PST Week 9

 Wow... week 9. Ryan and I cannot believe that this weekend is our last weekend of homestay. We leave our current village and family on Wednesday.  Here are some highlights from our last full week in Lavengatonga:

- We finished all the fun-sized Snickers bars Mark and Nan sent. That was a sad day. But, it was also a good day because Ryan and I decided to splurge and eat 6 bars each.
- We taught our last practice classes this week. Ryan rocked out with class 5 and I finished up with class 4. We wrote some poetry and had a great time. It was sad to think that was the last time we would have the opportunity to work with those particular students, teachers and principal. We will miss GPS Ha'asini.
- Ryan was elected as the VAC (volunteer action committee) representative for the Vava'u group. He will help bridge the gap between PC staff and PCV's on matters of policy and program.
- Ryan was also asked to be our group's emergency coordinator by the Peace Corps' Regional Safety & Security Officer based in Fiji. In theory this means he will be in-charge of coordinating volunteers in case of a tsunami or earthquake. In reality, it means he gets a bunch of cool gadgets like a satellite phone and a fancy emergency locator beacon that I get to play with!
- We rode the local bus into the capital for the last time. We thought it fitting that the song of choice blared to ear popping decibels was the Joy to the World/Macarena island remix. You think such a thing doesn't exist... you are SO wrong.
- I will be serving as one of our PSN (peer support network) volunteers. This means I will be trained on how to help other volunteers cope with the struggles of service. I am really honored to be elected to this position by my peers. I really hope I can be a source of comfort if things get tough.
- The other couple in our group, Mark and Alissa, took us to the 'Anahulu cave located in a local village nearby. This was AWESOME. We had the opportunity to swim in ice cold, freshwater in a beautiful, natural, underground cave (2 points for my wonderful use of adjectives in that sentence). :) This was so great and such welcome relief from the stifling heat and sun that is summer in the South Pacific. Ryan and I literally sleep in a waterbed now as we sweat the night away. Here are some pictures from us enjoying the caves.

  

One of our students happened to be at the caves the day we went. He showed us what REAL cave jumping looked like. The Tongan kids are crazy brave... and nimble!!

 

                                                      

(Note from Ryan: This cave is a huge attraction in Tonga and it was amazing to have most of the time there be just the 4 of us. These pictures truly don't do it justice. Also, the highlight was surely jumping from a 25 ft. cliff into the water. My wife, who is of course the only female in all of PC Tonga Group 77 to do the jump, had to go before me to prove it wasn't too frightening!)

What's next? This week we will have the opportunity to fly to Vava'u to stay with a volunteer currently serving on that island. She will take us to meet our new principals, see our schools, and check out our house. We are soooo amped to get a first glimpse of the place we will be living and serving for the next two years. On Saturday, we will return to the capital to stay for the remainder of training.
We hope you all are doing well. We heard Denver is getting snow... that seems so very foreign to us right now :)  Enjoy it and stay warm. Love you all so much and we miss you all terribly. Take care!

American Taboo

Hey everyone, Ryan here. One great thing about all the down time we have here is all the reading I have been able to do. After finishing one of the best books I have ever read, "Warlock" by Oakley Hall, I moved on to the non-fiction "American Taboo: A Murder in the Peace Corps". So following in the footsteps of my sister-in-law Emily, I will attempt to tell you about this book in my blog.

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American Taboo was written Philip Weiss and published in 2004. Weiss is an accomplished journalist who by happenstance uncovered one of the greatest mysteries and cover-ups in Peace Corps history. The 1975 murder of PCV Deb Gardner by fellow PCV Dennis Priven, on a tiny, forgotten island known as the Kingdom of Tonga. That's right, the most famous story in all of Peace Corps lore happened right here in Tonga. The book is an incredibly entertaining page-turner in the vein of mass-market books like "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo". Moreover, the setting of Tonga and the Peace Corps makes the book a really intriguing read. For me it was certainly the most relevant book I have ever read, as Abby and I are frequenting many of the same places referenced in the book.

While some of the stories of the PCVs in 1975 could not be further from our experience today, many of the same issues, places and themes of the book are true to what we are going through at this very minute. 

