Full Circle

The other night, Ryan and I were sitting on our back porch enjoying the cool late afternoon breeze. As we sipped our vodka-crystal light cocktails, we had a moment where we realized we had come full circle in so many ways. 

How, you ask. Let me explain.

1. It is getting hot again. Like you can't wear underwear more than one day anymore hot. We forgot how miserable the summer here is. 

2. The crystal light vodka cocktail hour is back. Believe the hype!

3. We recently had the opportunity to go to the next village over and help them welcome their new Peace Corps Volunteer, Haeyoon. This was originally supposed to be Ryan's work site before he was asked to work with me here in our village. Needless to say, this community was very hurt and disappointed to not have a volunteer the past year as planned. Though they were understanding, it still was hard for all of us. Going to Haeyoon's welcome feast was a wonderful opportunity for us to have some closure with that community. Ryan gave a wonderful speech (we all know how much he loves his speeches) on our behalf letting them know how happy we are they have their new volunteer. At the end of the day, we felt reconnected with this community. 

4. We just finished our school's end of the year faiva. One year ago today, we went to this same event. It was all so new to us. We didn't know any of the kids, parents, or teachers. We felt so awkward and uncomfortable. We ended up observing most of the day. This year was so different. We got to watch the students we love dance with such passion. After hours of practice, I was able to actually memorize the faiva song so I could sing along this year and be a part of the performance. Ryan assumed his spot with the principals and ministers drinking kava from the main tent. Parents we have worked closely with were excited to have us take their family pictures. It was an awesome day to celebrate with the people we are the closest with here in our village. 

5. Best of all, it has rained lately. Our water tank went dry last week and the pipe water in our village, which is always scarce, was not turned on. Let's just stay it was a stinky week with no laundry, no bucket baths and minimal dishes. Our town officer made sure we had access to a water source in the community but with almost every other tank going dry, we were very conservative. After the rain we washed the fish smell off our bodies and are beginning the assault on our clothes. It is likely that nothing can be done about Lucky's smell, as the pig poop he takes refuge in on a daily basis is simply unstoppable.

The weirdest thing about this time of year is how far removed from our friends and family in America. Its probably cliche to say we miss you guys and talk about you all the time, but its the absolute truth. We can't help but think what Thanksgiving, Christmas and the season would hold with all of you if we were in America. I am holding up pretty good, but when Ryan starts to cry (or pout) I remind him that Iowa is bowl eligible and that usually perks him up.

We have three weeks before school ends and one month left before we travel to New Zealand. The interim will be used for getting in shape (life on island time is NOT conducive to fast-paced traveling), meeting the other new PCVs on Vava'u and a few Hawkeye-themed surprises for our kids!

Here are some pictures from our Faiva:

 

The kids chillin' next to our pride and joy, the new bus!

The girls getting ready.

One of our favorites, 4th grade Taiana.

Our village's performance, which featured boys and girls side by side with parents and teachers in the back.

Abby getting in the action!

Ryan spent the event drinking kava with the principals. He is a little loopy...

Our neighbors and one of our favorite families.

Abby and Viola, one of the teachers at our school.

A Visitor From America

This week Ryan and I hosted a visitor from America. Janet came because she was a good friend of Tessa Horan. Tessa was the Peace Corps Volunteer who was killed 7 years ago by a shark. Janet is an artist and children's book author. So, she volunteered to come to our school and read one of her books to our students and do a fish painting activity with them. This was a really incredible experience for all of us at the school. Again, any time something new or different happens is a good day. The kids, true to form, were so timid and shy with Janet at first. They were hesitant to paint an actual fish and pretty much just seemed overwhelmed by all that was happening. But, after a few rounds of brave souls, we were off and running. Kids started to really get creative and enjoy painting and coloring fish. It was a high energy day. Tevita, our principal, and the teachers were so accomodating. They told us to structure the day however we felt and gave us free reign of the school. It was fun for Ryan and I to change things up and work with different groups of kids as well. 

Here are some pictures from our day together at school.

