Stayin' Busy

Ryan and I have actually been a bit busy these last few weeks. Here are some of the things we have been doing:

Making a Hawkeyes Video- A while back, some of Ryan’s closest friends and family (who are all die hard Hawk fans) sent us a bunch of Hawkeye t-shirts for our students. We had our students learn the Iowa fight song so we could prepare a short video to send to the university to play during the game. Our friend Mandy, who is an incredibly talented photographer / videographer, came to our village to tape our video. It was such a fun experience. The highlight of the day was our principal, Tevita. Watching him psych the kids up and demonstrate how to “look mean, cheer loud, and fist pump aggressively” was hilarious.  Mandy showed us some of the first cuts of the video this weekend and they look awesome. We are so excited to share it with you all! Go Hawks!

King’s Birthday- King Tupou VI will be coming to Vava’u in the beginning of July. The elementary kids have been askedd to perform the “ta fuka” for the king. The kids will stand in formation to create the Tongan flag. They will then perform a zumba dance followed by some very intricate marching to make different patterns. Getting over 1,000 kids lined up perfectly and teaching them to make marching passes is no small feat. Their zumba dance looks good, but everything else still needs a lot of work. We spend 4 hours every Friday morning rehearsing for the big day. With only weeks to go, it will be interesting to see if it all comes together in time. This is going to be an amazing event, and Ryan and I feel so lucky to be here to participate in it.

The best part of the t-shirts, we wore them to Tafuka practice, so every student and teacher on the island could see Hawkeye pride in action. Look at our Principal Tevita get down!

As if Hawkeye pride wouldn't be coming to Tonga. My husband wouldn't have it any other way.

A line of Gold amongst a sea of Red

Day Sail- One of our good Peace Corps friends on the island, Harrison, had an aunt visiting from New York. He invited us to join them on a day sail around the various islands of Vava’u.  We sailed on a beautiful boat and Mandy came too. We had such a special day sailing. Good food, great conversation, beautiful weather, breathtaking islands. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday. We sailed to the island of Euakafa, which is one of the uninhabited islands in the Vava’u group.  This island is well known for it’s amazing beach, wild pigs and it houses the tomb of a Samoan king from hundreds of years ago. (When Vava’u was not part of the Kingdom of Tonga back them) It was an awesome experience.

Mandy and me!

With views like these we really can't complain...

Finally, we had our Peace Corps team over to stay for a night. We took them on a tour of the village, fed them burgers and ice cream, and took them to the lake. We lucked out with wonderful weather! It was sunny, breezy, and cool. People in our village were so pleased to see so many Peace Corps stay with us. Fine and Mele, two mothers, came over to see if I had properly prepared for our guests. Minutes after leaving, an army of girls showed up and told me Mele told them they needed to come clean the kindy better. I guess my cleaning did not pass inspection as the edges of the kindy freak me out. I cleaned the middle… but guess that was not okay. Fine was brave enough to come over and meet the Peace Corps. She sat and visited with all them for awhile, which was cool. Her kids had so much fun playing with Harrison. One kid, Le’o, kept bringing new groups of kids by to try and show off that he had a new friend. It was cute and soooo funny.  It made me realize how close we are to this group and how special it has been going through this experience with them.

The guys taking in our view from school, naturally Ryan hasn't taken off his Iowa shirt since he got it. And of course he made Jeff wear the flag. 

Coopriders—we talked about you guys all weekend. You are still such a presence here when we all come together. We heard a little about the situation happening in Thailand. We are praying that everyone there is okay and that things settle down. Keep us posted if you hear any news. Love you guys!

Fakame

May is a very special month here in the Kingdom. May is the month dedicated to celebrating the family. The first weekend is dedicated to the children, the second to mothers, and the last to fathers.

Everything kicks off with a bang the first Saturday of the month.  Every Tongan and their mother leave the village, head into Neiafu and shop ‘til they drop. It is tradition that on this weekend, every Tongan child gets a new outfit. Each family brings in clothes to sell the others. Known as ‘fairs’ these aren’t a laughing matter as lookin’ good is the name of the game.

‘Sapate Fanau’ (Children’s Sunday) is the first celebration. At Church…wait, did I tell you this was about church? I just kind of assumed you would know that by now, but just in case, let me repeat…EVERYTHING here is about Church.

