Fakafamili

The week following Mother’s day is Family week, and people in my village exchange meals and have fellowship with each other in their homes. Meleongo’s family invited me to join them as a part of their family. On the last night of Fakafamili it was Ongo’s family’s turn to host. Another family from Tufuvai came to their home for fellowship and dinner. During meals in Tonga that are shared with a lot of people it is traditional to do fakamalos, thank you speeches. Mosese (Ongo’s dad) was giving a fakamalo and he started to speak about me. He was speaking in Tongan so I wasn’t picking up on everything he was saying, but I was understanding the majority of it. Anyways, he was saying that he looks at me like a daughter and you could tell he was starting to struggle to find the right words and finally he just says, “Bailey famili pe”, Bailey is family”. It brought tears to my eyes and made me feel so valued.

Later that evening after I got home I was thinking about what Mosese said and it really empowered me in my Peace Corps service. I had just finished a long week at school feeling like I was not helping my students at all. I swear my students looked at me like they had never heard a word of English before. And it was frustrating and discouraging, but then I remembered the Peace Corps’ motto, “Kau Nguae ‘Ofa”, we work for love. It isn’t “English Fluency”. It is love and I know without a doubt that I have given love and have received just as much if not more love back. My heart is so full of joy and love here in Tonga!