Monday, October 29, 2007

In Vava'u

I survived the ferry ride! Anti-sea sick medicine (which also puts one to sleep) helped a lot! It wasn't a pleasant experience with multiple people trying to sleep in a very small space, but I guess it wasn't as bad as it could have been (read: getting sick over the side of the ship).

Vava'u is beautiful as anticipated but it is also so hot! Sweat (and cockroaches) are a common occurrence here. The new host family is good, but I do really miss my host family in Fua'amotu! I am becoming friends with a host daughter who's my age, so that is promising. Probably the most enjoyable experience has been serving kava (which is like alcohol but not). The men sit around and drink it while sometimes a woman serves. I've convinced to serve by a teacher and a fellow PC volunteer twice. It's basically a number of men finding unique ways to hit on you (usually in a polite fashion) and the other men laughing. I've gotten pretty good with the comebacks I think and I'm learning more Tongan (though maybe not the best Tongan to be learning...)! And the men often sing while they sit around and drink. Unlike men singing in bars in the US, this singing is really good! They do voice-parts and octaves and everything. I've figured out some good ways to get them to sing too! More soon...

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

22-hour ferry ride

In a few hours I get begin a 22 hour trip to get to an outer island in Tonga. Most of it will be on a ferry which is apparently lacking in comfort. I'm already feeling sick...so I hope this goes well. When I get to the island of Va'vau, I get a new host family. They better be great because the hosrt family I'm leaving is wonderful!

Monday, October 22, 2007

Tonga!

As many of you know, I arrived in Tonga a few weeks ago. For the past 17 days I've been living with a host family in the town Fua'amotu, which is about a 20 minute drive to the capital. During that time I've been attending training classes. There are 32 other volunteers that I've been sharing this experience with and they really seem to be a great group of people from various backgrounds, age groups, and include 5 married couples.

My host family in Fua'amotu has been amazing. I share them with another volunteer, Janice, who is in her upper 50's and a former teacher from Myrtle Beach. In one house we have a grandpa and grandma (both 2 of the kindest people I have ever met and both of whom have cried at the fact we are leaving), their daughter and her husband, and that couple's 4 adorable children. The children range in age from 2 months to 7 years and are all (except maybe the baby) obsessed with American cartoons. Apparently these help them to learn English. I've gotten along very well with the 7-year old girl who was my shadow for my first weekend here.

Overall, the people of Tonga seem very kind. It is a small country and therefore Peace Corps volunteers are well-known and respected. While many tourists and visitors from other countries tend to ignore the culture by dressing in clothing that is considered immodest here, we are careful to address appropriately and work hard to learn the language. Tongan's are very family and community-centered and the church (methodist, catholic, 7th day adventist, mormon, etc.) plays a big role here. I'm learning that working in business development (my role here) might be difficult as many Tongans are more concerned with providing for their community than accumulating profit. The challenge will be to get them to invest more in their businesses while allowing them to maintain their culture and community ties.

The country is beautiful! Fua'amotu is on a beach that I visit about every day either on a morning run or to go swimming. Even the main island is rather small. I think I have already seen most of it through Sunday trips with the host family. Other than being rather sick twice now, the lifestyle so far here has been much easier than one would expect for a Peace Corps volunteer!

Friday, October 19, 2007

Pictures!

If this works, I finally have a few pictures from Tonga (and a few from before--whatever was on my camera).