A WEEK OF ADVENTURES

Sunday, October 26, 2006

Well to start off where I left off…the complimentary dinner was great!! They had some really good food…and more like American food too. =) After eating they planned a performance for us. It was really cute. It was some of the local children performing traditional Tongan dances. They did such a great job and they all looked so cute in their outfits. I have some pics…I will try to post them. At the restaurant they also had a bar. It was the first time since we got here to actually have a chance to have a more typical American social activity where it was okay to drink. We had such a great time. It is interesting how welcoming and loving these people are. We are not even going to be helping their community; we are just here for training. But I guess they know what kind of work PC does and they know that we will be helping their people, whether it is their village for not.

On Sunday I got to experience a typical Sunday of event. After a 3 hour Mormon Church service, which I couldn’t even understand since it was all done in Tonga, we packed up all the food, that some of the family cooked while we were at church, and headed for the beach. My family wanted to show me Vava’u so we drove around almost the whole island just taking in the amazing paradise perfect views. We arrived at one of the well known palangi beaches (they call it that because it is one of the more beautiful beaches that all the tourists like to visit) and had our ‘umu in the back of the truck and then went swimming. There was about 16 of us…now I am sure you are asking yourself how can 16 people fit in one truck. Well, when I say truck you should be thinking more of like a small 18-wheeler ish type of truck. It is a work truck with a cap and the back is a low sided flat bed. Everyone just hopes in the back of the truck and we go…women, children, babies, elders…everyone rides back there. Well not everyone…PC does not allow us to ride in the back for insurance purposes. =X So the palangi has to ride up front.

After we were done eating and swimming we moved onto another beach. One that was a lot closer to our village. This beach is also beautiful and had some cool coral rock formations that everyone was climbing. So after talking some pics I put the camera down and headed out to climb to the top of the rock. And this is where the story begins. =) There is a shorter rock and you first have to climb onto and then climb into the next really big one. If you are familiar with coral it is very sharp and has lots of holes, well at least this one did. To even get to the rock you have to walk out into the ocean a little ways, so you are already wet when you get there and of course I had shoes on (well if you would like to call flip flops shoes) so just start thinking what might have happened. Everyone else in my host family was climbing it so easily, no shoes, like it was nothing. Well between being wet, having shoes on (bare feel would not have been any better), and not really experience at this thing……of course……..I FELL!! OUCH!!! I had it and then I slipped, fell into the first smaller rock and then fell into the ocean. =X As I was falling the thought went through my head “oh shit, I hope I don’t get hurt really bad.” When I came to the surface for air, nothing really hurt and of course my host family is freaking out. They were saying “Sai pe, sai pe??”…which mean ‘okay, okay??’ After a few minutes my family found all the places I was bleeding. I had cuts on my leg, arm, back, fingers, and not until I was out of the water walking back to the truck did I realize that there was a big cut and some missing skin on my big toe, left foot. All the other injuries were just minor cuts and plenty of bruises the next morning, but the cut on my toe looked pretty bad (keep in mind that I just wrote ‘looked’). When we got back to the house and we could better look at the toe, my host family wanted to take me to the hospital. It did not really hurt bad enough for me to think that I needed to go and I think they were just worried about me. I took a shower, bandaged everything else up and convinced them to take me to the PC language trainer’s house in our village first to talk with them…they have a medical kit and the hospitals are not that good anyways. When I got there they had more supplies so I could clean the cut correctly and bandaged it up. The next day I was a little sore all over and walking to class (my house and class are on opposite ends of the village, about ½ mile) was not fun since I could not put any pressure on my toe. A week later, all my wounds have healed very nicely, I did a really good job of keeping everything cleaned and bandaged since I knew how dirty everything is with flies everywhere. I can walk normal now, but the cut on my toe is still sensitive…I lost a lot of layers of skin. All in all I am very thankful that nothing worse happened to me…I am sure the cut on my toe will leave a scar…a story to share. =) (I hope none of you are freaked out (Mom)…it really wasn’t as bad as it sounds. I promise you!)

The rest of my week has been pretty uneventful after Sunday’s events. =) Just language and business training during the day, playing with the kids in the evening, eating dinner, doing language homework and watching movies. I have watched so many movies…they watch the really cheesy American movies over and over again. My language is getting better…I just keep working on trying to communicate with the few words I know and filling in the rest with hand gestures. It is really funny when the 6 year old is correcting me when I say something wrong. =) I guess you have to learn some way!

On Friday, I attended a high school ball for my twin host sisters. They are graduating from high school next week. The ball is not what you have pictured when you think of the work ‘ball.’ It wasn’t like anything that we have back in the states but I would describe it as a mix between a dance (however, all of your family is watching, all the lights are on and they don’t dance how we do) and an informal presentation of the graduates. Everyone gets really dressed up, the graduates where wearing ball gowns and suites. I didn’t have anything even close to being that formal so they went and bought some fabric and had a traditional dress made for me. It was really nice of them…cuz know I have something formal to wear other places. =) Graduating is a very big deal here in Tonga, for a couple of reasons. First, not everyone gets to go to high school. At grade 6 they have to take an exam and if they score high enough they will attend high school. High school is done primarily in English so that is another challenge for a lot of Tongans. After high school there are not that many job opportunities so most of the graduates will either move overseas (New Zealand, Australia, or America) or get married and start a family.

Saturday morning we had a funeral to attend. All the PC trainees attended wearing all black to show our respect and brought flowers for the family. Going to the funeral served two purposes: to experience what happens at a Tongan funeral and to show our support…one of our Trainer’s uncles was the one who passes away. It was a good experience to be able to have while in training so if we had any questions we could just ask one of the trainers. When we got there, there was about 5 full grown big pigs hanging form the tree, some where already cooked and some were waiting to be cooked. Funerals are not just a one day thing here in Tonga. The men were all helping with cooking the animals and the women arranged themselves right outside the house of the deceased and were singing songs. After we went into the house and presented our flowers we were fed. Of course, everything in Tonga is done around food. The difference is that the family of the deceased (not the immediate family members) are the ones serving the food. We only spend about an hour there and then we were taken back to our villages.

The rest of Saturday was a day of rest for me, kind of felt a little sick so slept most of the day and night. Sunday was the typical routine of church and an ‘umu at the beach. This time there were 24 of us who went to the beach and there are no injuries to report. =)