The murder of Deb Gardner is still a known issue in Tonga today as it set back Tongan-Palangi relations and we have even met a couple of locals who knew both Deb and Dennis in the 70s. The book also got a ton of coverage in America as I know 20/20, Dateline and 60 Minutes all did features on the story in 2004. If anyone out there wants to get a feel for what what its like to be a Peace Corps Volunteer in Tonga (during the 70s) then I would definitely recommend reading American Taboo.

Up next: American Pastoral by Philip Roth 

A glimpse into the future

Hi everyone, here are a couple of random pictures of our schools in Vava'u that Abby and I have been able to dig up. These were not taken by us and we hope to post much better pictures upon our arrival on the island. We will also try to post a "before" picture of our house from our visit to Vava'u in two weeks. You will get the "after" picture of our house once my wife gives it a planned cleaning worthy of true cleaning icons such as Mark Kloberdanz and Lisa Barkeim.

Here is a picture of Abby's school. It is located in the community we will live in and should be a ten minute walk from our place. The community has around 200 people living in it and Abby's school does not have more than 50 students at a time. Two former PCVs are in the foreground.
 

Here are two pictures of my school. One of the structure and another of the view, which looks amazing. This school is about a 20 minute bike ride from our home which I will do every morning and evening.


We will continue to post pictures as they come!

Site Placement Celebration

This past Friday, the 19th of October was definitely one for celebration. Ryan and I received our placement on the island of Vava'u. The Peace Corps went all out with a delicious homemade lunch and an afternoon of site-seeing on the island of Tongatapou. We ended the trip by coming into Nuku'alofa, where Ryan and I joined many of the other PCTs and dined on pizza prepared by an Italian expatriate, cold Heinekens and a butterscotch ice cream cone. The food was truly out of this world and anyone who is lucky enough to visit Tonga must go to Marco's tiny little pizzeria in the middle of the tropics!

The excitement started on Thursday night with the arrival of our first package from Mark and Nan. Here a bearded Ryan celebrates its arrival.

The next morning, Ryan told me he was "enjoying coffee on the front porch". When I came out to join him, I learned of his dirty secret...a fun-sized Snickers for breakfast! (Notice I made him shave for the occasion. I told him the "E. Coli" beard had to go!)

Here I am at the blowholes, which was undoubtedly the highlight of our site-seeing. Watching the water crash against the rocks and explode through all the blowholes was such a cool experience.

Ryan and I at the blowholes:

Finally, group shots of the boys and the girls of Peace Corps Tonga Group 77:

Week 8 PST

Hello all! This week has flown by for Ryan and I. Thank you to all of you for your thoughts and prayers for Ryan. He is doing MUCH better.

The biggest event of this week was our site placement. On Friday, we learned that we will be living on the island of Vava'u to live and serve for the next two years. We are so excited. Next week is our last full week of training. We are working hard to advance our language skills and practicum teach in preparation for our new jobs and sites.  The week after that, we will actually get the chance to fly to Vava'u to live with a current PCV for a few days. She will take us around and give us a tour of our new home and schools. We hopefully will get to see our new house to be better able to prepare and plan our move. We will post pictures of everything!

While we are not able to post our village placements for legal reasons, we know we will be living in a small house on a bluff that overlooks the Pacific. In fact, from our house we will be able to see the main shipping channel in vava'u and our nights will be spent watching whales, ferries and ships come into the island. We will also be living 100 yards from the Kingdom's largest freshwater lake where we will do the majority of our swimming and fishing. Other than that, Vava'u is known to be one of the best spots in the world for whale-watching, hiking mountains and volcanoes and scuba diving to underwater caves. It also has a very clean, very small capital city called neiafu. Suffice to say, we feel very blessed to have been assigned to Vava'u and cannot wait to get started!



A picture from the capital of Vava'u.

The other big event of the week was getting our first package! We cannot thank Mark and Nan enough for sending the supplies. Throughout this entire experience I have watched my husband stay composed. From leaving America, to arriving in Tonga, from battling e. coli to speaking with friends and family back home. He even kept it together after learning Iowa had defeated Michigan State. But when he saw the bag of fun-sized Snickers Nan had included in the package, well, I swear he wept!

If anyone else wishes to evoke these types of responses, we certainly love to get mail. If you want to mail us, our new Vava'u address is:

Ryan and Abby Kloberdanz, PCV
Peace Corps Tonga
PO Box 136
Neiafu, Vava'u
Kingdom of Tonga
South Pacific

We will keep this address permanently on the side of the blog!

