Seven questions constantly running through my head

1. Why am I always sweating?

2. Why is it so damn hot?

3. When will I get to hold a pig?

4. Why is everything constantly covered in mold?

5. How are there ants in my sealed peanut butter jar and water filter and bug net covered bed?

6. *Hears dropping sound* Cockroach or lizard?

7. Will Starbucks ever open a store in Tonga?

Ten Truths of Being a Peace Corps Teacher

1. I get a coconut brought to me daily from my students because apples are so 2014.

2. I go to church with all my students on Sunday mornings and afternoons (and Wednesdays after school and Fridays before school and really every time the church bells ring).

3. I eat almost every meal at my student’s houses.

4.  When a child doesn’t come to school I go to his/her house to assess if the student is actually sick or pretending to be sick. They usually come back to school with me.

5. When a child doesn’t do their homework or is misbehaving in class I mention their mom’s name.

6. And if the name drop doesn’t work I stop by said child’s home after school. Homework is turned in and attitude is always in check the following day.

7. There are only about 6 hours of every day that a child isn’t outside my house. In America we would consider it stalking. In a Peace Corps’ country we call it “What will the American do next? Laundry, sleep, breathe? So many crazy activities.

8. I teach them one song and they sing it…maybe forever. I taught them a Christmas song and come Easter they are still singing Jingle Bells.

9. I doubt my ability of being a parent/wanting to be a parent at least ten times every day.

10. But at the end of every day you know that you have the best students in the whole world and the thought of ever having to say goodbye to them makes your heart break and then you just want to go hug all of them and tell them you are so proud of them.

'Aho Sipoti

Sports Day. A day that only in Tonga would a day dedicated to fitness include food on food on food.

Sports Day was so much fun both the activities, as well as, the delicious food! This past sports day was the time trials to see which students will represent our school at the island wide Sports Day at ‘Eua High School at the end of the month. Since Tufuvai is so small our school is combined with Ta’anga and Houma. Sammy B teaches in Ta’anga so it was a lot of fun to have Sports Day with her! We were in pretty heavy competition with each other during time trials, but come the island wide Sport’s Day people better watch out. Sammy and I have plans to teach the kids some good cheers!

Highlight of Sports Day were the moms would run next to their kids wearing their hula skirts and about half way through the race the moms would just fall to the down. They were like we ran this far with you. Peace. It was hilarious. Sammy and I could not stop laughing!

At one point during Sport’s Day a class 6 boy from Tufuvai was running and he needed to get second to qualify. In the last leg of the race he was fighting for second so I started running next to him and giving him encouragement. He got FIRST!

And I got a pretty sweet hair do!

SIX Month Update

It has been a very busy couple of weeks here in Tonga! And healthy, might I add J

I am finally teaching on a regular schedule. I forgot how much I love teaching, so it is definitely nice to be back in the classroom! This past week I worked on reading with my students, verbs, and nouns. It is always so interesting to find out what my students know and what they have yet to learn. They are full of surprises. There is one boy in my class three who always seems to be behind no matter what we are doing. And this week I showed him the verb sleeping and asked him to make a sentence and he said, “You are sleeping.” I could have cried I was so proud of him. It was such a good reminder to believe in all your students no matter what.

It was also Peace Corps Week this past week in America Land. I took advantage of the opportunity and my students got to Skype with Mrs. Jackson’s kindergarten class all the way in St. Louis, Missouri! I think it is safe to say that both group of students had a fun time seeing kids in another country. It was difficult to get my kids to speak (they were shy about speaking English), but when I asked them to sing a song for the kids they jumped right on the opportunity.

This week at school we also started a teeth brushing initiative. Dental care isn’t on top of a lot of Tongans priority list per se. Definitely within the new generations people are starting to realize the importance of taking care of their teeth, but there are still a lot of my kids that do not brush their teeth regularly. Everyday, when they come back to school after lunch they all line up in the schoolyard and brush their teeth. To make it more interesting they brush their teeth to music. It is amazing the way these children can shake their booties, while brushing their teeth!

We also didn’t have school two Thursdays ago on account of rain. Most of us are accustomed to and look forward to snow days in the US every winter and that is how it is here in Tonga, but they are rain days. It had been raining almost consistently from Wednesday afternoon into Thursday morning so the Ministry of Education declared a rain day! It was a happy day! It proceeded to rain just about the whole rest of the day and the rain really cooled the air. I took one of the best naps of my life that afternoon and used a blanket for the first time in over a month! Anyways, that morning after getting up I went down to the sea during low tide with Meleongo and we hunted mussels. In Tonga mussels are called kuku. We sat in the sea for close to three hours popping the mussels out of the ocean bottom in the rain. It was a pretty amazing experience. I also got to eat some after. I will say that they are not my favorite food in the world, but they weren’t so bad either. I would eat them again!

Last Saturday, I went hiking with my Peace Corps friends and with the amount of rain we got from the few days before everything in the wooded area was still pretty slippery and muddy. We were about done with the hike when I was climbing down a small cliff to get to the beach when I slipped hard. Luckily, I was holding onto a rope so I didn’t fall, but my whole body sure did slam into the rocks. This little incident left me with five or so bruises and some scrapes. I am very happy it wasn’t worse, but I am ready for the bruises to heal! I miss being able to lay on the right side of my body!

This weekend there was another funeral in ‘Eua. It was a family member of Meleongo’s. Friday night we went to the funeral around 8 and I didn’t get back to my house until 4 Saturday afternoon. I didn’t know that one could stay at a funeral for 20 hours, but as it turns out it sure is possible! It was definitely a cultural experience. A big part of funerals in Tonga, similar to how it is in America there is also a social food gathering along with the funeral. The difference is the Tongans feed you enough food for ten meals in one day. Usually, when I have gone to a funeral in the past in Tonga there is cakes/breads in the morning and evening and meat and root crops in the late afternoon. Around 2 on Saturday the funeral was starting to wrap up and I was starting to look forward to some food. We all lined up to get our food bag (I was hoping for some fried chicken in mine) and they handed me a bag of raw meat. Raw meat. It sure wasn’t the fried chicken I had hoped for. 

In other news I have realized that I am a lot more capable of cooking than I realized. There are a lot of foods that I love eating in America, but that I have never made myself I just always buy these foods; such as, onion rings, pizza, breadsticks, etc. Well, this week I got crazy and attempted to cook more. You better believe I made onion rings, pizza (dough and all), garlic breadstick, and an eggplant pasta dish. It was a delicious week of comfort food over here in Tonga. I did have to spend $12 on cheese and use hot dogs as a source of meat for the pizza, but you better believe it was worth it. I am not sure if all these foods tasted so good because I’m 6 months sober of American food or if I really am Martha Stewart. 

And finally, one of my new favorite things to do here is hang out with the kids that are between the ages of three and five because they speak zero English. It is a fun challenge and since they are so little they do not really know that I have no idea what they are saying so they don’t try to dumb down their talk they just go for it. And when I am at school if I am not teaching I sit in on class one and two’s Tongan Language class to help pick up some more language.

I have officially been gone 6 months! Only 20 months to go! Time sure is flying!

Here is Faina, the dog model!

'Ofa atu! 

Ps. With it being Lenten Season and all Sami and I were talking last week about what and if we were going to give up anything for lent. And well I thought about it for a minute and said, “I am not really sure what to give up. Fast food, did it. Candy, did it. Dr. Pepper, did it. America, did it.” As a result of the conversation, Sami wrote a pretty funny blog post about Lent! Check it out!

http://samipeacecorps.blogspot.com/2015/02/candy-wellalready-given-that-up.html