Foki ki Amelika: The Playlist

This week Abby and I are on the mainland of Tonga for our Close of Service conference, which is three days dedicated to the logistics of our return to America.

It will have been 2 years, 2 months and 4 days (but who’s counting) since we last set foot in America when we step off the plane at Des Moines International. It’s a moment Abby and I have dreamed about for a long time and will undoubtedly be the most emotional moment of our lives.

Throughout this journey of ours music has played a vital role. The blog itself is named after the greatest and most important album of all time (in my humble opinion, of course) The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. Some of my earliest and happiest memories are spinning this record on my dad’s record player and the two of us listening to it over and over, talking about his childhood, life in the 60s, civil rights and Vietnam. I carried that with me all my life.

In Tonga music has been our entertainment and our outlet. There is no TV, no Internet, no showers, no entertainment (besides Church) in the village and so much of the time has been spent with the two of us cooking dinner, preparing lesson plans (well, not so much me), looking out at the ocean, petting Lucky and talking about life, all while listening to music. The soundtracks of this experience have been shared by the Coopriders and calcified our memories of living life in this village of 250 and making it our home.

Accordingly, I went all John Cusack in Hi-Fidelity and constructed a playlist for the two of us that we have been listening to when we think about home. Though I usually consult with sages of the playlist like Flood, Kappy, Theo and Cross, this one is all me. It’s pretty much been on repeat the last month and will probably continue up to that moment we come home to America.

(I trust that you, dear reader, can infer the theme of the playlist…)

1.     Welcome Home (Touch The Sky EP Version)                            Radical Face     

·          A Cooprider original and the most poignant tune in capturing the emotions of this experience. This is the song that will be playing in my mind when we touch down in Des Moines.

2.     American Hearts                                                                           A.A. Bondy     

·         A second Cooprider original and a way Abby and I reflect on the presence of God in our service.

3.     Take Your Time (Coming Home)                                                 Fun.     

·         The best song in the world to crank up when life is good in the village and you begin to dream about life being good back in America.

4.     American Slang                                                                            The Gaslight Anthem     

·          Clearly my favorite band is going to make it on here. They’ve pretty much been on repeat during my time in Tonga.

5.     Coming To America                                                                      Neil Diamond

·      Because Nanners loves Neil Diamond. Aww, heck, because I love Neil Diamond.

6.     The Body of an American                                                            The Pogues     

·          Because The Wire is a masterpiece of modern television (all credit to Ted for putting us on to it) and because it reminds me of my two grandfathers, who also spent time out of the U.S.

7.     Homecoming                                                                                  Kanye West     

·            More reminiscent of my time in Phoenix, another very, very hot time in my life.

8.     Home                                                                                       Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros

·           If Abby and I had a band I’d like to think we’d sound exactly like this.

9.     Homeward Bound [Live]                                                            Simon & Garfunkel     

·            I’ve been listening to Simon & Garfunkel’s Central park concert for as long as I could remember.

10. American Skin (41Shots) [Live]                                                   Bruce Springsteen

·          Springsteen singing about social issues is pretty much the reason I joined Peace Corps and what makes me who I am. RIP Amadou Diallo.

11. Come Back Home                                                                          Pete Yorn     

·          My sister and I only spent one year when we were both in college and Pete Yorn most certainly provided the soundtrack to that year.

12. Take Me Home Tonight                                                                  Eddie Money     

·          Because how often is it that your one and only karaoke song fits perfectly on your playlist. And also because if Abby and I had a band we’d probably sound more like this.

13. American Girls                                                                                 Counting Crows     

·           To know me is to know of my abnormal affinity for 90s alt-rock bands. This song carries the flag for that.

14. Welcome Home (Reprise)                                                                Radical Face     

·          One more time, just a whisper.

Special Bonus Track:

15. Will You Return                                                                                    The Avett Brothers     

·          The lyrics are me talking to Tonga, talking to Abby, talking to Abby, plus The Avett Bros represent the B-Team, who are waiting for me in Denver. A perfect way to end the thing.

That’s it, thanks for reading. Catch you on the flip side.

P.S~If you made it through this self-indulgent playlist of a blog and want to read more about music, my favorite music blog is www.brownbearwantshoney.blogspot.com and is worth a looksy.

No Water? Drink Whiskey!

Hello friends and family! Hope you are all enjoying your summer. It is just business as usual for Ryan and I here in the Kingdom. We are just enjoying our time with our friends, family, and students here in the village as much as we can as we move into our last 3 months of service.