We will continue to update with more pictures as they come!

-Abby

E. Coli!

(Caution: This post is from Ryan and NOT for the weak of stomach!)

After a relatively smooth month and a half in country, things took a turn for the worse for me this past week. Abby blogged about our wonderful experience cooking lu, it has some very, very unfortunate side effects for me! Having been extremely dehydrated and queasy all week, I felt good enough to indulge in our lunch feast of lu on Thursday. The bad news was that something I ate must of had the e. coli bacteria in it.  The good news was that it was only me who must have had it. On Thursday night, I went to bed early feeling sick and woke up around 10. At that point my insides exploded and I had uncontrollable diarrhea and was puking my guts out. This was maybe the most miserably uncomfortable I have ever been due to the violent nature of my condition and the fact I was in a tiny bathroom with a toilet that barely works. After consulting our medical handbook, I attempted to drink rehydration salts but they kept coming up. I won't go into too many specifics, but suffice to say there was puke and diarrhea everywhere in the house and the yard--after the toilet stopped working altogether. It was incredibly humiliating and uncomfortable.

At about 12:00am the Peace Corps doctor finally came and got me from the bathroom. After a 30 minute car ride to Nuku'alofa (the capital) we got to the peace Corps medical office for treatment. What complicated this situation is that our regular Peace Corps doctor is off doing a 2 week stint in Cambodia, so we have a doctor from the Peace Corps medical office in DC subbing for him. While she is an amazing woman, she hadn't yet been inside the treatment facility so things were a bit scattered to say the least! We couldn't find any supplies and my condition had not stabilized at all. Thankfully, the doctor had Nurse Abby at her service and we were able to cobble together enough equipment to get fluid and emergency antibiotics into my system. The only hiccup in this was the fact the doctor had not put an IV in for several years and after her repeated attempts we got to add blood to the list of things that were coming out of my body. While I barely stayed conscious both Abby and the doctor fought the urge to pass out from the blood, smell and general unpleasantness that was emanating from me. 

MacGyver's greatest work yet!

After a day in bed I got to move to the chair in the medical apartment. This is me trying to express happiness.

Abby's greatest contribution was no doubt the IV holder she rigged when we figured out Tonga's old IV bags have no clip to hang them from. She used used bungee cords, a weaved, hanging pink and yellow party favor and an old tube sock to rig the IV. It was truly health coverage one could only get in Peace Corps Tonga. She truly is MacGyver!

It is important to know that everyone in the Peace Corps staff and in our village was incredibly kind, helpful and supportive. Our Peace Corps driver raced to get me in the car, helped me up the stairs after my treatment and then slept in the PC car that night just in case I had to be taken to the hospital. The doctor  monitored me around the clock. The villagers in Lavengatonga all came over to our homestay house worried as can be when they didn't see Abby and I out for our usual morning run on Friday. Each one of the PC staff has all come to see me this past weekend and brought food and supplies. The outpouring of support has truly has been amazing.

There are not many Country Directors who would bring over homemade chicken soup for  a sick trainee.  I got to have broth with crackers!

At this point I feel almost 100% and am ready to get back to training. Abby and I had a relaxing weekend in the Peace Corps medical apartment and even got to enjoy a warm shower and homemade chicken noodle soup cooked by our Country Director herself. The other good thing is that the Dr. said I probably could never ever get another strain of e. coli like this after my body has had it once and I am finally hydrated after 6 bags of fluid. Of course, Abby insists that this incident counts as her one time too :)

Cooking Our First Lu

So, I know we have talked a bit about the Tongan tradition of lu on Sundays, but Ryan and I had not yet seen the whole process of that from start to finish.  This week, our language instructor got a bunch of moms in the village together to teach us how to do the whole process. It usually takes a Tongan family about 2 hours to prep their lu. Total time for 4 palangis + 6 Tongans helping: 3 hours 30 minutes. I had NO IDEA how involved the process was.

First, we dug our umu hole and prepared the fire.

Then, we had to crack the coconuts and shave the meat of the fruit out to prepare the coconut cream sauce called lo'loi.

