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!