Navy Water Training!!

I have arrived in Tonga!!! =D

It is AMAZING here!! The views are so amazing. I have taken a few pictures but they do no justice to how beautiful it is in person. It still had not really hit me that I am living on a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

I sit here Saturday night to write to you what has happened since I have arrived. We took a plane to the Samoa Islands, dropped off the Samoa Volunteers and had a layover there for about an hour and a half. The flight was weird….It was still dark outside (we arrived at 5am) and you could not see a thing. Nothing….no lights, clouds, nothing…..but the plane is going down for a landing and then just before we touch down you see some lights from the island. I got a bloody nose while waiting in the terminal. Fun experience, since it would not stop bleeding for a long time. I think I was in the bathroom most of the layover. The air on the plane was really dry, I think. When I came out of the bathroom the sun started to come up and you could really start to see outside of the Samoa Airport. It was beautiful. We got back on the plane to go to Tonga….so excited that we would be arriving in the daylight so we could see the amazing views of the island and coral reefs from up in the sky. I got some great pictures that I will have to post….the polarizer on my lens really made some cool effects with the reflection of the sun off the ocean.

We arrive and the current Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV) were there to greet us and lei us with hand made leis. They really were beautiful and smelled really nice. The next part of our day was traveling to the guest house we will be staying in until Monday (remember we are a day ahead of you). The guest house is kind of like a co-op. We have separate rooms that we share with someone. Some of us have a bathroom in their room and some have to share with a couple of rooms. My room had a private bathroom. And there is a kitchen area that we can use. None of us have really bought food to cook. We have just been going out. But in the Tongan culture they really like to make sure their guests are fed well so the PC office has really done a great job of providing us with food. We are staying in the town of Nuku’alofa, which is on the Tongatapu Islands. Nuku’alofa is the capital of Tonga so it is a lot more developed then some of the other islands will be.

After we dropped off our luggage in our rooms and had a few logistics explained to us about the week we went over the PC Director’s house and participated in a traditional kava ceremony. The ceremony consists of everyone sitting in, what is called a kava circle. Some what circle shaped and the Director, or the highest ranked person, sits at the top and at the bottom is where the kava is make. Kava is a root that is crushed, the powder is then mixed with water and strained to get any particles out. Then your name is called out and you have to clap and a single woman will come give you a cup to drink from and you need to down all that is in the cup. Typically women do not participate in the kava ceremony and only single women can deliver the kava to the men. When that was done they had some food for us to eat; nothing too out of the ordinary yet.

In the mornings the roosters at the guest house and around town wake us up around 5 am along with the church bells every morning. Our first day of training was just filled with a lot of logistic information, setting up local bank accounts, and I got myself a cell phone. If you would like the number then just e-mail me and I will give it to you….I just don’t want to post it on here. =) It is free for me to receive calls but I think it is quite expensive for you to call Tonga.

Today, Saturday was our Navy Water Training day. Sounds scary, but it was actually a lot of fun!! I guess since we are living on an island they have to make sure we know how to swim and tread water. We had to jump off the side of a navy ship, swim 50 meters, tow somebody for 50 meters, and then do all of those same things with out a life vest on, and then hold our hands above our heads and tread water for 2 minutes, and then get into a little motor boat from in the water, and then jump out and swim about 25 meters, and then swim in a line of 6 people for about 30 meters…..no more and then, finally!! It was quite a workout. I have not spent the much time in the water in such a long time. Oh, and little fact about our bathing suites…..in Tonga women cannot wear the same types as back in America. We have to wear shorts and shirts, men also have to wear shirts. The whole training/assessment took about 3 hours. After that we had the rest of the day to ourselves, except that is started to rain so there was not much to do since we do not have cars and walking around there are not too many sidewalks so everything is muddy on the sides of the roads. We still walked around anyways and got soaking wet. Hopefully all of clothes will dry…between the rain and the everyday humidity who knows? The rest of the night was spent hanging out back at the guest house with everyone. A few of the guys went and bought some kava powder and made their own kava. So we all just hung out in the common area drinking, studying the language, talking, and just socializing. Kava does not really have that big of an effect on you. When you first drink it it kind of makes your mouth a little numb. But that goes away pretty quickly. When you have a lot of cups of kava you really start feeling the effects, like 8-9 cups. And feeling it is just like a really relaxed feeling…not the same feeling as alcohol at all. I have only had about 2 cups so I personally cannot really explain how it feels.

Tomorrow is Sunday and on Sundays in Tonga you go to church in the morning and then have a BBQ. That is it….NO work is to done on Sundays. Not even working out or swimming. We will all attend a service tomorrow and then after we will go to the PC Director’s house and have a traditional BBQ with a whole pig that has been cooked in a ’umu; which is like an underground oven. Should be exciting!! Monday evening we will be heading up to the island of Vava’u where we each will be staying with a different family for about 6 weeks and getting intense language course as well as training for our jobs. We were originally going to take a boat to the island, which we were told would be about 22 hours…but really it is 30 hours. But the boat is not running so we will be flying….we might have to take the boat back to Nuku’alofa.

Oh my goodness….I wrote so much. =) I do not always have easy access to the internet and there are no wireless internet spots. I will continue to write updates on computer every couple of days and then just post them when I get to the internet. Pictures will be soon to follow….hopefully! =D