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

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Just Another Saturday in Paradise

Ryan and I are happily settling into our "normal" routine here in our village. We have been really proud of how well our students are doing in the classroom and really enjoy the people in our village. Last weekend Ryan told me I was bothering him so I invited some of our students over to the house to play with me. If you ever have a moment where you think you are kind of pathetic... just think of me. I went to ask kids parents if they could come over to work on some English with me. I made two boys play Uno with me and I had two girls help me make cupcakes. Yep, 30 years old and I bribe children to play with me.

It honestly ended up being a pretty fun Saturday. The boys told me playing Uno was "tika taha." Best English translation ever: the bomb. So, we started a scorecard to chronicle our epic Uno battle. It was so fun to play with them! They cheat, but hey, that means I can too. It adds a very unknown element to the game. You never know what is going to happen!

I was really excited to have two of my students, Ane and Melenaite, over to bake. They found a kids cookbook in the library, read it about 10 times, and finally got the courage to ask me if they could ever come to my house to make something. When they came over Saturday, I could tell they had worked together to read the cupcake recipie over and over. I helped them find all the ingredients and they were off and running. I literally just stood back and watched them handle it. It  was so fun. They were so proud of themselves and we had such a good time.

P.S.- Notice's Ryan's crazy dog photo-bombing Ite and Ane's picture. 

 

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Ite's brother also came over to see what was going on and ended up helping Ryan in the yard. Ryan chose 4 hours of clearing the jungle that was our lawn over playing with me. Ahhh... love. When I walked outside our house I literally gasped. Our yard looked naked! No more huge overgrown trees, tangled jungle vines, or creepy ass spider webs. I could actually see fence and lawn and the massive decorative rock that came with the house! The yard looks awesome... the rock does not. 

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One of our students, Laea, loves Ryan and stopped by to show him his new bike. Despite its "used" condition or the fact he shares it with his five brothers, he was SO EXCITED about it. He had Ryan help show him how to put the chain back on when it fell off and also asked Ryan to fix the brakes. When Ryan told him the brakes were cut and didn't work, Laea just shrugged and told him he didn't really need them anyway.

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He was born to pose with that thing!

While the girls were baking they asked if they could make some lemonade for Ryan because he was working so hard. They showed me how to make homemade fresh lemonade with a lemon they got from the uta. It was the most delicious and refreshing thing ever.  Ryan and I later made the same version with a little "adult spirits" added. After two lemonade cocktails, Ryan and I stumbled out of our lawn chairs. Turns out we no longer have any sort of alcohol tolerance. All in all, a pretty nice Saturday.

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