No School

The wind whistled through the luvas in my bedroom this morning. It was this natural alarm clock that woke me at 5am. Coupled with the sound of the rain hitting the corrugated tin roofing, I listened, stretched and watched as my mosquito net fluttered with the breeze. I love the wind. It's amazing what a little wind can do to a very hot day. It isn't hot here today though. School was cancelled due to heavy rain and high wind advisories across Tonga. There were moments this morning where the air was still and not a minute later a gale wind would come rushing through causing the rain to fall horizontally and the date palm trees to lose their branches. Much of the next month will be like this. The weather is finally starting to change - there are more low humidity days and I'm not having to take 2 showers a day anymore. I like it. I have been told that March is "'afa" (cyclone) month here. The majority of bad weather happens during these 30 days and in April the humidity will lower even more as we prepare for Winter (tourist season).

So I spent the today reading, watching movies, preparing lessons, getting organized, baking banana bread (using bananas found on the tree outside) and crafting (my favorite). This afternoon one of my Tongan friends, Silia, came over. She said that she wanted to clean my house. I told her she didn't have to, so we compromised and she swept the floor. She said she "liked helping the Peace Corpse" (that is not a misspelling ... that is how she says Peace Corps). She then told me that I needed to do something with my hair ("It is so flat Mandy, but I like the color.") so I let her braid it. We talked about school (she's 15) and what she wants to do after school is finished (live with her family and help them). It was a quiet, but wonderful day.



Update: School was called off on Thursday as well. The radio announced that all the GPSs (Government Primary Schools) are closed "until further notice". Oiaue (oy-yah-way - which means "oh goodness/ oh jeez!").