Last week of PST!

It will be two months already this Saturday since beginning my Peace Corps journey. Time is flying by. It's only Monday and a lot has already happened this week!

To start this week I was practicing for my language test with my language teacher and unintentionally and unknowingly asked her if she was going to have sex the next day in Tongan. So that was fun.

Then on Saturday I had to say goodbye to my host family. It was much more emotional than I realized that it was going to be. As I was leaving my host mom, Nate, gave me a hug and kissed my check. She told that she loved me so much and then the water works set in. As we were pulling away from the house my other host mom, Kalo yelled at me to "walk strong". I just love my host family so much and had a really great experience living with them. They are a big part of why the transition into the Tongan Way of life has been so comfortable. I will get to see them again on Friday at swearing in!

Now that we have left our host families we are staying in a guest house. It has been fun for the fifteen of us to get to live together under one roof. Sammy, Sami, Kayla, and I made a super bed in our room so it has been a big sleepover every night!

Today I had my final language test. I do not know what score I got yet, but I do know that I passed. To pass language you have to get intermediate low, but  I am hoping for a higher score! Fortunately for me (cue the sarcasm), I woke up with a stomach bug today. It is undecided if the stomach issues have been caused from the flu or food poisoning. All I know is that I have been spending a lot of time in the bathroom today, including stuff coming out of both ends. Sometimes even at the same time. It has been a long and tiring day, but I am hoping the worst is over!

On Wednesday I will finally find out what island/village I will be living on. SO EXCITED FOR THAT!!!! Then on Friday I will be sworn in as an official volunteer and within the next few days after swearing in I will be moving!

As always I will continue to update y'all after I find out more information! Love and miss you! and LET'S GO ROYALS!!!!!!

 Group 79!

 This little guy was climbing on my plate the other day!

First night in town!

FIEFIA, FIEFIA, FIEFIA

(HAPPY, HAPPY, HAPPY)

This past week has been full of so many adventures. I am still catching myself at least once a week being completely dumbfounded at the fact that I am living in this beautiful place. In my last post I said I would find out my placement last week, but things have changed and as a result It will now not be until the middle of next week. It is a disappointment and there is a lot of anxiety within my group because we just want to know, but it will all work out! I will send an update as soon as I know!

With swearing in only two weeks away my group has been preparing some performances for swearing in. The girls in my group are going to do a traditional Tongan dance called a tau'olunga. It is going to be so awesome. We have spent the last week learning the dance and throughout the next two weeks we will be practicing A LOT! On the second dance practice we learned a part of the dance where you have to do this clap thing and hit your chest with your hands. I, to say the least, was not quite getting the concept. A Tongan lady that is helping to teach us came up to me and said, "uhh Pailey you are not King Kong. You are a Tongan girl. Be gentle." So there is that. Since that day I have not been called King Kong, but I was told to stop clapping like a man...whatever that means. My different facial expressions throughout the dance are also a topic of conversation throughout the Tongans. I had little facial control in the United States and I remain to have little facial control in Tonga.

After dance practice Friday night the family that is teaching us the tau'olunga hosted a karaoke night for us and they had mash potatoes. It was blessed. The guy that is teaching us the dance, Hame asked me if I was a good singer before we started karaoke. I told him that my singing is worse than my dancing. He said, "Oh, you must be good singer then."

Another happening from this week is I was sitting in language class and there was a hina (spider) crawling in my hair. I was informed of the hina in my hair and had a minor heart attack. My language teacher pulled the spider out and told me I should be happy because a spider in your hair is good luck. Okay, Tulu was all I had to say to that.

Also, on Friday we got to go on a field trip in Tonga. We started at the Ha'amonga 'a Maui. It is three coral limestone slabs. It was made during the beginning of the 13th century for the 11th King of Tonga. It is thought to be the entry way to his palace. Tongan myth says that the Ha'amonga was built by the demigod Maui because these stones would be too heavy for mortals to move. Five of us in my group climbed to the top of it and it was crazy, especially since four of us were wearing skirts and all of us were wearing sandals. The decent down was a hot mess, but we survived.

After going to Ha'amonga 'a Maui we went to the blowholes. In a previous post I mentioned my family taking me there. It was fun to play on the rocks and watch the the waves come in! My favorite part of the blow holes is every time you leave there you are just covered in salt from the water hitting you. The blow holes really make you feel alive!

