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!