Easter Weekend

For a culture whose way of life, social interaction, community hierarchy, money and time all revolve around Church, Tonga does NOT mess around when it comes to Easter Weekend. The entire island of Vava’u was essentially shutdown from Good Friday until Tuesday morning. Feasts, children’s camps, Bible performances and a whole helluva lot of Church services were the entertainment for our village. We also hosted kids over for Easter-themed card games courtesy of Aunt Nina. But we did manage to sneak away to the lake with our friend Haeyoon, who is the Peace Corps Volunteers in the next village over. After a long walk, a good day’s swim and another long walk back home, the three of us feasted on her inordinately delicious homemade Korean BBQ featuring spices sent directly from Seoul, homemade apple pie and Easter cupcakes. Now that’s our type of feast!

Here are some pictures below: 

What's that Ine? You enjoy playing cards? We couldn't tell...

A well-deserved swim after a walk in the heat.

The Lake!

That is Easter faka-Palangi!

Lucks and Haeyoon's dog decided to attack me with love.

I begged Ry to get them off, instead he got the camera.

It would be embarrassing to tell you how fast these went... 

Groundhog Day

Wake up at 5:30 a.m., to the imposing sound of ringing church bells, do 500 jumping jacks in a vain attempt at losing that Tongan flab.

Haul water.

Make coffee using our French press. Pray to God of small things that French Press lasts another day.

Eat unsweetened yogurt that tastes exactly like sour cream. Ask your spouse if that was, in fact, sour cream.

Walk to school as every child in the village waits for you to pass so we can all walk together.

Alternately think, its cool having a posse and get these smelly things away from me!

Come to school, eat the cake the teachers bring for breakfast. Immediately think, “Oh shit! I promised myself I wouldn’t eat that today.”

Plan for class. Grimace as children remove crackers and Tongan bread from their pockets and offer it to you as a sign of respect.

Teach the kiddos.

Eat “healthy” lunch you prepared for yourself during break.

Eat unhealthy lunch the teachers force down your throat in yet another, sign of respect.

Hope in vain some kid will bring you a coconut to drink.

Walk home, as all the kids walk in a parallel line next to you, blocking any pigs, horses, chickens, goats, sheep or dogs who are trying to cross the road.

Haul water.

Cook relatively healthy dinner.

Wait for the ‘kole’s’, a.k.a. ‘asks’, where each villager will come to the house and request help. Grant writing, tutoring, medicine-dispensing, cake cooking just to name a few.

Receive food from grateful villagers as they wait with bated breath for you to take each bite.

Feed leftover food to Lucky. Listen to your spouse berate Lucky for his weight, which tends to yo-yo.

Console Lucky.

Haul water.

Watch spouse squeeze the ooze out of infected sores that never seem to heal.

Take a bucket bath.

Collapse under the mosquito net to get away from the bugs.

Sneak a cookie, piece of chocolate or anything sweet in the fridge your spouse doesn’t know about.

Look at the moon, think of family and friends back home.

Watch a movie on the computer and pass out.

Wake-up to the sound of church bells (again), look at yourself in the mirror and think to yourself: “where did all this flab come from?!?!”

I've been there, Bill.

Time Marches On

Well, we are full swing back in action after our amazing trip to Australia. The day we got home, our neighbor kids came over to give us a detailed account of all the events and gossip we missed while we were away. The biggest news was that our principal, Tevita, had left for Australia only days after our departure! His aunt had died, and he needed to go to play his role in the traditional Tongan funeral. He has not yet returned. The last two weeks have been busy and interesting. Ry and I have been filling in teaching extra classes to try to help out the staff. We have also been working alongside various Ministry Officials who have been sent to help out covering classes and seeing to administrative duties while Tevita has been away. This has given us the opportunity to really dialogue with the Ministry. They have been very excited to watch us teach and ask us questions about how we have adapted the curriculum. This has lead to brainstorming about possible professional developments we could run to share best teaching practices with Tongan teachers. All in all, it has been a very positive experience for us working alongside the Ministry. 

Ryan and I are continually amazed by the generosity and thoughtfulness of our community. Our PTA organized people to prepare meals to bring to all of us teachers at school everyday to support us. This has been so wonderful as it gives us time to sit, eat, and build a stronger relationship with our school staff and the Ministry folk. Ryan and I have had so much food sent home with us and brought to us by people in the community as thanks for our hard work that we have easily gained about 3 pounds this last week. Just for the hell of it, I decided to make a list of what I all ate yesterday. This has got to be the most traumatizing thing I have ever read:

oatmeal (started the day off good)

bread dipped in peanut butter

peanut butter cookies

2 hot dogs 

a hock of pig

coconut cookies

root crop (let me count the ways): talo, kape, ufi, kumala, manioke…Good God there is a lot of root crop in this place! 

Chocolate squares (not my fault! Ryan brought them home)

2 BBQ pork sandwiches

fresh lobster Mac and Cheese

(Editor’s note: upon further review my wife failed to admit to eating three buns dipped in butter and some friend chicken, don’t worry, I’m keeping her honest folks)

Holy shit… and you think I am kidding about all the food? Ryan and I have a “just eat it and then it will disappear” mentality. Our fridge is so full, our dog is so fat…what are we to do?? Oh, third world problems.

Well, that pretty much sums up our week. I just want to say huge Congratulations to my sister Emily and her husband Cory. Her son, Atticus Wesley, has joined us in the world. He is a beautiful baby. He is on my ever-growing list of new family to meet upon return to the states. 

I also included some pictures of our aboriginal walkabout in Australia. This was such an incredible experience. We only had picture duty for this day so we can’t share the rest of our trip, but I hope these pictures do justice to just how beautiful this experience was. I am so glad Cass organized this for us. 

 

 

Group Photo Take 1 (At least J and I  were ready!)

And Take 2 (the original Klobs get their shit together)

We hope you all have a wonderful week!!!