On Saturday a big group of us went to the beach and it was blessed. It was the best beach we have been to yet. The water was pretty cold, but so beautiful! We had a picnic and got some sun. It was a great day!

Finally, today is my last Sunday with my host family and the beginning of my last week with them. Every Sunday we eat Lu like I have mentioned in earlier post. With it being my last Sunday I made a goal to eat all of my Lu. I have never been able to eat more than half. Let's just say: Bailey- 1 Lu- 0. My mother was so happy that I ate all my food I thought she was going to cry. It was a big milestone for me. It was efo efo aupito (very delicious)! My host mom also patted my butt today after church so that was precious.

After lunch I got to facetime my sister, which was so fun! It is here birthday today here in Tonga and it was just great to catch up. I taught her some Tongan words! I love you so much Emily! I miss you and hope your birthday is perfect!

On a sidenote I had a dream about Chipotle this week. More of a nightmare if you ask me. And then I met a lady at church today that is a Tongan that lives in America. She is home for a visit and she started to talk to me about American food and what do you know, she loves Chipotle.

A few more pics from the week!

 Language Group

 Serving Kava from a few weeks ago!

 Praying before school!

'Ofa atu!

Me'a e Hongofulu

Random thoughts and updates!

1. How about them Royals? I am converting the Tongans into Royals fan one Tongan at a time!

2. I have bed bugs. Very itchy. Very unfortunate. Mostly itchy. 

3. I find out what island I will be living on and what village I will be teaching in on Thursday!

4. My host sister has never had a pickle.

5. Cassava and curry is my favorite meal in Tonga.

6. Tonga makes some delicious beers.

7. I officially have chaco tan lines on my feet.

8. I only have two weeks left with my host family. 'Oku ou lotomamahi.

9.There was a pig head put on my plate this week.

10. I love and miss, y'all!

 My host niece, Nia

 Did some acting in language class this week

 bed bug life

 beautiful sunset

 ice cream and friends

Tongan beer

Mourning in Tonga

“The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds” 

This blog is in memory of my best friend, Alexis. Last year Alexis left us long before we were ready to say goodbye. Not a day of this last year has been easy without her. Losing Alexis was like waking up one day and not knowing how to breathe. She has been my other half since age seven. I truly believe that she is my soulmate. She was my person. This year I have learned a lot about love, friendship, life, and myself. A year ago last year my heart hurt so much and I did not think I would survive without her. A year later my heart still hurts, there is a spot where she is missing, but I survived. The part of my heart where she is missing will hurt indefinitely, but I will continue to survive.  

One of my favorite parts about Tonga is how they as a culture mourn. Their mourning, and burial process, and celebration of life is full of raw emotion. They take the time to put their loved one to rest and do not rush through the mourning process. In fact, Tongans can stay in mourning up to a year. Their cemeteries are a beautiful and peaceful place that remind you of how colorful and upbeat life is, how it should be celebrated because even though someone has left us their life is worth remembering and honoring.

Since being in Tonga and especially this past week it has been hard to imagine that she really isn’t here and she isn’t physically experiencing this adventure of my life with me. I know that Alexis was my biggest supporter in my Peace Corps dream and I can only hope I am making her proud so far. To find happiness and joy while remembering my sweet friend I have been finding Alexis’s beauty within the beauty of Tonga. This past week my friend Sammy helped me photograph the beauty of Alexis seen through Tonga. I see Alexis’s beauty in the flowers, new life, energy, and the natural beauty of Tonga. The spirit of Tonga is vibrant like Alexis's life.  

"The reason it hurts so much to separate is because our souls are connected. Maybe they always have been and will be. Maybe we've lived a thousand lives before this one and in each of them we've found each other. And maybe each time, we've been forced apart for the same reasons. That means that this goodbye is both a goodbye for the past ten thousand years and a prelude to what will come."

From seven until forever you will always be my best friend. 

I spent the last year mourning your life and I will spend the rest of them celebrating your life! 
 I will love you forever my sweet friend. Your beautiful soul is missed. I love you <3

One Month Update

This week/weekend has been very eventful here in Tonga. I made a Tongan feast with my language group, marched in a parade for teachers, and served Kava! I also received my first package and got to talk to some sweet friends via facetime throughout the week! It was also one month since beginning my Peace Corps journey on Wednesday!