 

 

 

We hung the finished project in the library. One of the kids later told me the library is their favorite room :) 

Another activity we did was to hang a sign at the beach where Tessa's accident happened. We got a bunch of our kids together to help clean up the garbage on the beach and hang the sign. This was another huge success. Just another way to let their wacky personalities shine.

As I was trying to get the kids attention and focus their electric energy on me to hear the directions for the afternoon, I realized Lucky and Ryan with a camera posed too distracting for them. Typical.

The first hurdle of the afternoon was trying to figure out how to get rubber gloves on and plastic garbage bags from America open. All the kids brought both back to me moments after getting them telling me that they were "maumau" (broken). I died laughing and lead my first "How to Use a Rubber Glove and How to Open a Garbage Bag Session." My sessions were successful and we were good to go!

 

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Awhile back, Ryan and Laea started a private joke about being heroes. This has somehow spread, and so anytime our students do something new that scared them at first they come up to us and say "We are Heroes!" I LOVE that this is their new mantra. It makes tears spring to my eyes each time I hear it.

What would garbage pick-up be without ending the day swimming in the ocean?

All in all, it was great having Janet stay with us. It really made us realize how far we have come as volunteers. We planned and ran some activities all by ourselves.. and they went great. Our principal thanked us for all the activities and experiences we give to our students and said he thought we did good planning this week. It was cool to see how our community thinks of us because on the sly they would ask us if the palangi was okay and if we needed any help with her. It made me smile to think, "Wow, we are actually on the inside if people are asking US if we need help hosting a palangi." Pretty cool. Thanks also to Ryan who was the behind the scenes guy. He ran more errands, talked with more village women to make plans, ate more Tongan food than I have ever seen, and ran the camera for two days straight. A hero indeed. Thanks honey.

Oh, and I think this picture might give Ryan and Lucky a run for their money:

The Good and the Bad

Let's start with the good. This week, our community got their new bus from New Zealand! This is such a blessing as the current bus is akin to a hospice patient waiting for the inevitable. There have been many days as of late where kids have had to walk to school and try to hitchhike for rides. The Scholarship Committee here in the village has been working hard for the past year to come up with the funds for a new bus. This committee is dedicated  to providing strong educational opportunities for the children in the village. This was one of the main reasons they asked for Peace Corps volunteers to work in their school.

Luckily, there are many people from our village who live in New Zealand. They have been fundraising on their end and worked with the City of Auckland to procure one of their retired buses. So, after a year of hard work and one long ass boat ride, Saturday was a day of celebration! This new bus means all the high school students will have a reliable way to town for school every day! It is also much bigger, so students will not have to ride as cramped as they have been. A bus is really one of the most important things a village has to be able to transport to town and back.

First, the new bus was paraded through the village dressed up Tonga style!

 

 

These women led the charge all day. Their job was to keep the energy level of the crowd at 100% for the duration of the event. They all came over for cold water and a rest at the end of the event. They danced and banged on pots for almost 5 hours!

Then, it was time to feast and dance. Every single community member was present to celebrate.

After the dance, the bus went to "eva" around to all the neighboring villages and show off the new bus. Anyone who wanted to go for a ride could. It was neat to see so many of the younger kids and the elderly go for the first spin as they are probably the people in the community who will ride it the least.

I was so proud of Ryan this weekend. He went to the big event all by himself because I got terribly sick (what else is new) :) My immune system seems to not fight anything off. With a bad head cold and a touch of the flu, I decided to hang back on the sidelines so I could stay close to bathroom facilities. Many of our students came over to hang and chat with me. One student told me her mom was throwing up too. She said her mom was drinking a bunch of water and eating a bunch of food fast and throwing it up. When she stops, she is all better. Taiana couldn't understand why I would choose to stay in the house and miss all the fun when there was such an easy solution to my problem :) Gotta love it. One of my class 6 boys told me I was looking really thin because of all the throwing up. I laughed so hard at that I may have accidentally thrown up some water on his feet. He responded by telling all the kids to go away because Epi is  "mei mate." (almost dead) Oops :)

 

Ryan was such a hit at the event, that Monday our neighbor came over to bring me watermelon and pineapple to eat. When she saw I still looked a bit rough, she told me she would take care of our food for the day. She came back an hour later with an amazing vegetable beef stew for me and root crop for Ryan. The soup was incredible. Later in the afternoon, the scholarship committee came to get Ryan to come eat and participate in closing celebrations for the bus. They wanted to make sure he was fed since his wife was still sick. This is why we continue to love living here so much.

