-The adventures of Ryan & Abby Kloberdanz as they serve as Peace Corps volunteers in the Kingdom of Tonga-

Friday, April 25, 2014

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... 


Wednesday, April 16, 2014

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.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

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.

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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. 

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

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

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We hope you all have a wonderful week!!!

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Workin' For the Weekend

For a long time, the words ‘busy’ and ‘Tonga’ never seemed to go together. This is no longer the case as our life in 2014 has been a constant barrage of activity, obligations, and new experiences. Many past volunteers told us year 2 of service is where everything just clicks. Funny how true this is. Since we have returned from New Zealand, things have felt different. Different in a good way. For lack of a better way to describe it, Tu‘anuku has truly become our home. We are excited to be a part of big events in small ways.

For example, the Wesleyan Church (called the Methodist Church in America) is currently preparing for it’s annual conference, which for the first time in decades will be held here on the island of Vava’u. This is a huge deal for everyone on the island. The conference is at the end of June. It will be a week of singing, church meetings, and food. Each village congregation will be responsible for feeding the entire conference (est. at thousands including the King and Nobility) for a meal. Ryan and I have been so touched to see our entire village support the small, 10 family Wesleyan congregation in their efforts to prepare. Every night, most of the village comes to choir practice. They will help perform to make the choir stronger. Since we live across the church, our home has become the unofficial meeting place for women waiting for practice to begin. Every night we sit and chat with groups of women while their kids play cards and color. Of course, we have been invited to join them in singing, but the stakes are so high, we chose not to burden them with our lack of skill in this area. But, we still get to be a part of it with our nightly entertaining. Ryan and I are on a high right now, just able to enjoy the balance and stability of our life here in Tonga.

Time seems to be passing so quickly. It hits me sometimes just how sad it will be to no longer have Tonga be a part of our life. Once we re-enter America, everything will change in an instant. But, for now, we are just trying to take it all in until we have to say goodbye to all we have come to know and appreciate.

Highlights from the last few weeks:

·          Mandy and I were invited to teach at the monthly principal’s meeting. This was a wonderful step forward for our project here in Tonga. We were able to do a short lesson on English grammar for all principals on the island to help them with their classes at their own schools. Our lesson was well received and principals told us the information was incredibly helpful. (Mark Cooprider, your grammar skills and sequence handout is like gold. They LOVED it.)

      The Ministry of Education came to my school to ask me to take over the benchmark testing program on our island. I will now be developing monthly benchmarks and term exams to help principals better identify what their students struggle with. This is a big project, but one I think will have a lasting impact.

·          I had brought a cookbook back from New Zealand as a gift for one of our former students, Ane. She came over to try “sausage bread bowls” from the book. Our good friend Tuki stopped by and wanted to participate. This turned into one of the most special Saturday mornings I have ever had. At one moment I looked up to see Ryan and Tuki practicing singing Mark’s English/ Tongan songs for kids and giggling like 5 year olds, Ane and Villiami  intently focusing on their uno cards as they were determined to beat each other with the smell of cooking sausage warming the house. Truly a moment in time I will carry with me forever.
Ane, Tuki, Villiami and I doing some cooking!





·         I lead an activity at the local library in the capital Neiafu as part of the Saturday literacy program. Really neat to see Tongans leading kids in literacy activities. We really just provided the stuff, read a book, and let the librarian and her volunteer take over!
The kids working on their project. We read the book "The Rainbow fish" and then created our own beautiful, glittery fish.


This is the public library in the capitol. It is so great the kids have a space to come and enjoy books and literacy projects regularly.

Wil with all the finished projects. Wil is an amazing young man. 



·         Our school participated in the annual Sports Day event. I would not have thought this year could have topped last year, but it did. Our school has dropped significantly in numbers, which puts us at an athletic disadvantage. After the first few events, many of our kids were in tears because they had lost so bad. This lead to not many kids wanting to even participate anymore. One mom stood up and took charge. She told the kids they were here to work hard and do their best and it was about the exercise, not winning. She taught them a few cheers and lead yells for any kids participating in an event. Even if they lost, they returned to a tent of people yelling their name and thanking them for their work. After that, stamina was at an all time high from the tent. Small but mighty was once again the battle cry of Team Tu’anuku!

 
Team Blue: Small but Mighty.


Our official team cheerleader, Fine.

·        We are anxiously waiting to hear news of my new nephew being born. Emily’s due date in March 14.


·         We are currently in Australia with the Klobs right now. Everyone looks great and we are excited to continue to explore all the sights of Sydney. Have a good weekend everyone!

