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.
Good morning how are you?
ReplyDeleteMy name is Emilio, I am a Spanish boy and I live in a town near to Madrid. I am a very interested person in knowing things so different as the culture, the way of life of the inhabitants of our planet, the fauna, the flora, and the landscapes of all the countries of the world etc. in summary, I am a person that enjoys traveling, learning and respecting people's diversity from all over the world.
I would love to travel and meet in person all the aspects above mentioned, but unfortunately as this is very expensive and my purchasing power is quite small, so I devised a way to travel with the imagination in every corner of our planet. A few years ago I started a collection of used stamps because trough them, you can see pictures about fauna, flora, monuments, landscapes etc. from all the countries. As every day is more and more difficult to get stamps, some years ago I started a new collection in order to get traditional letters addressed to me in which my goal was to get at least 1 letter from each country in the world. This modest goal is feasible to reach in the most part of countries, but unfortunately it’s impossible to achieve in other various territories for several reasons, either because they are countries at war, either because they are countries with extreme poverty or because for whatever reason the postal system is not functioning properly.
For all this I would ask you one small favor:
Would you be so kind as to send me a letter by traditional mail from Tonga? I understand perfectly that you think that your blog is not the appropriate place to ask this, and even, is very probably that you ignore my letter, but I would call your attention to the difficulty involved in getting a letter from that country, and also I don’t know anyone neither where to write in Tonga in order to increase my collection. a letter for me is like a little souvenir, like if I have had visited that territory with my imagination and at same time, the arrival of the letters from a country is a sign of peace and normality and an original way to promote a country in the world. My postal address is the following one:
Emilio Fernandez Esteban
Avenida Juan de la Cierva, 44
28902 Getafe (Madrid)
Spain
If you wish, you can visit my blog www.cartasenmibuzon.blogspot.com where you can see the pictures of all the letters that I have received from whole World.
Finally I would like to thank the attention given to this letter, and whether you can help me or not, I send my best wishes for peace, health and happiness for you, your family and all your dear beings.
Yours Sincerely
Emilio Fernandez