In the four weeks I have been here I have watched my family and sometimes provided minor assistance in the making of the traditional meal, Lu. In another blog I talked about Lu, but as a reminder it is a meal cooked in the ground in an oven called an umu (directly translate to BBQ). It is meat, onions, and coconut milk wrapped in talo leaves and then cooked in the umu for an hour. This past week my language group made our own Tongan feast featuring Lu with a watermelon drink, papaya dessert, and several root crops. After participating in the process from the shopping to the eating of the meal I realized just how much work Lu really is. We created the Lu at my host family's house so my mom taught us her ways! She let me help make the coconut milk, which is no joke. It was hard work, but there was something about making the coconut milk that was very liberating. I think it is because I can know make a key ingredient used in several Tongan dishes. Overall, my language group did a fabulous job with the feast and it fed the four of us, my family, and other Peace Corps staff members!

Then on Friday it was Celebrate Teacher's Day. All the teachers on Tongatapu participate in a march through Nuku'alofa and then an assembly is provided by the students from the different schools throughout the island. There was singing, dancing, and a lot of laughter. On top of it being Celebrate Teacher's Day in Tonga, Tonga also participate in Breast Cancer Awareness month so all the teachers dressed their best in all shades of pink. One of my host mothers, Kalo, is a teacher in the village next to ours so she insisted on making my outfit all out for the day. I got a dress handmade by my other mom, a beautiful flower necklace, long pink ribbons in my hair, a pink sun hat, and I wore a tavalo (a wrap worn around the stomach for special occasions). The best part of the whole outfit was that Kalo had a matching one! My mom told me I was going to find a good Tongan man that day when I left. It was a very wonderful day in Tonga.

That evening I went to a concert/fundraiser that was at the church down the hall from my house. Two of the other Peace Corps girl were supposed to be dancing at the event, but there was an accident in the village next to ours so the power was out. While we were sitting the hall only lit by a few flashlights there were men participating in a Kava circle and they asked me to serve the Kava. It is a pretty big deal to be invited to be a part of a Kava circle. It was a very funny and interesting experience. During this experience I was proposed to and told I was talavou (beautiful) several times. After serving Kava on Friday night I asked my host family if I could serve Kava at our church on Sunday.

This morning I served Kava before church. I am going to attempt to paint a picture of what a Kava circle looks like and explain the purpose. Before I start to explain I want to state that Kava circles are a very old and respectable Tongan tradition. As an American it was hard to not have a negative perspective of them at first, but now that I have experienced them and they have been fully explained to me I can accept that they are just a part of Tongan tradition. With that being said please keep an open mind about them and do not let this make your view of Tonga a negative one. The best way to describe Kava circles is large mats on the floor with mostly middle aged men sitting around the edge of the mats. Most of the men are middle aged, but men as young as 21 to 70 participate. At the front of the circle is a person that puts the Kava in bowls that are halves of coconut shells and the Kava is passed down the row. Each man in the circle drinks a bowl of Kava for every round of Kava served. Kava is not technically alcohol, but it comes from a root and it has properties of substances that people consume/smoke in the United States that causes unnatural feelings in the body. Similar to the US substances the more Kava you consume the more you feel the effects of the Kava. Kava circles are a male only activity, besides for the person serving Kava. Kava is not always served by a female, but it is preferred to be a female. Kava circles can last several hours, but the one I participated in today was just under two hours because it happened before church. In the Kava circle I served in there were all the ministers of the church, the choir director, and a handful of other members in the church participating.

 After serving Kava this morning

Cousins, Sister, and Mama

As a side story. A pig was stolen from my family's house on Saturday morning. It was a very dramatic ordeal. A lady from another village hid in the bush (forest/farm area) behind our house with her dogs. When a baby pig came out into view the dogs bit the big and the lady then ran away with it. While all this was happening our dogs were barking fiercely and the pigs were squealing. It was a lot to wake up to at 7am. It was really sad and we are still working on getting the pig back.

More pictures from the week

 Sammy took this picture of my Kuitangata. He is the cutest!

 My mom has been making tapa all week.

 An old bus in the field next to my house

 sunsets on sunsets on sunsets

 Some little kids we taught to play duck duck goose at the rugby field

My new best friend, Navau. He is a chunk!

Toki sio, friends! 'Ofa atu!

ps. send chipotle