Thursday, February 27, 2014

A Week in the Life

Well, it was another hot, hot week here in Vava’u.  Here are just some quick pictures.

We had an awesome week in the classroom with the kids.  We had fun rockin’ out to adjectives with our class 5/6 kids.

Le’o and I won best candid shots for the day.




Ry and I are currently running 3 small-group tutoring sessions on the weeknights at our house.  We both run a different elementary age group, and we thought it would be fun to converge the two groups of kids this week to play some uno.



Things got very heated after a couple of rounds and the kids got pretty intense. Here in Tonga, it is all about the win! Lucky tried his damndest to get their attention and get a belly scratch, but no such luck. All he got was a solid whap on the head from Kesa.
The most inappropriate dog in the world's strategy: start with a paw grab

Now on to the old standy: voracious licking

And finally, nothing less that a loud bellow for attention.
We are two weeks away from our trip to Australia and a new baby Regnier!  Big things on the horizon! Hang in there little sis!


Hey Nina! Check it out… year 2 and the bags are still going strong!



Thursday, February 20, 2014

We’re Melting! We’re Melting!

Last year, as the heat came to the brink of being unbearable, the skies opened up and we were treated to a full week of delightful, cooling rain storms. This year, as the heat surpassed last year’s and came to the brink, it simply smashed through it and broke all records. Tonga is in the midst of record-breaking heat waves and despite Abby having lived in Phoenix and me spending summers in Honolulu and Houston, it simply is unlike anything we have ever experienced.

The heat in the 100s, the equatorial sun beating down on us and unbearable humidity is at record levels makes for quite the fun here in the Kingdom. By 7:45 a.m. each morning, my shirt is completely soaked through from sweat as a result of our five minute walk to school. Our teachers, who are thankfully in much better health, each bring 1 to 2 changes of clothes each day to accommodate for sweat-soaked apparel and none of us wander far away from our sweat rags. For the Niuas, the most northern and remote island chain in the Kingdom, the Crown’s Government has recently suspended Tongan law that makes it illegal to be in public without a shirt (for men). This was in part to the extreme heat experienced by teachers, who can now instruct sans the confines of starchy, sweat-soaked shirts.

For our part, Abby and I rely on our one standing fan to get us through the night. Though the old girl’s motor has slowed to a glacial place, we literally hover around it during sleepless nights. Days are spent finding any breeze that may exist and fighting heavy eyelids while visions of iced lattes and cherry limeades dance through our head.

For their part, the Tongans in our village are incredibly adept at dealing with heat without the blessings of electric fans or refrigerators. The days are spent weaving or in the bush, and no one leaves the house without an umbrella to shield themselves from the sun. The women who weave make beautiful hand fans to help keep people cool and incredible mats. The mats are then used at night, where most Tongans sleep outside because it’s much cooler. Walking through the village at night, after church and kava, looks like one big slumber party.

One of the more touching moments of our service was walking home two weeks ago, when one of our favorite mothers, Mele, had a brand new mat waiting for us. These things go for hundreds of dollars in Australia, NZ, Europe and the U.S., and for her to spend time making one for us is unbelievable. Here Abby enjoys it with her hand fan.  

With no rain in sight, Abby and I are looking forward to our upcoming trip to Australia on March 14. We get to spend a week celebrating my parents’ 40th wedding anniversary (which actually happens on August 9th of this year), see Cassie and meet our new bro-in-law Jeremy. We could not be more excited to be down under!



I dedicate this picture of our 5th grader Siteli to my sister, the rocket scientist, who wanted nothing more than to be a Care Bear when she was growing up. Read carefully, you won't be disappointed. 

Is the heat making us weird, or was there really a smile face in the onion I was cutting for lentil soup?

The concrete is too hot for his highness to sleep on, so he feels it permissible to grab all of our sandals with his mouth and use them to elevate himself for sleep. Typical.

Last week the Peace Corps, the Australian volunteers and the Japanese volunteers on the island rented a bungalow by the ocean to celebrate some birthdays and the end of service for one of the Aussies. In addition to enjoying the ocean breeze fro atop the bungalow, we got to feast on fresh caught lobster and watch giant manta rays swim along the shoreline. Pretty cushy, I know.