After shaving the coconuts, we used the inside hull to squeeze the milk out of the shavings.  It was amazing to see the milk just pour out of the shavings.  No canned or bottled milk here!

After that, we chopped the lu leaves off the tree and prepared to make the packets with meat, vegetables, and the lo'loi.

Once the lu was ready to go into the umu, it was time to make the vailesi. This is called Tongan ice cream. It is fresh papaya with lo'loi. It is baked in the umu and comes out tasting like fresh cobbler. Oh yeah... this is the size of papayas in Tonga! I thought it was a watermelon!

And of course... no Tongan meal is complete without root crop! This one is uffie... Ryan and I's favorite.

We load the oven up with everything.

The umu is covered with tin, then blankets, then buried in dirt to keep all the steam in.

And we sit by the hot oven in the heat waiting for our food. And that, my friends, is umu. P.S... most families do this EVERY SundayBEFORE church. Rockstars.

First Days Teaching in Tonga

This past week we had the opportunity to practice teach in local village schools. I think all of us approached it with a bit of apprehension and honestly, a bit of fear. We are still in the beginning stages of learning the language, meaning most things come out as single words or simple phrases. Full sentences are still in the future. So, bright and early Monday morning we walk to schools for the first time ready to instruct.
As soon as we get to the school, the ENTIRE student body runs over stands in a large group, just staring at us. This does not alleviate the aforementioned fear. Hundreds of big, brown eyes focused intently on you... a crowd of completely silent students perfectly happy just staring. This happens right up until the bell rings and we all walk to the classrooms to begin class.
After getting over the initial strangeness of having unfamiliar white people teaching them, everyone in the school just opened up, supported us, and made us feel welcome. It was honestly one of the most amazing experiences I have had in the teaching profession so far. Here are some highlights from the week:
1. Students were so engaged in lessons to the point of repeating EVERYTHING we said. Even when you are talking to your co-teacher and you say something... the whole class repeats it shouting. You just smile...look at your co-teacher and say "Was that loud enough for you?"
2. By the end of the week, kids glowed with pride at the strides they made in their English literacy.
3. Teachers thanked us every day and told us we were making such a difference for our students. They are going to try to get a PCV next round to help them grow their English program.
4. The principal was so wowed by Ryan's lesson (that I spent the whole night before planning for him!) that he called a staff meeting that night and taught all the teachers how to use his lesson to support 6th graders preparing for their upcoming English exam. This exam is very important. It pretty much determines what opportunities the child will have in continuing their education. More on this later.
5. The last few days in the school, students adorned us with homemade tropical flower leis. Parents made these themselves and sent them with kids to give to us. It is a sign of respect in the community. This simple gesture showed such generosity and made us feel so welcome in the school, even though we were majorly disrupting their normal schedule just to give us some practice.
The issues we faced were similar to ones happening in America right now. Schools here want to learn how to differentiate instruction to support individual students, class sizes are too large, infrastructure is crumbling, students are far behind in their English skills and need to catch up. Its a daunting challenge but I am so excited to learn, prepare and serve these schools to help them achieve their vision.

Abby preparing for a teaching day as students look on.

A picture of our school. It may not look like much but we sure love it!

Our students during recess. Many of them play cards.

Our principal. He was truly an amazing man. We loved working with him.

Turning the big ua hiva (29)!

This past weekend Ryan turned 29. We celebrated his birthday Tonga style. On Friday, our training staff managed to bring a big birthday cake to training. All 15 of us ate the whole thing in about 20 minutes. Hey... don't judge... you would too if you haven't had real chocolate or cake in a month :)




On Saturday, Ryan and I went to the capital to celebrate Ryan's birthday in style. For breakfast, we had vanilla lattes and muffins at a cafe. It was divine...unbelievable really.  Then, we wandered around, did some shopping and just enjoyed the sunshine that finally decided to stick around.
While there were no presents per say, I told Ryan I would buy him anything he wanted as long as it wasn't more that 20 pa'anga (PCVs are not exactly rolling in the pa'anga). After looking around at the market and various local shops, he declared he knew what he wanted. Drumroll, please. For his 29th, Ryan demanded I buy him a pretty new blue bucket. While you palangis might scoff at such a thing, a bucket is integral to water filtration, laundry and assisting with certain bathroom functions here in Tonga. Needless to say, he is very happy with his new gift and already eagerly awaiting what's to come on his 30th!

