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!!!!!!