22 June 2012

What a week I've had! It started out seemingly slow. Monday was good because we got to go to town and I called my family. This Thursday (yesterday) marked the HALFWAY POINT! I can't wait to be going home, but there is still so much to do here. On Tuesday the ward joined in an all day fast because Sunday is our ward conference. We fasted until 6 that evening; I don't think I've ever done that before. We were so starving and made egg salad sandwiches and ginger chicken. I got really frustrated with our host parents mostly because I was hungry, but also because we had to pay for the food and they didn't seem happy with it. Our relationship with them is getting more complicated.. I'll get into it more a little bit later.
Anyway, the fast went well besides that and we happily broke it. On Wednesday night there was supposed to be a Family History activity, but the computer was broken and almost no one showed up. It turned out that there was a practice for a hula dance that will be taking place next week for the Saineha alumni reunion. Our host mom encouraged us to join in, so now guess what? Victoria and I will be in two dances next Thursday, one of which is a hula. Needless to say, we are terrible, but I'm very excited to learn how to dance like the natives. Things like this are a lot easier for them, but I think I could be good with practice and instruction. The thing about Tongans, though, is that they aren't very good with instruction. You have to watch and observe in order to learn, rather than have the steps taught to you one by one. It's really odd and it makes things a lot harder to do. They also said that because we're palangi we don't need to do everything perfectly, so they aren't going to spend as much time with us working on the steps and hand motions. That annoyed me a little bit. But we'll still practice a lot in our free time and I'll film the dance so you all can see it.
Yesterday was Thursday. Victoria and I went to kindergarten in the morning and met some white people from America who came to help out. They were older, with kids and kept saying "Malo, Sisu (Thank you, Jesus)." They're here on a church thing I think. One guy was actually from Vallejo, California, which is like five minutes from where I live. We talked to them for a little bit, and they invited us to dinner, so hopefully we'll go there sometime and eat some lu sipi (my favorite dish). That afternoon Victoria and I got some rolls and popsicles and walked to a nearby cemetery with a great view to eat them. It was nice and humid, but cloudy. Things like that help me to appreciate being here because I am reminded of how beautiful the island and the people are. That night we went to a dance. Our host mom seems to be ashamed of how we look sometimes. We don't want to embarrass her, but she always wants to give us her clothes to wear (which happen to be 10 sizes too large) and she wants to do our hair. But I'm not always comfortable with her sense of style and its difficult to tell her so. Hopefully we'll find some way to meet her halfway. There's a retarded kid here who always asks either me and Victoria to dance, and after a while we just had to say no because he wouldn't stop asking us. And he'd keep asking even if we said no, and get really frustrated when we wouldn't stand up with him. Sometimes our host dad would dance with him. Ha.
We've been eating to much bread lately. Yesterday breakfast was a slice of bread, lunch was these small donut type of things, dinner was candy, and after the dance was more bread. This morning we woke up at 6 to go to another hula practice and got rolls to eat for breakfast afterwards. We're in town today for a rugby tournament that our host dad is in. It's really exciting because I've never even seen rugby before, and it's much rougher than I imagined. We spotted this guy who was really thickly built and had big crazy braided hair and so we called him "The Warrior." I finally got a picture with him and he picked me up! I was so pleasantly surprised. Mostly because it makes a good story, but also because I thought we would kill me if I tried to talk to him because of how tough he looked. Other than that, things are pretty bland because school is beginning its two week break, so we'll be finding other ways to spend our time.

June 18th

It is very hard to sit down and write a blog post. Especially because I want to keep my time on the internet short while still responding to emails and messages and figuring out tuition and other things for the fall semester. Very time consuming and sometimes frustrating when the internet is slow.

Meanwhile, Tonga has been very good to me! Victoria and I bought fabric to make traditional Tongan attire out of, and we now have some outfits so that we look presentable at church and other affairs. I've been writing in my field journal religiously because it is sort of a relief to sit down and write out everthing I'm thinking or seeing or feeling. I really miss American things a lot of the time, but like some people have pointed out, it's more important to focus on the Tongan things that are good, rather than the American things that are missing. And a lot of the time I just look around me and think, "am I really here? Am I really doing this?" Like the other day we woke up at 5:30 to get to the market early. We got there at like 6:30 and I slept in the car for a bit. When I woke up, I was like, look at me in some tongan lady's van at 6 in the morning on a small island in the middle of the Pacific. The sun was rising and everything was pink and purple and the water was calm. It was lovely and I felt happy. And other times I just get to spend time with the kids playing games or teaching them things or just falling asleep with them. And I feel like I love this family I'm with. They're special to me--they have their differences, which are sometimes overwhelmingly annoying, and there is definitely a language barrier, but they are doing their best to make us happy and I'm grateful for that.