Now, for the bad. And its a doozie. We had to say good-bye to our very best friends, Mark & Alissa, as they were moved to the main island of Tongatapu. These are two of the most incredible people we have ever met and we have come to cherish our time with them. In their absence, Ryan and I were reflecting how deeply close we are to both Mark and Alissa. When we spend weekends in each others village, we do nothing but eat, have a few drinks and talk. We talk for almost 48 hours straight. No internet, no t.v., no place to go and be entertained. We sit on the floor and talk. How cool is that? I would have never imagined we would make such wonderful friends here. The Coops are two of the best volunteers we have seen and we are so sad to see them leave this island. But, we know they will do amazing things wherever their travels take them in the future. We already have plans for the future, we will see them in Nuku'alofa soon, plus Ryan & Alissa have planned many a reunions for the four of us, primarily taking place at Outback Steakhouse. Go figure!

The countdown for New Zealand is at seven weeks. We absolutely cannot wait. Now all we have to do is wait and try to get back in shape. We aren't optimistic... :)

Va'inga Akapulu (Playing Rugby)

Hey everyone. Just a quick update from here. This week has been a return to (relative) normalcy. The post-exam school day consists of eating at least two pieces of cake (teachers only) for breakfast at 8:30, recess until 12:30, lunch (root crop, always root crop) until 1:30 and then recess to finish it off.

Interspersed between are English review games and computer classes, which we started this week. It is most of our student’s first time touching a computer and besides an irrational fear of the cursor, they are all doing great!

                      

The real action during the day begins around 2:00, where rugby practice starts for the boys and the girls play netball.

The action begins…

Coach looks on…

Sometimes play stops because the ball is stuck in the mango tree (this is also a possibility whereas pineapple plants and banana trees are concerned)…

And sometimes it just hurts…

The girls netball practice is a bit more civil…

…or not.

Big Klob Turns 30

Well, the big day finally arrived. Ryan is officially 30 too! It was an awesome weekend! Mark and Alissa came to spend the weekend with us to make Ryan's birthday special. We talk all the time about how lucky we are to have met two such wonderful people. They are so kind and so thoughtful. This experience would not have been the same without them. We are so blessed to have made two such awesome friends. Ryan was so excited that they were coming for his birthday. He went to town on the school bus early that Friday morning to run some errands and meet Mark and Alissa. I was drinking my coffee and went out to see if Ryan had left at and I saw this. Cutest thing ever! At this point, I am 100% sure Ryan loves Lucky more than me. This picture is just further proof.

Ryan returned home with Mark and Alissa to begin the big 30th celebration. Mark and Alissa bought Ryan steaks, potatoes, salad with homemade croutons, ice cream, cookies, whiskey, beer and wine. (Sidenote: who else but my husband requests all three of his favorite drinks-beer, whiskey and wine) on his birthday as opposed to sticking with just one?!) We sat down to a birthday dinner that looked like it came straight from Outback Steakhouse.  Ceasar salad, garlic bread, baked potatoes...oh dear. Mark is the most amazing cook. I am still reeling that we actually ate a STEAK dinner in Tonga!!! It was soooooo good. But the worst part was poor Mark was suffering from dehydration. We had the bright idea to hike 6 km to the next village over that day to get some exercise. We went to chat with some people and see our principal. We wanted to work up a big appetite to make our feast even more rewarding. The weather is getting warmer here and the heat really sneaks up on you. After doing ALL the cooking, Mark had to drink rehydration salts and eat crackers while we feasted. How sad is that?!! It made for a night I shall never forget.

