HINA

Within 5 hours of getting off the plane and meeting my host family….I received my Tongan name. Hina! =D (he-na)

My host mom, Sali, and I went for a walk down the street to a store on the side of the road. On our way back to the house an older man was walking with a wheel barrel full of mangos that he had just colleted from the trees. He offered us one….and when he let go of the wheel barrel it fell over and all of the mangos went everywhere. Me being me….I ran over and helped pick them up…not thinking twice about it. The whole time my host mom and him were talking in Tonga…me not being able to understand expect for the word palangi, which means white person. A little later the older gentleman came by the house and gave me the Tongan name Hina. I come to find out that he is the chief of the village. The name Hina is a very proud name to have. Hina is one of the female heroines in their stories. She provides protection for the village if anything is trying to hurt or kill them….or something like that. It is a little hard to totally understand when the stories are told in very broken English. I was later told that she was the most beautiful women in the village. I keep getting told that I should be very proud to have been given such a name. I love the name is sounds really pretty and I am very thankful to be given such a cherished name by the village. It is a little weird answering to a different name than your own after 24 years. But I really enjoy that I was given such a name! =)

The homestay experience has been amazing. The village is full of so much culture and hospitality. Palangis are treated very well and Peace Corps Palangis even more so. They feed us first and eat after…to show respect. I keep trying to get everyone to eat together but I don’t think it will really work. They always want you to eat a lot. Fewww…..so much food at every meal…I never finish anything and to them I don’t really eat. The islands are very poor. Almost 50% of the income for the island is sent here from family in America. So you can imagine what type of the living conditions there are. Most of the people in my village, Tu’anekivale, do have electricity and running water with showers…may not be inside though.

The family that I am staying with is GREAT. They have five children (age 12, 8, 6, 2, and 1). Also living in the house is the husband’s parents, his younger twin sisters(age 20), and two of their cousins(age 15 and 14). It is really a full house but everyone is really nice. They speak English, so it helps with getting to understand the Tongan language. They will say something in Tongan, say it in English and then repeat it in Tonga. =)

They actually let me help with things around the house too. Part of the culture is that you are a guest so you should not do anything. I am really insistent that I tokoni (help) and they try to show me what they are doing or let me help with a little part. I have washed my own clothes by hand, helped prepare some food, and play with the kids a lot. The family I am staying with is Mormon. They took me to a Mormon dance on Thursday night and I will also join them for Sunday service. It is interesting to observe their religion in their culture. The dance was very fun. The mom and older daughters kept teasing me about finding a Tongan moa (boyfriend) at the dance. At the dance they play popular rap music from America that has been blended with a Tongan/island twist. I don’t think they really know what the words are to the songs from America because I don’t think they would be playing them at a Mormon dance if they did know. The dancing is fun too. It is like a middle school dance back in America. When you dance with someone you dance about three feet away from them, don’t really have eye contact and you really just move side to side with the music. You don’t really show off your dance moves or really get into feeling the music.

Last night, Friday night, I got invited by one of the other PC homestay daughter’s to go tou‘a at a kalapu. Kalapu is a kava circle but the main purpose is it is a fundraiser. Men are still only allowed to participate in the kava circle, they each pay $5 pa’anga (which about be about $2.5 American dollars). Tou’a is a single female who sits in front of the kava bowl and serves it to the men. A few of the PC men came to drink and me and another single PC girl in my village went to tou’a. It was fun to experience. I am sure it will be more fun when we understand more of the language and can communicate with them better. Kava circle’s are an interesting tradition because it is a bunch of men who sit around for hours drinking kava and just talking. When I say for hours I mean hours. The kalapu started last night about 8pm and lasted until about 3am. The two other girls who were tou’a and I only stayed until about 11pm. Kava is not like alcohol…it has more of a high/stoned feeling and it is only in your body not your head…so you can still think clearly. Women are not allowed to drink the kava except at their wedding.

This morning, Saturday, I woke up and headed into town with some of my host family and some other PC people. We took the bus from our village at 7:45am and it comes back to the village at 11am. The main purpose people go into town is to go to the markets and get food. The other PC people and I just walked around to see the area and get some more skirts…men and women. I am not sure if I mentioned it in an earlier post but the men here have to wear a tupenu (wrap skirts) when you are in a formal/professional setting. It has been funny watching the men learn how to sit on the ground cross legged with a tupenu on. They always seem to flash us….good thing most of them wear shorts underneath.

Tonight the PC trainees in my town have been invited to a dinner at the restaurant that is located on the beach. The restaurant is only open for the cruise boats when they come in, but the owner wanted to offer us a special complimentary dinner. That will be at 7pm tonight. After coming back from town, the rest of my day has been filled with writing this blog post and sleeping. =) A true Tongan thing to do…sleep during the day.

***Disclaimer***

The views, opinions, and comments made on this page are not that of the Peace Corps; only my personally experiences.

**PC told us that if we have a blog we need to put that some where on our page for legal purposes. =X