The Sams and I have started a hiking/outdoor/adventure club for the girls in
our villages! We had been trying to go on a hike to Hafu Pool for a few weeks,
but every Saturday we were faced with downpour. Last weekend, we finally got
the most prefect weather for the occasion. We successfully took 23 girls
hiking. 21 of the girls were between the ages of 9 and 14 and two were Tongan
women from our communities that tagged along. Out of the 23 girls there were
nine who had never been to Hafu Pool before. It was an exciting day of playing,
swimming, eating, singing, and speaking English.
With this club we are wanting to take the girls on hike
every month. We want to provide them the chance to see this beautiful place
they live and have some adventure. Tongan culture doesn’t really provide girls
the chance to explore and bee adventurous and so we are hoping to provide that
for them. Along with hiking we are working on instilling other concepts into
the girls as well. We are going to try to work on English, leadership,
environment awareness, as well as self heath awareness. We want to provide a
space for these girls to get to meet girls from other villages and not get
outshined by the boys.
Our first hike was definitely a success. All of my girls
from Tufuvai wanted to know if we were going to go on another hike the
following weekend as soon as we had returned from the first hike. It was so
great to get to spend time with my students in such a relaxed setting and it
made me feel really good about my community integration and the way my
community sees/values me to know that the parents felt comfortable enough with
me to let their girls come. It also allowed me to spend some time with the
older girls that I do not get to see a lot since they aren’t in primary school.
Such a fun day! Cannot wait for the next hike!
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