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
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