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