You might be looking at the attractive couple in the middle of your frame, but I am oogling that cloud cover, which is the last time we saw those beautiful, fluffy, sun-blocking clouds!
The Bungalow, in all its breezy glory.
One morning, with four other volunteers, Abby and I kayaked out to an uninhabited island that houses an abandoned military training post. Here there is a tall lookout tower one has to climb a rusted, rickety old ladder to get to the top. After this death-defying climb, the six of us just chilled, took in the breeze and admired the beautiful views of Vava’u. At one point a yacht sailed by and noticed us up in the tower. Though it was midday, they were treated to a rare glimpse of a double full moon, courtesy of me and my buddy Jeff.

                                                                 

Hope you are all staying cool in America!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Service Update #3

Ryan and my second year of service is officially under way. So, we thought we would take a little time to share with you what we are working on this second year.

This year, our focus shifts a bit from the students to the teachers. Last year, our main goal was to improve our students’ skills in English. This year, we are focusing on trying to help Tongan teachers develop their craft as teachers. We will help create resources and train teachers on how to use them based on skills and knowledge we gained from teaching Tongan students last year. We will work with our Tongan counterparts to help them understand how to adapt the current curriculum to better meet students needs. Already, a principal from the village next to ours has asked us lead some professional development workshops for her staff. Ryan is also working really hard to help the Ministry of Education develop an online dropbox for all teachers in Tonga to have a way to share resources teaching videos, etc.

We still plan to teach this year, as it is one of our favorite parts of service. Our little school got much smaller this year; it looks like we will be rolling with about 30 students total. Some of our favorite kids moved over the holiday, which was so hard as we didn’t even get to say good-bye. Ryan lost his good buddy Laea who we will dearly miss. But, we are excited to make the most of our precious time left here in Tonga.

We just finished our first 2 weeks of school. It felt wonderful to be back at work again. The kids look great and we realized just how much we missed them all. It was an interesting first week because only one teacher was at school with us. The other teachers have been hospitalized with pneumonia. Wednesday morning was a day I don’t think I will ever forget. It was about 9:00 a.m. and Ryan and I were still the only teachers at school.  We just looked at each other and said, “Yep, this is really happening.” So, we bravely told the kids to ring the bell and get in line for prayers. The kids were on cloud 9.  Some class 6 boys were pulling Ryan aside and explaining to him how to be the “pule” (boss) for the day. They explained what behaviors he needed to punish and promised to help him. My dear sweet class 6 girls were telling me, “Epi, don’t worry. We will help you. We will teach the little kids.” I just loved them all so much at that moment. People walking by stopped dead and watched the two Peace Corps try to wrangle the student body and remember the Tongan prayers to start off the day. A few parents who had come by to talk with teachers were helpful and supportive. They helped us get the kids in line and kept telling the kids they better obey. Luckily, five minutes into the start of prayers, Viola pulled up. I honestly have never felt more relieved. The audible sigh of “Awww…” from the kids was hilarious. The rest of the day went well as we did our best to try to teach the classes with no teacher. Ryan was a rock star. He confidently led the 5/6 kids in their math lesson in Tongan and kept them busy and working all day. On the walk home from school, all those kids kept telling me “Epi, I am so tired. Ryan made us do so much work.” They were gleeful about it and couldn’t stop telling me EVERYTHING about their day with him. All of the 3/4 kids (which I lead) told the 5/6 kids, “Epi let us color and play English games all day.” True story. My how the tables have turned.

Well, that is about it for our week. Clingy Lucky has decided he should come to school every day too. The kids love this, but I think if I heard one more kid call “Epi, sio ki Lucky!” (Epi, look at Lucky) I was going to pull my hair out. He is such a nuisance and distraction. Watching the kids ride him was pretty funny, but that too got old fast. Another problem for another day J

Hope you all are having some warmer weather! Please keep our principal Tevita in your prayers. He is so very sick, but desperately wants to try to keep his post this year. Right now, there is such a surplus of teachers. Many teachers coming out of the teacher’s college are left to wait and listen to the radio to see if a position opens up for them. There are so many teachers, in fact, that the teacher’s college is not allowing any new students to enter the program this year. If things get better, they will open it up next year. So Tevita is worried if he leaves his post this year, he may not get it back next year. His family relies on his employment; so not having his post would be pretty hard for them. We really hope he gets better soon.


Last weekend we went camping at “secret beach.” This is one of the neatest beaches on Vava’u. It is close to one of the other volunteers’ villages. We call is secret beach because it is a pretty tough hike to and from the beach. So it is usually empty of people. It was a really wonderful night. We enjoyed sleeping under the stars, eating great food and swimming.  Here are some pics:



Ryan takes a picture of some of us. I SWEAR I am holding his drink and NOT double-fisting. Well...


Ryan and fellow PCV Harrison

Settling in pre-dinner.