Okay, moving on. Morning Church is an occasion to wear white, as all the children are bedecked in Tongan dress to read and lead songs during the service. Hold on to your butts folks…. running time for this service with acted out Bible stories, thank you speeches, crying, AND communion….about 3 ½ hours. Man, it was a doozy. But the kids did a wonderful job and really enjoyed being the ones who lead service.

Lookin' good Tu'anuku!

Next comes the main event, the Sapate Fanau performance. For this year’s festivities, our church prepared several different programs that all in all took another three hours to perform. Who is running this show? None other than our Tongan mother, Tuki.

The hardest working woman in show business, Tuki, with her daughter Ane.

Holy handsome! 

Finally, the performance goes off without a hitch. After this is the traditional tea, where cake, cookies, and bread are served in portions that literally inject the diabetes straight into the bloodstream. While Abby and I are polishing off the last of the cake, and Tuki is giving the thank you speech (still haven’t seen her sit down yet) we are brought out a tub of ice cream as thanks for helping with the show. Which we consume at the 10 o clock hour before sleepy time. It was the happiest and fullest moment of our lives.

My kind of dinner!

Of course we could barely peel ourselves out of bed the next morning and who do we see, leading the 5:30 am Church service, then heading to her job in Neiafu, where she runs a kindergarten? You guessed it, Tuki.

On the next Sunday of Fakame comes Mother’s Day, which we celebrate in Tonga along with the rest of the world. Here is where things get a bit dicey. The good people of our village want us to have a baby. Very badly. Some are convinced we have children back in America but most just go on the full court press for us to have a baby in Tonga. Not gonna happen. But that didn't stop them from bringing us a multitude of traditional Mother's Day cakes and a feast on Sunday. All just to up the ante. Let me repeat Tonga, Not Gonna Happen!

One of the cakes brought to us. 

Our Mother's Day haul. We're still full.

The rest of Mother's Day was great. We made Tuki her favorite dish and when it came time for each family to present a family prayer to the village, we stood with Tuki and Lolohea as part of their family. We are very blessed to have three amazing mothers, Nanners, Lisa and now Tuki!

That is all for now. Have a great week everyone! 

Very sensible choice at the fair, Ine. It works at home and school. Plus, ya know, its a cape. So that's good too.

Iron Chef America

Not much is new here this week. A tropical storm moved in and we got a ton if rain. It was nice to get water in our tank. All the farmers in our village were so happy as watering their crops was getting to be tiring.

Currently, our students are working on reading and understanding instructions. One of our colleagues, Taniella, had the kids cook a traditional Tongan dish called veihalo. Veihalo is a soup-like dish made with coconut water, chunks of fresh coconut meat and an amazing herb that tastes like lemongrass. Such a delicious dish.

Taniella asked us to try to have the kids read and cook something in English. We decided to try cooking cinnamon rolls with them.  It was a really fun day with our class 5 and 6 kids. It was one of those days I am actually thankful I work with my spouse. (Trust me, those are rare.)

Ryan and I split our class into two teams. Class 5 vs. Class 6. Ryan was team lead for class 5 and I was team lead for class 6. Ryan had the ingenious idea to turn this activity into a sort of cooking competition.

(I spend hours planning the details, he pulls something out of his ass on the spot and his contribution makes the activity. Go figure.)

Ryan's Team

My Team, we had quite a  few kids absent for a funeral that day which made the numbers more manageable!

The kids rose to this challenge brilliantly. They read their directions carefully together. They consulted their vocabulary chart to make sure they understood the directions. They looked on with bated breath as things were added to the mixing bowl.  Looking over from my station at my husband made me glow with love. (God, cheesiest line ever!) It was so special to look over at him with a group of wide-eyed class 5 kids huddled around him while he whispered ways to cheat and add more sugar and cinnamon to their rolls to make them better. I got to watch my husband be a true hero. The kids now worship him and think he is pretty much the shit.

Moments like this help me remember how lucky Ry and I are to be able to have this experience. Being in a room radiating with pure joy and happiness is so moving. Being a married couple in the Peace Corps is never easy, but having the chance to see your spouse dipping his finger in butter, sugar and cinnamon, just to lick it off to the squealing delight of a bunch of kids (who quickly followed suit…real sanitary Klob) is a memory I will forever treasure.

The best for last, check out Taiana's guns! That's what you get climbing coconut trees and swinging a bush knife for your first 11 years of life!