Yesterday we went to a wedding. It was Catholic, so in the morning we went to Catholic mass, something I haven't even experienced in English, which is unfortunate. It was quite different from anything I've done before. There was lots of kneeling then standing then sitting then kneeling then standing again. And singing and walking around. Then finally we left and walked to the bride's house, where everyone sat down to a feast of whole roast pigs, horse, chicken, eggs, hot dogs, sausages, crab salad, potato salad, soda, chips. Anything you can think of except fruits and vegetables, which I crave everyday. Then as soon as you were full, everone filled up plastic bags and boxes with as much food as they could to take home. They gave us a lot because we're palangi, and it was heavy to carry home.

We also made french toast the other day, which our family loved and we were really excited about. We interviewed the police chief, who was very kind and gave us lots of advice about dressing modestly and not being out after dark. We interviewed the principal of Saineha, the local LDS high school. We also interviewed the assistant to the governor (because the governor was sick) to learn about how the government is organized. Almost none of the governmental positions are filled through elections. I was nearly bewildered by that, but I suppose it's how most countries are run.

Most of my days are occupied by volunteering at primary schools and kindergartens, finding food, reading books, writing in my journal, playing with the kids, attending choir practice (which I love), and sleeping.
Last Saturday I think I ate some bad chicken and was sick all Sunday. then Monday I ate a big meal because we came to town and I was hungry, but Monday night I threw that up. Then all week I've had a sore throat.. It's awful being sick somewhere unfamiliar. The days become more dull and you have no energy to even want to try new things. I'm kind of secretly hoping that I'll feel sick enough to go to the Tongan healer, because I'll want to know what they can do for me, and I think it would also be useful for my project.

I really do love it here sometimes. I'm feeling more like I belong and that I understand the people. It makes me think that I could never go anywhere for a short visit, like two or three weeks, it will always have to be longer. And I can never live in a hotel or a lodge, I'll hvae to live in the villages with the people becasue that is the only way to truly understand them. And that makes me very very grateful for this opportunity. It's hard, and sometimes I'm hungry and hot and sticky, but I get to meet so many people who are fascinated by me and by who I am and how I speak. Initially I was annoyed at all the people who stare or laugh at me, but now I stare or laugh back. The tongan people are quite fascinating; very different. I'll write more about them when I get the chance.

First post in Tonga

 I've been on this island for almost 3 weeks, and away from home for 4. Internet costs money and also renews my homesickness, so I've kind of been trying to stay away. I miss you all soo much and I miss America probably a little bit more. This place is very third worldish, soemthing that I think I may not have been completely prepared for. Most days we eat bread for breakfast, crackers for lunch, and crackers for dinner (or bread). Often it is accompanied by hot chocolate, which is weird in such a warm environment, but we've gotten used to it. There is also the occasional ramen noodle meal. Then on Sundays we feast. We've had this really good ginger chicken, a recipe that I'll probably bring home. And a dish called lu sipi. It's lamb meat with coconut milk wrapped in taro leaves, then foill, and put in the oven. It is soo yummy, especially with a little salt. We've also eaten raw fish a few times, which I'm getting used to, adn horse, which kind of freaked me out to think about. It's very tough and gamy, but the taste is fine. Also I eat like a total savagee now. There is never knapkins and almsot never silverware, plus eating is usually a lot of picking meat out of bones. So my hands are always greasy and there is lots of slurping. the people here stuff their mouths full and chew with their mouths open and talk at the same time. I was really taken aback by it at first, but I've gotten ove it. Even the kids just go to town. We think it's because when they have food, they have to eat a lot of it because they won't get soem for a while afterthat. And you have to get all the mat you can off the bones because it costs money. And there's no such things as leftovers becasue things won't lastm ore than a day unless it's crackers or bread. 