Peace Corps staff came out and had a meeting with our PTA. We are happy they decided they would like to have another volunteer here in the village. The new group of volunteers come in September and will move to their work sites in early November. So, a new volunteer will move into our house only a week or so after we have left. It has been fun to be a part of the preparations for the new volunteer. People have already come over and asked us to write a list of things they want the new volunteer to know about them and the village. So cute and so funny. 

Our biggest struggle right now is water. It has been a very dry winter for us. Many of us in the village have had our water tanks go empty. Added to that, our village water system is not doing very well. Our village badly needs to re-vamp the running water system here in the village. They had an engineer come out and give them a quotation of what all needs to be done to fix it. Grand total for this project: $25,000 TOP (about $14,000 USD). Yikes. They are working on fundraising for this project as they know it has to be done eventually, but in the interim, we are all stuck with some pretty awful water. The village water is very dirty; full of grass, dirt and rust. We all use this water to wash dishes, clothes, ourselves, and flush toilets. Running water is only available a short 5 hours a day in order to conserve water and work the pump as little as possible. Everyone is using the rain water in tanks only for drinking as the running water is undrinkable. People have been great about sharing their water. Ryan takes two buckets up to school each day and walks home with them for droning water, but walking a kilometer with full buckets is not the most enjoyable thing in the world! People have been so kind to us when we come over to ask if we can fill up some buckets for drinking water. But, everyday it seems a new tank is dry. We need rain. We need heavy, flooding  rain soon. 

We are also experiencing record colds here. Well, at least record colds for our time in Tonga. Our previous low was 65 degrees and it was sad how cold that felt for us. But oh my, two nights ago the national radio announced it was 14 degrees celsius (that’s 58 degrees Fahrenheit!) My Lord it was incapacitating. Ry and I couldn’t move a muscle. Couldn’t bucket bathe. It felt like the Arctic! I don’t know what this polar vortex is or where it came from, but it is NOT welcome in Tonga. And yes, we are fully aware we might die of hypothermia once we get back stateside!

When Ry and I met up with his family in Australia, his sister had a surprise for us : a bottle of Stranahan’s whiskey! Ryan and I got engaged at the Stranahan’s distillery in Denver, and we celebrated that special moment with a shot of their whiskey. Recently, Cass was at Stranahan’s and told one of the managers there our story. This woman gave Cass a bottle to bring to us. Let’s just say this bottle has been a real treat. Stranahan’s is Ryan’s favorite drink and I love it too! As a thank you, we took some pictures with the bottle to send back to them. Our friend Mandy took these pictures when she came to stay with us. We just thought we would share them as we don’t have any other pictures to share right now. 

In other news, one of the church elders paid Lucky a very nice compliment. They said he was a good dog because he always comes to church with us. At least we have finally trained him to stay outside of the building! (Sorry Buster, your owners never quite got you there). Here is a recent picture of Lucky after he went fire-pit diving for food. Idiot.

Finally, a huge shoutout to my sister Holly who graduates with her Masters of Social Work this weekend. She will be working at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester starting in August. Holls, I am so very, very proud of you. Have a great party! Know Ry and I are thinking of you and celebrating with you in spirit. I love you so much. CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

Service Update

Hope everyone had a nice 4th. Not much going on around here except for one very exciting service update:

Back in February of 2013 Abby and I posted this, after our village's water pump broke:

And finally, 45 kids and teachers, 1 bathroom, no running water. You do the math.


Well, after nearly two years Abby and I have learned that the math of not having flushing toiles equals incredibly stinky and terribly unsanitary conditions. So we set about to change it. Putting that MPA to work I reached out to all the High Commissions (a.k.a. Embassies) operating in Tonga and after countless grant proposals, tons of meetings and lots of help from our PTA, we can finally announce that this month Tu'anuku GPS will finally have flushing toilets. This is all courtesy of the  people of New Zealand, whose High Commissioner (a.k.a. Ambassador) emailed me last week to tell us the good news.

Starting soon we will begin construction on a state-of-the-art water tank that will collect rain water and be connected to a hand pump to funnel it to the toilets and a sink for hand washing. We really hope this makes life at school and in the village better for everyone and are very excited about it.


That's it for now. Have a great weekend.

Happy Birthday King Tupou VI

Well, we sure did the King's birthday up right. Here are pics from that event. ( Sorry for the double blog, but too many pics to upload in one!)

Ryan's outfit for the performance......

Abby's outfit for the performance. Note to reader: I had a super cute athletic outfit all prepared, but then the moms came over and told me they would dress me for the performance. When in Tonga right?

The kids put their stockings on during the bus ride to town. Most took them off right up until the performance as they did not like having to wear them. Bear feet rock!

