So Longa to Tonga: Seven Days of Tonga

This week was full of adventure and excitement here in 'Eua. I did some literacy work with class five and six students and have started to work on Christmas songs with the students. I am teaching them four American favorites: Jingle Bell Rock, Rudolph, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Feliz Navidad! I have also been teaching my counterparts some sign language and doing some exercising with my kids. The love yoga, zumba, and jumping jacks! Now to share seven stories from the past seven days!

On Monday I chased pigs out of the school compound. There were two big pigs and a whole lot of little pigs. The pigs were sneaky and got into the school compound. Pigs like to eat our flowers so we like to keep them out of the school compound. I saw the pigs and hollered for some neighbor kids to help me. We got 'em. Never did I think that one day my life would come to chasing pigs.

On Tuesday I announced recess to the kids. At that time about ten kids take off to the bush and before I know it they are almost to the tops of palm trees. And then they are at the top and they are jumping on coconuts knocking them to the ground were the younger kids are collecting them. Then to my left come two kids running with machetes. It just all happened so fast. To say the least we all enjoyed some fresh coconut that day!

On Wednesday I convinced my counterparts, Silia and Meleongo to exercise with me. We decide to run to town and back, which is just over three miles round trip. We finally make it to town and Meleongo wanted to go to the shop. We go to the shop and she buys candy -__- I told her that we are trying to exercise here and eating candy is defeating our purpose. She says, "Energy to get us home." Homegirl is crazy.

On Thursday Meleongo wants to make dinner at my house. She made "Kentucky Fried Chicken". It was fried and it was chicken, but it definitely wasn't from Kentucky. It was delicious though! Something I have learned during my time in Tonga is that all fried chicken is "Kentucky Fried Chicken". Then she asks me if I want to eat ice cream sandwiches. I obviously said yes. She then proceeded to take half a loaf of bread and stuff ice cream in it. A literal ice cream sandwich.

On Friday I went horseback riding for the first time in my life. But more specifically I went horseback riding with "The Man of the World". One day I was walking down the road and met a man on a horse. He introduced himself to me as the man of the world and told me he would take me horse back riding. About a week earlier Sammy B had a similar encounter with him, so we decided that on Friday we would go. Lucky for me I got to ride on the same horse as the man of the world! All was going well until the last five minutes and I got some real motion sickness. Almost fell off the horse. Got off the horse and threw up. I am starting a reputation on 'Eua as the Palangi mo totovaivai which means the white person with weak blood.

On Saturday I went to a birthday part for one of my students, Tilema. She is nine! I had the most delicious food ever. We had lobster that had been caught that morning. It was like twice baked potatoes but twice baked lobster. It was blessed. I also met some Mormon missionaries from America. And we ended the party with a little swim in the ocean!

On Sunday I went to church like normal and then went to Meleongo's house for lunch with her family. While Meleongo and her sister, Sina were finishing making lunch I made some Tang (aka mixed some powder with some water and stirred). Then during lunch everyone had some Tang and Meleongo's dad mentioned that it was good and she told him that I made it. Then everyone at the table was like "poto, Bailey, poto aupito" (smart, Bailey, very smart). It doesn't take a lot to impress people here in Tonga! Every skill counts, even if a three year old could do it :)

More pictures from the week!