Easter

The whales have left Okoa. Before they left I a took a ride out in a little row boat and got an up close and personal view. The three of them came right up to the boat and were playing. Since then, apparently, someone hooked each whale with a rope, put it in a truck and drove it to an area where the whale would have direct access to the sea. Now I did not see anyone rope the whale or drag it into a car, but this is the story that is traveling through the village. I typically do not believe village stories, but I don’t know what else would have happened to these whales. Maybe they were eaten and everyone was too afraid to tell me the truth. I really do believe that they were set free and that they will die of natural causes in a few weeks in the wide open waters. They are beautiful creatures.

There were many choices for how to spend this Easter weekend here in Tonga. I tried to take part in a little bit of everything.
I dyed eggs with my disabilities group. I then hid candy in little foil packets and had them go on an Easter Egg hunt. The Easter bunny is a symbol that means absolutely nothing here. I felt pretty stupid trying to explain all these traditions to people that truly spend the entire weekend in church and celebrating the resurrection. I’m like – “Hey look, dunk this egg is some colors and make it look pretty. Eat candy that a little bunny hid for you to find.” They just don’t get it.

I went to a Mormon girls retreat. It was meant to be a sleepover of about 100 girls at the beach, but I left before I started talking to Joseph Smith in my sleep. I ate a picnic-like dinner with the girls and then watched some of the men try to assemble a huge area tent. A couple girls gave a few prayers then it was time for a movie. Two men came out of the dark carrying a TV and VCR. They sat everything on a chair and handed cords up into a tree to a man who tried connecting a whole loudspeaker contraption. The youth group waited patiently. The attachment speakers weren’t working so they worked with what they had and we listened with little sound. This lack of preparedness is typical here in Tonga. The movie was the story of Joseph Smith and his role within the Mormon Church. Everyone then separated into discussion groups to discuss a movie that was in English. Once the program was finished the girls were told to get ready for bed and read their Bibles in small groups. This is when I used my awesome cell phone to make my escape.

My next adventure was with the Wesleyan (Methodist) church. The kids from 13 to 18 also had a sleepover. The boys slept in the church and the girls slept in the minister’s house right across the street. I graciously declined that part of the event due to a need to keep my sanity. I did however attend church with the kids on Sunday and had a feast with them following the service.

The Catholics did a reenactment of Passion of the Christ on the streets in town. Someone was actually strapped to the cross and carried around. This was an activity that I did not participate in, although I did watch the movie Sunday night.

Now – My real holiday weekend. I took a nap on the beach a couple days in a row. I’ve been on a John Irving kick these days so I’m reading the third book of his in a row. I went snorkeling and did some hiking to give myself a little exercise. I then had a nice potluck with the other volunteers and watched the bootleg sequel to Meet the Parents; Meet the Fokkers. Overall, a great long weekend.

While I’m typing this very post, I just received a phone call from my student loan company. They are wondering why I have not made my loan payments that are supposedly overdue. My amazing Dad is helping me to straighten this whole thing out, but it is getting a little old. I’m in the Peace Corps, and have no money, all of which is qualification for a deferment. I can’t believe they are calling me here in Tonga to harass me. Those people will go to no end to get their money back.

I’ve been getting so much great support from everyone back home that I just wanted to say thank you. The packages, letters, and phone calls help to keep me motivated at the times when I just need a taste of home.

Love,
Adrianne

Tofua'a

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Thursday and Friday of last week I was a little sick. I’m unsure if I ate something bad or got a little something from someone, but it was no fun. Since I was to be locked up in my house for a few days, my friend brought over his families TV and VCR. There are no actual TV Stations here in Vava’u, but it’s great if you just want to watch a video. I borrowed the Star Wars trilogy from another volunteer to make it through the day. I watched two of the movies before it was discovered that the TV was at my house. Once the news was out, my house was full of children. If you look at the pictures of my house then you would notice that it is quite small. I had about 13 children inside with a number of kids outside. I laid in the middle of the floor on my sleeping pad with a blanket over me. I was annoyed for about 5 minutes until everyone started laughing. They loved the movie and I think the Ewoks were the big hit. They will sit through movie after movie in English and not understand any of the dialog. I don’t have that kind of patience.