The King and Queen's viewing platform.

The performance field.

The King's flag flies!

Our favorite Tongan pride outfit of the day. This is Samu, one of the Ministry of Education officials.

Youth helping prepare the King's gifts.

These are just some of the beautiful, handmade gifts the people prepared for the King.

I am with Mele, one of my favorite moms and some of our neighbor kids. We had a righteous breakfast of homemade chocolate cake with homemade frosting. Moms went all out to spoil the kids.... and us!

Tu'anuku gets the call to come on the field......

and we pose to show our styling outfits.

We take our position as the top of the cross on the flag.

And wait to begin.

Still waiting to begin. All of us teachers tried to keep kids quiet and in their line. 45 minutes later, we gave up, relaxed together and let them have sock and arm pom pom fights. 

The high schools (called colleges in Tonga) parade in. They looked awesome!

The colleges performed more traditional Tongan dances for the King. They lined up on the field one behind the other so when one was finished, the next immediately took the field.

We all had so much fun eating cake, ice cream, watermelon and suckers while enjoying the beautiful entertainment. Ine is pretty content.

And after everyone left and Tu'anuku was still waiting for the bus to come get them, there was time for hill rolling

balloon popping

and tree climbing. All in all, a pretty spectacular birthday party.

P.S.- The King's license plate is better than your license plate!

Welcome to the Big Show

Well folks, the big Wesleyan conference and King's Birthday celebration has come and gone. Ryan and I have not been this worn out in two years!

First up was the Wesleyan conference. Preparations for this event have been months in the making. We have talked about little else with our friends and family in the village. For the first time, Ry and I were invited behind the scenes of feast preparation. We helped Tuki and Lolohea prepare their ten tables. We were astounded when we first arrived at their house the morning of the feast they were serving at. Every room in the house was a different food station. Ry and I joined some of the other ladies at the salad station. I put food in a container, and Ryan had to rubber band and pack them into boxes. Our station was incredibly ineffective as every 5 minutes Ryan and I were brought something to eat and told "Tangutu 'o kai."  (Sit and eat.) Needless to say, at the end, everyone had to come finish our boxes for us, but we did get the best ota ika (raw fish in coconut milk...so good!) of our lives out of it!

We then went to town and sat at the Wesleyan compound waiting for the lunch feast to finish so we could set up for the dinner feast. Once we got the call, it was crazy!  All teams moved into position and tables were set up in record time. It was such a neat experience. Our village had to prepare 50 tables. To make this happen, everyone in our village chipped in. Mormon families, Church of Tonga and Catholic families made tables to help share the load. Pretty cool.

Ry and I also went to watch our choir perform but were then made to try to sing. They told us just to try to mimic the sound of the person next to us to try to make the choir sound stronger. That was terrifying and awesome all at the same time! 7 hours later, we were sitting with the choir eating outside from the food baskets sent back with us at 1:00 a.m. It was funny watching my husband just tear chicken apart and eat his body weight in root crop at such an early hour. We finally collapsed into bed at 2:00 a.m. after fending off women continuing to bring us food.

Sunday we attended the big church service in town. The Queen Mother, the Crown Prince, and the Princess were all in attendance. We dressed up in our Tongan finest and enjoyed this service.  A tech guy even came by with headphones that translated the sermon from Tongan to English. Never had that option before!  After church, we again feasted with our families.

Here are some pics from the conference:

Well done cheese balls and Pepsi products. Well done.

Fine and I at the Tu'anuku feast.

Tuki and Lolohea's tables at the feast.

Ryan and Viliami. Looking good boys!

Tuki was happy with how their tables turned out.

Lolohea takes a moment.

Mele, Ane and I messing around after finishing prepping tables.

All the tables our village prepared.

Siua, Heamasi, and Lolohea with kava that will be presented to the King.

The King actually requested kutu mats from the women in our village. Kutu is a special plant that only grows near the lake. Thus, it is the signature mat of our village. Here, the women are preparing to present their gifts.

It was so fun to meet Tuki and Lolohea's extended family. This is Lolohea's niece from Tongatapu. We had a great time sitting together. Here we are with all our post feast booty!

My singing partner, Alema. She had a solo that I was to accompany her on. Let's just say I whisper sang as she was so good!

The choir waiting for the chair to show up and start the program.

Ane and Papani. Papani is the man who rings the church bell every morning at 4:30 a.m.

Ry and Lopini disappeared. I then saw them laughing in the back of the church taking pictures of each other. Boys!

Lopini

My favorite centerpieces. Tongans are so creative!

Tynesha and I in our Sunday best preparing to feast.