It's Almost Fiji Time....

I know my husband said it was a hiatus, but I still have more stories to tell!  Just because he is in his pre-vacation grump mode doesn't mean I have to be. Right? Mo'oni (truth).

We now know that the last week of school before break is considered an "optional" learning week here in Tonga. Most days we were finished with school by 10:30 a.m. But, the school got a good scrubbing, we played a lot of badminton with the kids, and Ryan and I tested the limits of patience in our marriage. All good stuff. So, here are some pictures of our last week before our big trip to Fiji.

Ryan and I did a previous blog about the young Peace Corps Volunteer named Tessa Horan who died here in 2006 from a fatal shark attack. Her mother, Kristena Prater, still maintains a foundation in her name called the Tessa Horan Foundation. This foundation continues to help maintain the library built at the school in honor of Tessa's memory. This week, Kristena had a man from America stop by to bring some supplies to the village. His name was Michael. He brought a whole suitcase of books, school supplies, seeds for community gardens, and t-shirts with the Tessa Foundation's logo. The kids were so excited. It is a very special honor for schools to receive American visitors and our school did an amazing job. They prepared a traditional Tongan feast and our students sang a bunch of the songs they had learned in English to him. The kids had so much fun! It was a really great day.

        

I got a little bored this week and decided I needed a project. Our friends who live on the outer island have a large chalkboard in their house. I love this and think it is a cool way to keep learning new words in Tongan. After cleaning the library, we found an old can of chalkboard paint. So, I decided to paint a chalkboard in our house. It turned out really well! Now Ryan can clearly see his to-do list :) He is oh-so-happy.

                                                              

In an effort to spice up our Friday nights, we have decided to invite our class 6 kids over to make pizza with us. If they have brothers or sisters in our class 3,4, or 5 class, they come too. So far we have done this with our closest neighbor family and the two girls who are my cooking regulars. It has gone really well and we have a blast with them.                                                           .

                 

Below is the family up next, on a recent raid of our orange tree. They are another neighbor family and all the kids have so much personality. They are going to be a BLAST to cook with next weekend! 

Yeah, the littlest boy REALLY hates clothes. I mean, really hates them. Rain days are his favorite because he just runs around in all his glory enjoying it. We didn't mean to be lewd putting this picture in, but he always cries when his brother and sister don't let him in the picture. Needless to say, this is what every picture of them looks like. So, go with what ya got! 

(Editor's Note: We've blocked out anything lewd, but let's be honest, if we couldn't take pictures in the village where kids are naked, then we really wouldn't have many pictures at all) :)

That's all folks, we are off to Fiji in a couple of hours!

P.S... We saw a really bright light coming into our window, so we went outside to see what it was. We thought something was happening at the resort across the ocean. But, it was just the biggest, brightest, most beautiful moon we have ever seen. A bunch of women came from the other end of town to sit by our house too and marvel at its beauty. It reflected so bright off the ocean it was like a spotlight. It was made even cooler by the slow flying bats that flew majestically into the tree in our backyard. Ryan and I put this in our top five moments in Peace Corps.  Wish I was a better photographer... but at least I am better than my husband.

Abby's picture: A beautiful, majestic moonlight night in Tonga.

 

 

Ryan's picture: His "majestic" beast, napping in the sun after eating Sunday dinner scraps. Be thankful for my contribution to this blog. Otherwise, it would all be stupid Iowa football stats and dog pictures. 

Hiatus

Hi family & friends,

We've had a busy week and are doing great!

Jut to let you know, the freewheelers are taking a break from the ol' blog. We are off to visit our friends in the outer-islands this weekend and then, on June 24th we will be spending the week in Fiji. Our first vacation in ten months and we cannot wait to be there and then blog all about it! Take care!

Love,

Abby & Ryan

And the beat goes on....

Well, not much new here in Tonga folks. This was one of our quietest weeks here and that is really saying something. Monday was a holiday, so no school. Tuesday was a Ministry-wide school clean-up day, so we worked with the kids to clean up the school and then went home. Our principal, Tevita, got really sick this week, so he did not come to school. Days without Tevita are pretty much a free-for all playdays, which can be sometimes be fun, and other times grind your nerves down to dust.

Thursday night the moms and the children from the Mormon Church in our community came over to do 'ngaue ofa' (a gift of volunteer work) in our yard. After seeing Ryan tear down all those trees a couple weeks back, it seems that the village finally realized we also care about the appearance of our house. With that information, they sprung into action!

The afternoon began with all the kids and the moms coming to our place to get it started. Oh what, you thought yard work was immune from prayers, songs and religious speeches? Oh dear reader, no chance, in fact, MOST of yard work is simply prayers, songs and religious speeches :). After the festivities, the kids sprung into action and oh boy, we've never seen anything like it. Our students were armed with machetes (both boys & girls) and the little ones had Tongan brooms to clear their work. The strength, efficiency and speed with which the kids cut our grass, cut down trees and rid our yard of weeds was simply shocking. We have never seen anything like it. More than that, they just hopped over the pig fence and cleared out our entire bush. To everyone's delight, we found a previously undiscovered orange tree in the bush, which was full of slightly over-ripe oranges. Given that orange season has come and past, it was like Christmas as we all ate our bodyweight in fresh oranges.

Starting it of with a prayer, a speech and a song:

 

Poetry in motion:

 

A team effort:

 

 

Goodbye 'uta, hello oranges.

 

Nothing more exciting than finding fresh oranges to pick!

 

 

Per usual, he was no help at all:

The afternoon ended with more prayers, speeches and singing. Abby and I provided fruit punch for all the kids (thanks to our dear family and friends who have provided us with enough Crystal Light packets to last us at least 50 years) and they had candies for the kids. It was a fantastic, energizing afternoon. Lots of fun.

Only 17 days until we spend a week visiting Fiji. We have never been more excited for a vacation and can't wait to tell you all about it!