Ryan using his new bucket at our village watering hole!

After that, we found a restaurant that made "hamburgers" and sold ice cold beer. We had an amazing lunch of french fries, Tonga burgers, and Heinekens. Let's just say a simple beer almost brought us to tears.

The beer tasted almost too good...ALMOST.

We finished out the day with a hour twenty minute ride on our friendly neighborhood bus. This trip comes complete with remixed American music blaring so loud you actually feel deaf when you get off. Either that or we are just getting old!

PST Week 5

Abby and I are midway through week 5 and it has been a good one so far. Here are some highlights:


1) We went to the village-championship rugby match on Saturday. Upon first glance this could appear to be like any high school/college football game in America, just on a dilapidated field and one set of concrete bleachers. However, this was unlike anything I have ever seen. Most of the spectators (which numbered in the hundreds) crowded around the field and celebrated on the field during play if their side advanced. Moreover, the game was simply put the most violent thing I have ever seen in person. The tackling was fierce, the concussions were numerous and the fistfights were everywhere.

One such fistfight led to 1/3 of the crowd charging the field to join in the fight. While a few were there to break it up, the vast majority were there to agitate and join in. This went on for ten minutes as the fists flew, players/fans were bloodied and several people were carted off the field. Abby and I sat with the rest of our Peace Corps friends watching this, with our mouths agape. It was crazy.

2) We have started practice teaching in our local school to help prepare us for teaching English in our site village schools, which will be a focal point of our time in the Peace Corps. The school is very run down and the students are low, but it has truly been an amazing experience. The students and teachers could not be more excited to have us at school. While we are learning a lot about interacting with Tongan students, I already feel like our presence is making a difference in Tonga.

Of course there is one crazy teacher lady who has already risen to the cream of crop in terms of her lessons. She prepares them with a "West Denver Prep-like" fervor and reaps the benefits every morning. I'll give you one guess of whom I speak.

3) Just when I thought I was out, Kirk pulls me back in with a W over Minnesota. I am so glad I am not living through this season in real-time. However, per my blogger.com profile, I am the Founder and President of the Tongan I-Club. So far we have two members, me and Abby, who was added to the club roster against her will. If you know any willing Tongans,  the Tongan I Club has an extra Hawkeye t-shirt waiting for them.

I want you for the Tongan I-club. Can a palangi get a "Go Hawks?"

4) Abby and I will learn our permanent "site" placement on October 19th. This is where we will find out which island we will serve on permanently. We are hoping for the outer island of Vava'u, which is north of Tongatapou--where we are currently stationed. We will keep you updated.


5) We truly miss all of you and hope you know you are never far from our thoughts and prayers. But please understand, what we miss most is far and away the food! :) 

6) This is something I would usually only share with my book club, but if any of you are in the mood for an incredible western classic, then I insist you read "Warlock" by Oakley Hall. Not only did Oakley Hall study at the Iowa Writer's Workshop (Go Hawks), but the book was personally recommended to me by my favorite author, Cross Morrows. If you haven't heard of him yet, you will soon. But seriously, "Warlock" is one of the best books I have ever read in my life and I hope someone out there picks it up.

Shameless plug: If you want to read a great blog with book reviews, then please visit my sister-in-law's blog: morningsstartwithem.blogspot.com

7.) We have not killed a single cockroach this week! Ryan and Abby emerge victorious on the war against these nasty creatures. (Editor's Note: Some of you will find it ironic that this paragraph was added by Abby, when she in fact has not killed or disposed of a single cockroach in Tonga. She leaves that work up to me.)

8.) After 7 straight days of rain and dark clouds and torrential downpours, the sun reappeared this week. This glorious event was marked by several different things: 1) Us digging our triple sealed laundry bag marked "moldy and smelly"out from under the bed and doing something about it. This ended with blisters on Ryan's hands from ringing out clothes. 2) Abby having to scrape the mold off of her shoes and 3) Ryan being accused of "fa'alahakaukau", a.k.a. sun-bathing, by his instructor during class.

9.) And finally, just for laughs, here is my wife upon her arrival in Tonga. Just try and guess what kind of mood she was in...

This picture  is enlarged and hung at the P.C. headquarters. Yep... someone in group 77 had to be that dork.