Daily Routine

These days, part of my daily routine consists of entertaining my students as they sit in my doorway before class begins. This morning they cleaned the school yard and sang "Jingle Bells" at the top of their lungs.

"Ms. Man-DEE!"

I feel so lucky.

The Wall of Inspiration, Chiara & the Project

So one of my closest friends in the Peace Corps is a girl named Chiara (pronounced: Key-are-ah). Here she is.

She's pretty fabulous. She was born in Italy, grew up in Indonesia, went to college in Maryland and now we've crossed paths here in Tonga. We're both teachers. Both camp counselors. Random side note? She worked for 4 years at a summer camp that is the sister camp to the one where I spent the last 6 summers. Man, I love camp so much. Small world, right?

Welp. Chiara and I had the unfortunate luck of not being placed near each other during our Peace Corps service. She lives on an island that is two plane rides (or ferry rides) away. This hasn't stopped our friendship though.

Nope. Nope.

Every day we send each other inspirational quotes. Because sometimes 2 years feels like a very long time. Plus, why not? We take turns sending our favorite words back and forth. I'm bringing her up now, because the words she sent me today were awesome and I wanted to share them with you. We are all on our own adventure to figure out what we want and what our goals are in life. And the quote she chose speaks to that quite nicely. In fact, it was exactly what I needed to read today. I copied the following words down immediately and they are now hanging on my wall of inspiration. Here they are:

Remember the journey changes you. The journey finds ways to turn you into what you need to be. It's the struggle that makes us strong & readies us for flight. It's how you grow through and out of it, the meaning you make of it - that you can not only share with yourself, your creative work and life, but use to inspire others as well.

- Anonymous

And because it's fun, here's my wall of inspiration (which is really just a place I hang things that make me really happy).

My First Sunday in 'Ofa

Sundays in Tonga are full of church, eating and resting.



Nothing else. Seriously, don't even try exercising. Once in Fatumu, my host mom followed me because she knew that I was secretly trying to get a run in.



If you wish to watch TV or listen to music, it must be of the Christian variety (and guess what? Christmas music counts! Even Mariah Carey. In fact, Tongans love "All I Want for Christmas"...even with some questionable lyrics!).

So how did I spent my first Sunday in the village of 'Ofa?



I woke up, ironed my tupenu (long wrap skirt), put on a dressy shirt, tied my kiekie around my waist and walked to church.

I've discovered that it is quite fun to walk through 'Ofa. And on Sunday it seemed that I couldn't walk more than 10-15 feet without somebody yelling "Hello Man-DEE!" - They really like to accentuate the last syllable in my name. Well, I waved back and yelled "Yo!" (Hey!) or "Sai pe?" (Are you good?)



I entered church, sat down in a pew and observed for an hour and a half, attempting to learn some more Tongan. Instead, I thought about the speech that I'm going to give at my sister's wedding and about half way through the service a very round lady sitting in front of me turned and handed me her fan. Hallelujah! I don't know if it was the sweat dripping from my eyebrows or the puddle I left on top of my hymnal, but she helped me out big time. After church, I met the feifekau (minister) and he invited me over for a Sunday feast.



By far the best lu (remember, meat, coconut creme wrapped in lu and taro leaves?) I have ever eaten was made by this guy. We also ate vai lesi (papaya, onions, coconut creme, cooked together) and root crops - Can't forget those root crops, people. I sat with a table full of wonderful women who talked about the "olden days in Tonga" and how much things have changed since they were growing up. Two women, Milo and Winnie, spoke about how the youth today are very different because of technology (especially the cell phone). They are ruder to their parents, disrepectful all around and are lazy. I found it interesting that even though I was sitting at a dinner table in a developing country having this conversation, that this talk really could have taken place pretty much anywhere - America, Tonga, you name it. We all may be different and lead very different lives, but it's interesting how many of our problems are the same.

After a lovely lunch, I was excused to go back to my 'api (house) and rest. I can't sleep when it's 95 degrees out and 100% humidity so I did some yoga (inside so nobody would see), learned some Tongan and watched Friends. All in all, a wonderful first Sunday here.