My village of Okoa is a small island, but is attached to the main island by a bridge. There is a decent size inlet at this point where many villagers swim, fish, and collect clams. The other day I was crossing the bridge, which was full of people. They were all looking out into the inlet pointing at something. Apparently about eight baby whales had managed to swim into the cove, but could not get themselves out. The word for whale in Tongan is tofua’a. It is a little early for whale season, so I’m not sure what happened or where the mother was hiding out. They are beautiful creatures and I’m glad I had the opportunity to just relax and watch them. The sad part of the story is that some fisherman from my village and our neighbors are killing these baby whales for food. The fishery department put out an announcement over the radio that this is illegal, but no one seems to pay attention. I heard gunshots the other evening so I think we are down to three whales now. Everyone wants a taste and no one seems to care about getting them out. They have been here now for four days and I have a feeling they wont last too much longer.

Time for a little Tongan lesson.
The way that English is taught to primary school students here is over the radio. We have one AM station and surprisingly it reaches all the islands. Each class listens to the 20 minute program with their teacher present. They repeat words, answer questions, and sometimes even maneuver through true and false questions. This is to ensure that all the students in Tonga are receiving the same information. The teacher is then encouraged to follow up with the students and expand on the information. Once a class is finished with listening to the program, a students runs the radio to the next scheduled classroom. At this point I’m not sure if I agree with this system or not. As with anything there are many ups and downs. A funny side note is to see the women in local town halls weaving and listening to the program. For many villages, this is the only radio station that they receive. So you can hear C-A-T and H-O-U-S-E echo across villages at 9:00 in the morning.

I have a new cooking idea for all you creative folk.
No – not whale.
I’ve been trying to budget a little better, so I’ve been packing a lunch when I go to the office. This week I was lacking some of my easy options such as PB sandwich, bananas, crackers and cheese. So I decided I would bring a hot dog. Yes, a hot dog – one of the basic food groups. The only problem is that there is no microwave or stove to heat up my food at the office. Here is the creative part: I wrapped the hot dog in foil and placed it on the tin roof. After a few hours in the sun the hot dog was heated thoroughly and ready to be eaten.
I challenge you all to get back to the basics.
Think simple.

Love you,
Adrianne

Aho Sporiti

This week has been an attempt to get back on track with youth activities. I ventured on a trip to the Governors office to figure out the truth on rebuilding our Town Hall. I’ve gotten some shady answers from people in my village about why nothing is progressing. I’ve heard we are entitled to some Hurricane Disaster Relief Funds for the Town Hall since it was damaged several years ago by a cyclone. I’ve provided a timeline to my youth that details researching the status of the town hall, completing an estimate, providing invoices, finding out the percentage that Okoa would pay, and fundraising dates. I’ve recently been getting different stories for why we have hit a roadblock. The Governor's office cleared up a lot of information for me. My village is trying to reinvent the wheel and no one is communicating with one another. I was informed that we have already completed all the paperwork and estimates. All we need to do now is get started on fundraising so we can begin building. Why no one bothered to inform me or the Youth President of this is beyond me. They want to sit in a puddle of water and cry like babies for help, when all they really need to do is just stand up.

The closing of last week was the Inter Sports Day – Aho Sporiti.
This is like a mini summer Olympics for the five local schools. Each school chooses their best athletes in various sports such as track, high jump, long jump, hurdles, and discus. This is not just a sports day, but also a show. Tents surround the track and each school claims an area. The children attend in their school uniform while singing and playing music. There are some students that play the role of the mascot, which is probably the most entertaining part of the whole day. They will harass other schools in between events as well as during events. They also harass the participants. Mothers also contribute to the show by flailing around on the ground, dancing in the middle of the field, and I even saw one mother riding another mother while spanking her behind. Mom – I would have killed you if you had done that at one of my soccer games. It’s all part of the fun here and I have to admit that it is all pretty funny.

A weekend get away was needed. I decided to leave my fishbowl and travel to someone else’s fishbowl. I went to the village of Falevai on the island of Kapa to stay with another volunteer. The one-hour boat ride was nice and the island is very beautiful. I went with a third volunteer so we had a girls weekend of laughing and eating good food. There is no running water on the island or electricity so it is a little more primitive than my standards. She has a solar panel that provides lighting in the evening. When using the outhouse, you just take a bucket of tank water and dump it down the toilet to flush it. Everything worked nicely and once you’re in the routine, it’s no big deal. Her home is about twice the size of my little coffee bean house so we had room to relax. We were stuck inside most of the weekend because of the storms rolling through. I got a little cabin fever and went into a few hysterical fits which were needed to make it a true girls weekend. We took a shower in the rain, shampoo and all. We didn’t attend church on Sunday. We played the card game ‘hand and foot’ on Sunday. (Cards are a major No No in Tonga on Sundays). And we ate pizza and chocolate candies to top off a great weekend.

Hope your weekend was as good as mine.
Love you all,
Adrianne