 

Ryan got what he told me later was "The most kick ass birthday present ever!" For awhile now, Ryan has been convinced that his life in Tonga will only be complete with a straw cowboy hat. Every store we go into, he finds one and tries to persuade me to buy it for him. I tell him to grow up we are not buying him a stupid cowboy hat. When Coop appeared with one for his birthday... I thought his happy burst was going to kill us all :) I am not sure what normal adult goes ballistic for a cowboy hat on your 30th birthday, but then Ryan has never been normal. You all know. 

All in all, Ryan's 30th birthday was a wonderful time to just be with the people we love, eat ourselves stupid, and talk about life in Tonga. We could not have asked for more.

 

A Tale of Two Feasts

It was a big week here in our tiny village. Two weeks ago our 15 class six students took their high school entrance exams and my husband turned 30. We have not had this much action in a long time!

We have talked quite a bit about this test our students had to take, the importance of it, and the impossibility of passing it. So I will not bore you with further details about it. Testing started on a Tuesday. Ryan and I had heard that testing days were pretty special, but we had no idea how big of an event it was going to be. On our walk to school that day, we were stopped by numerous families taking pictures of their class 6 child. The kids were squeaky clean and wearing new uniforms and shoes. Some girls even had had their make-up done! Many of them had candy kahoas strung around their neck in honor of the special day.  Ryan and I just looked at each other and said, "Oh man, maybe we should have thought to take a bath!" When we got to school, feast tables had already been set up. The first feast of the day was platefuls of cake, cake, and more cake with tea and soda. This was to fuel the kids for their first test. Ryan and I were pretty darn happy. Best breakfast ever... especially after a week of particularly crappy food. Kids put their sugar high to good use and went in to take the hardest test of them all... English. Ryan and I followed the lead of the proctors and laid on benches to take a short nap.

The Tongan breakfast of champions:

 

Hangin' before the test. It was crazy to see how nervous all the kids were!

 

We awoke to the sound of another feast table being set up. This time... Tongan pie and ice cream! Ice cream is SUCH a rare treat for families and kids here. It was so cool of the PTA to do this for them. The kids were having such a great time. Over ice cream, the kids told us all about the English test. Some of them even remembered the sentences they wrote to ask us if they were good. It was giggling and silliness at it's finest. 

  

Kids were then let loose to "hang" for two hours. This, as they say, was nuts on cake! The combined effect of eating so much sugar and sitting for a two hour test lead to some pretty hardcore play. Yikes!  Eventually kids were corralled back into the testing room for their next session. At this point, Ryan and I were starting to think eating so much sugar in one day was not such a good idea. But, we shrugged it off and thought, "Oh well, it is a special day. It's not like we will ever do this again." Oh the stupidity.

After the kids finished their second testing session, our community sat down to the largest feast of the day. The class 6 parents and many other members of the community went all out to prepare a celebratory feast for the kids. It was so wonderful. We ate the most amazing food! This was truly village feast food at it's finest. The only snag is that right when we broke into the meat, they brought us out each a special dessert of cookies and cream ice cream. The flavors were NOT compatible! In the end, Ryan and I ate so much we literally got home, laid on the floor and groaned. But, it was sooooo worth it! This was one of the coolest community events we had been to since moving here. 

 

 

Two hours later we decided we better eat all the food we got sent home with because it was not going to keep. So, we ripped into crabs and fish and told ourselves we wouldn't eat much the next day.

The next day we arrived at school to repeat day one of testing all over again. Ryan and my pact to go easy was broken early on with the appearance of actual cinnamon rolls WITH FROSTING on our breakfast plate. Needless to say, we ate just as much the second day as we did the first. When in Tonga.....

Ryan was trying to make the boys play X-Men with him. He truly is just a big 12 year old. Here is Tukuafu as Wolverine.

Testing is over and the children rejoice!!!!

And some are just plain pooped :)

Our Class 6 students. Ryan and I are going to miss them so much next year! It is sad to think of not being with them every day. They really are an amazing group of kids with so much personality. We love them so much.