palling around with one of the Ministers. 

Abby and Melenaite, one of our favorites.


Disco.

Me and my buddy Taina.

Me, Simi, Haeyoon, Abby, Simi's wife Pina and Maliu.

Hayeoon came even with a bum foot, which she was de-infecting while enjoing cake and tea!

From our neighbors.

From our other neighbors.

Our principal Tevita got us this map, which I am so excited about. He had someone in his village make it for us.

Wweelll, the spelling was a bit off on this one. And the last word means cry. So its all a little confusing.But the family who made it does not have electricity and did it by candelight. Very sweet.

Abby's new kiekia.

Abby wearing kutu, the type of weave only found in Tu'anuku.

It was AMAZING to watch our neighbor Pina weave these, can't believe she gave them to Abby. So nice of her.

The fans we received.

Some of the necklaces we received.

A selection of the purses we received.

The beautiful kahoas we wore.


Naturally I was woken up at 5 a.m. to come make the programs for our ceremony!

Of course, the hardest goodbye is still yet to come...