  

The One With the Visitor

Today started off quite normally.

I got up, opened my mosquito net, put on my slippers and strolled into the kitchen to use my filtered water to make some coffee (I have one bag of real coffee from America that I am trying to make last as long as possible... but from the looks of it, will be gone by Friday. Sad times.). I'm waiting for the water to boil, opening the windows and doors to greet the day and go back to the sink to finish the dishes from my attempt at a partially edible rice, green pepper, onion dish from last night.

And that's when I heard it.

A soft little click, click, click on the ground.

I turned around slowly. And there he was.

All gleaming white with a red beak.

Randolph the Rooster.

He and I made eye contact. Stared each other up and down. I'm pretty sure music from an Old West film started playing ... you know the music right before two cowboys pull their guns?

No guns here though, but Randolph did fluff his feathers and spread his wings slightly. You know, to make himself big and buff, but I wasn't fooled. No-sir-ee. I lunged at him and you know what? He didn't even move. That little stinker. He let me know that this was his roost (no pun intended ... oh wait. Yeah. It was.) and he was claiming it. So I did the only thing that I could think of...

I grabbed the frying pan off the wall and ran at Randolph. Full-speed. In my pjs. He wasn't expecting it and made a bunch of garbly noises and ran out the back door, squawking and letting all of his rooster friends know that the Palangi girl living in the fale (house) was crazy.

But you know what else?

He came back, and this time I stood in the doorway as he sauntered across the playground field. He strutted right up to the front door. We both continued to glare at each other. Silly rooster. I made my wings (arms) big and he cockadoodledoo-ed at me. Twice. And then turned around and went back to wherever he lives. Which may or may not be a box behind the school with his other bird friends.

Next time I'm going to make sure I have the fixins' for Chicken Noodle Soup ready. I'm not playing around, here.

Also, side note: check out these bananas. They're huge!

  

Not Goodbye, Just See You Later

**If you are a vegetarian or get squeamish about eating weird foods, you should just skip this post. You've been warned.**

Originally written October 29, 2012: When I returned from PST training today, Una Lahi caught me at the front door and asked if I would like to invite Mark, Alissa and Tulu (my language teacher) over for dinner. The plan, she said, was to have a papaku (bbq) in honor of our last few days in Fatumu.

Here I am grinding the coconut meat out of the coconut shell. Check out Franny sleeping in the background. Haha.

This is Sela who is collecting the outer parts of the coconut to later strain the coconut meat to make coconut creme!

The sun through my clean laundry.

Pig roastin'.

More pig roastin' with Mark & Alissa.

Here I am roastin' the pig.

This is Siulaki, my host grandfather (kuitangata in Tongan).

I like pictures of roastin' pigs, apparently.

Una Lahi and Tiani.

Una Lahi's sister.

That's the head of the pig. And those are my fingers digging inside of the skull.

  

Here I am eatin' some pig brain. And it wasn't bad! It's Una Si'i's favorite part. It's a little spongy, tastes pretty smokey and if you aren't into weird textures I'd say give it a go.

The night was awesome. Full of food and great conversation, it was a great way to say "See You Later". I will miss these guys so much when I finish homestay.

Your World.

'Api Fo'o

'Api Fo'o translates to "New House". I'm officially moved onto the island of Vava'u Lahi. Wanna see where I'm staying for the next two years? I'm pretty pumped about it.

Here's my bedroom. That's it. If you turn left you run into a wall. The table behind the door is for my clothes.



Here's the outside. When this picture was taken I was standing in the middle of the school's play yard. That propane tank is the one that I cook with.



Here's my laundry and a bread fruit tree. Bread fruit is really yummy. Bread fruit chips are the saitaha (the best).



Here's looking through the front door. That's my couch (the mat on the floor) and my table. Oh yes, and more laundry.

Do you like it? I sure am lucky. There is running water, electricity and a cat.