We had the horse at a funeral I went to. At the funeral they put teh dead guy on a bed inside the house and people sing and wail for hours. It started at about 7 in the morning, we went to get the body from the hospital and joined a big procession of cars to go back to the house. they pu tthe body in the house and then everyone sits and sings and mourns until like 1. They fed us though, so that was good.  Alot of meat. We went in and saw the dead guy. You could only see his face, but he definitely looked dead. Then the next night I had weird dreams about eating weird meat and seeing that guy rot. I didn't think I was affected, but I guess I was.

The house we live in is tiny. There is almost nowehre to put our stuff, but I gess thats good because I don't have much anyway. There are always ants. Everywhere. In our beds, on the walls, on the kitchen table, in the kitchen. We've seen a couple rats too. One of them was in our room and I stood on my bed for an hour, kind of freaking out. Hahah we tried to swat at it with a broom, but we couldn't hear it moving anymore so we went to sleep. There are also these longish centipede thigns that are really nasty.. Showering consists of filling up a bucket with water and trying to rinse yourself. So I shower for real like once a week, the other days I just put water over me. We wash our hair about every three or four days.. But nobody cares what we look like because we're palangi (white people).

church is rough because i'ts all in Tongan-- ends up being very boring, even with our host mom translating for us. tongan is a very backwards language, but we're learning a few phrases and sometimes we can pick up on small bits of conversation. The island is only about 12 km across its longest length. Gas is at least 10 dollars a gallon, but our family still insists on driving lots of places. Like the rugby field about 4 blocks away, chuurch (3 blocks away), a grocery store (4 blocks away), etc. Rugby here is really popular, my roommate plays with some people some afternoons and they make fun of her b/c only boys play rugby in Tonga. But she's a really good sport about it, plus it's exercise and we certainly need that.

The kids here are brutal. The wrestle each other, hit each other, throw sharp sticks at each other. The parents, for discipline, smack kids in teh head a lot so they'll listen. I have to say that I've hit a kid or two when they go into our room and steal candy, or seomthing along those lines. And tehy aren't afraid to hit back. I'm starting to think it's almost a form of affection. These poor kids. I just want to take them home and take them to a dentist. Almost all of them have rotting teeth. Then you remember that it's just their baby teeth, but I'm certain that they're brushing habits don't change when they get the next set. If they even had brushing habits. I didn't bring mouthwash because I thought it would be too heavy, and I'm really missing it. The kids also almost always have open wounds from playing so hard. And everyone here is always barefoot. They have really tough feet. I have a hard time decided whether I want my kids to be as rough or not.. sometimes it seems liek a good thing because they learn a lot on their onw, but I don't want them to be sick all the time. Hahah.

I've really been missing home, but things have gotten better as I've become accustomed to the place and the people. Everyone stares at us because we ride around in a van with a brown family. And we're very very white. And people are too shy to speak English, so only the brave ones say hi or ask us our names. But then I think everyone already knows our names because white people in a small tongan village is sort of exciting. And I think they all mean to be nice, even if they laugh at us a lot.

Almost every friday night we go to a church activity, which is just a dance. But in order to dance, you have to have a partner for even the slow songs. So the boys (of all ages. like 10-60) come and bow to you and then you don't have a choice, you have to follow them to the dance floor. Then dancing is like, no eye contact, stand 3 or 4 feet away from each other, and don't talk. It's really weird, but we're getting used to that too. 

We've been volunteering at a primary school to help with English. We thought we'd just be helping the teachers with a few things, but we have to go with a lesson prepared for a half hour in each of the three classes. It's sort of annoying, but when we find something that works well, it feels good. then on thursday mornings we go help at the "kindergarten" which is mnore like a preschool. That's more fun because it doesn't matter that we can't speak Tongan and the kids are adorable and like to throw things at us. We color and sing. I now know the Tongan alphabet and a few other tongan songs. This place is really great. The people just seem to value different things. Like it's really important to be clean and welld ressed when you go to churhc or some meeting, but the other days you can wear whatever you want and get as dirty as you want and no one gives is a second thought. But everyone is able to LOOk clean, much cleaner than us. We always look pretty shabby. But it's been less humid here and kind of rainy, which sucks because then you can't go out at all. I've read a lot of books since I've been here too, becasue there's a little library and a lot of free time, so that's nice. And I have to say it is kind of nice to not be on facebook all the time.. It's different, but nice. And no phone isn't so bad either, I've gotten used to it and to finding other ways to pass the time.

I have yet to begin learning about plants, but that should occur in the next few weeks.