Excuse the delay in a post. I was dying of Dengue Fever.
Dengue Fever is a terrible virus you get from a mosquito bite. And let me tell
you, IT IS TERRIBLE. To my friends back in America land most of you have
probably had a fever. But when you have a fever you have air conditioning and
heat and really anything you need that can help make you more comfortable. Here
in Tonga as we are right in the middle of the hottest month in Tonga we have 88
degree weather with 90% humidity and no air conditioning to accompany the
fever. Along with the fever comes body aches like nobodies business. A nickname
for Dengue is ‘Breaking Bone Syndrome’. It felt what I imagine it would feel
like to turn 95 the day after running 5 marathons. Headache, rash, vomiting,
bleeding of the gums also come on the side. Luckily, I only got the headache
and rash. And there is absolutely nothing you can do but sleep, drink water,
and take Tylenol. Dengue fever is definitely most likely in Dante’s 10th
level of Hell. Moral of the story, wear your bug spray, friends! And while my
immune system was in recovery, Tonga went a head and threw some more Strep
Throat at me…again…for the third time since I have been here.
Anyways, the third week of school just came to an end. The
first two weeks I spent observing and making different resources and materials
for the students. Then this past Monday I was supposed to start teaching, but
ya know, Dengue Fever. It was really hard to be in my house, which is 20 feet
from the school while all the kids were at school. It made me feel even
crummier. Luckily, I have very understanding counterparts and we will just have
to try again this Monday.
Anyways, I am so incredibly excited to start teaching.
Before coming to Tonga I didn’t think that there would be such a big language
barrier between the students and I because I was under the impression that
their English would be close to if not fluent. Well, I was wrong. I think it
would be fair to say that I know more Tongan than most of my student’s know
English. Which means they know very little English. It just makes the challenge
that were exhilarating and in turn of helping them with their English they are
really making me study up on my Tongan. The good part is that there is always a
Tongan teacher in the classroom with me as a counterpart so if I am every
really struggling with speaking to the students the teacher is there to
translate.
My school is still very small. We have 38 students in the
school this year; class one through class six. It is so nice having small
classes, makes learning so much more productive. Meleongo is the only teacher
that stayed at my school. I got a new principal, Moana and a new 5/6 teacher,
‘Aleki. They are both great people and I already enjoy working with them. This
week while I was sick they brought me my two favorite foods in Tonga. Moana
brought ‘Ota ‘Ika and ‘Aleki brought a lobster fresh from the ocean.
First week of school
As promised, pictures of the inside of my house!
My bedroom
Living room/classroom area!
Tribute to home
A map a made of my village, Tufuvai
Kitchen/Living room
Kitchen
*Current Events on ‘Eua
1. Nila is an elderly lady in my village who is 72
years full of sass! Well, a couple of weeks ago at church she was sitting
towards the front on the left side of the church and I was sitting one row
behind her, but on the right side. She was sitting close to the side door. Then,
mid sermon a dog starts to come into the church through the door she was
sitting by. Before I knew what was happening homegirl whipped her croc (yea,
crocs are also her shoe of choice. She is a gem.) off and chucked it at the
dog. Nobody flinched. I on the other hand had to look away and take a minute to
compose.
2.
The second story may be funny to you or may not
be depending on your personality. My sister I am going to go ahead and say will
find it terrifying, but say someone like Sarah Beard will find it funny. Last
week I went to Meleongo’s house around dinnertime. The whole family had just
sat down to eat dinner, so of course they invited me to come eat (the timing was
planned by the way, possibly what happened next was karma). Ongo’s sister gives
me a plate of food. I eat over at their house a lot so I really don’t every
question what I am eating if I do not know because they always have good food.
Anyways, I thought I was eating some chicken, some very flavorful chicken at
that. We finish eating and I step outside to check that Faina (my puppy) was
still there and I notice that one of their dogs is missing. It was very weird
not to see him because this is a crack dog. He is always acting a fool. So I
asked, “Where is Miko?”. They all look at each other then down at their plate
then at me and Ongo’s dad says, “Mate. Kovi aupito kuli.” (Dead. He was a very
bad dog). In case you are in denial I will spell it out for you. I ate dog. It
would have been nice to maybe know before it happened, but it maybe and by
maybe definitely would not have happened had I known. But to their defense he
was a very bad dog.
3.
It’s avocado, guava, and passion fruit season in
Tonga. #blessed
Miss and love you all!
‘Ofa Atu!
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