Service Update #1

What....NO PICTURES?!?

We know, we know. Who wants to actually read a blog when you could be seeing pictures of Ryan in a skirt or Abby swatting at rats with a stick? While we LOVE sharing the quirky side of life in Tonga with you, some of you may be reading our blog and wondering what exactly are these two doing besides killing bugs and taking names? So, to make sure you, the American taxpayer, knows just how your money is being spent we submit for your approval our first Service Update. 

First and foremost, it is important to remember the First Goal of the Peace Corps: "To help the people of developing countries meet their needs for trained manpower, particularly in meeting the basic needs of those living in the poorest areas of such countries."

While Tonga is considered a developing, third-world country, there are many places in the Kingdom that are economically sound and somewhat Westernized. Our mission here is not to serve as international relief workers or deliver international aid as this type of triage is not necessary here. Our focus is to build capacity in the poorest areas of the country so the citizens of those communities can build upward mobility for themselves. In Tonga, this means education. English is compulsory in the Tongan educational system because it is the unofficial language of the South Pacific which binds the islands together for government and trade purposes. While other islands have been able to master bi-lingual education, Tonga lags behind and has suffered because of it.

The Big Picture. The Tongan Ministry of Education wants to move the Kingdom's English instruction from a teacher-centered learning model to a student-centered learning model. The Ministry has found that their students are memorizing, but not learning how to use, comprehend, and manipulate the language.  Because of this, his Majesty King Tupouv VI has invited us as native speakers with teaching experience to change the way English is taught to children in Tonga. Therefore, we will each serve in a rural Tongan school Monday-Thursday working with grades 3-6. Both will be implementing the curriculum Abby has been creating and she is happy to have her husband as her very own guinea pig  :-) 

The Smaller Picture. We have also been asked to undertake projects that help improve the living conditions in the rural communities in which we live. Abby's work will be primarily in the schools (big shocker!)--writing a user-friendly English curriculum and conducting teacher trainings where she will demonstrate American teaching methods to Tongan teachers. Ryan will be working with the Red Cross on Disaster Management trainings throughout the island of Vava'u and writing project grants for our communities. His first goal is to improve the roads leading to and from our village, so people will have more employment opportunities in town and farmers will have an easier time selling their crops in town.  

Until school and our smaller projects begin in January, we have only one task: integrate into our community as fully as possible. Peace Corps has found that volunteers have the most impact in a community when they are considered full members of that community. We are working to make this tiny village, in this tiny country our home. So far, we feel like we have been able to do this with our physical space. The tiny, rat infested house we live in really feels like home! Now we are working to really get to know our community. We spend lots of time with our neighbors so everyone in the village knows our faces and why we are here, as well as inviting them into our home so they feel completely comfortable with us. Because Church is such a big part of this culture, we have taken an active role in the Catholic and Free Wesleyan Church communities as well. In fact, we are both going to be readers as part of the village's New Year's Eve service, so that should be fun.

Okay thats it for now. We hope to provide you intermittent updates specific to our service as we don't want Uncle Sam getting the wrong idea about our time here!

...Alright, we relent. If you've made it with us this far than surely you deserve a reward. So we now return you back to your regularly scheduled Tongan quirk:

We found this guy hanging next to our fire pit. While normally this is the type of thing we would make sure was good and dead, we were both too freaked out to get any closer. So, we have decided to save face and pretend he is just a pet. He is now Bob the Spider who lives by our fire pit.