Lotu, To’a, Puke,…

Sunday, December 14, 2008 @10 pm

As we get off the plane all the other trainees were there and the PC staff with vans to take us to the next village we will be staying in for two weeks. We all load up into the vans and hit the road while exchanging our unique and amazing adventures we had during our attachments. We arrive at a church hall where there our next host families are waiting. We all take a seat in the hall, PC trainees on one side and the host families on the other. All of exchange smiles across the room anticipating which people will become a part of our lives for the next two weeks. The names are announced and the families meet their new short addition to the family. As quickly as we arrived, we get transported into our new host family’s car and head onto our new homes. I hop into the van with an older husband, Kai, and wife, Toa. Kai is the minister at the local church, so my new home is right next to the church. (I am really excited it is not a Mormon family!) The typical small talk of Tonga is exchanged of how old are you, if you are married, where you are from, and how many kids are in your family. Once all of that is discussed it is timi malolo (time to rest), they show me my room and give me some time to settle in a little before it is time to ‘eva (wonder around – or better put in this case: go explore the new village).

My two week experience can be summed up into three activities (apart from trainings and language all day of course): Lotu, To’a and Puke – Church, serving Kava, and Sick. Living with a minister and his wife it is obvious that I would be going to church a lot. I knew that I did not have to attend all the masses but I wanted to. Well I did not go to the 6am masses but all the other ones during the week and the 10am and 4pm on Sunday you could find me. The husband and wife were really nice and understanding when I chose to do something else. They knew that I am Catholic and really appreciated that I participated so much in their church. The church participates in a lot of the traditional Tongan events…including KAVA. (If you don’t remember what Kava is: a drink that relaxes your body that is make for the root of a plant). The kava culture in the church is of many different types. Only the men drink it…they can drink it in a formal setting before and/or after church called ‘fai kava,’ in the evening to raise money called ‘kalapu,’ and the last is in the evenings also called ‘fai kava’ but it is just known which ones are formal. You can find a kava circle somewhere every night of the week and they usually last until 3am or even 6am or later. Where I come into this picture of kava…only single women are able to serve the kava while the men make passes at her. It is kind of like a bar scene but there is only one girl and about 20 men all giving her attention…but they give the palangi women even more attention. Depending on the type of kava event plays a big part of how much the men really hit on the to’a, the single women serving the kava. Having my host Dad be the minister he would usually ask me to to’a whenever they would have a formal fai kava or a kalapu and of course viewing it as a great language, cultural and social opportunity I would always say yes to him. Of course, I also just found it hard to say no to this sweet little old minister. On a side note, just because the men keep the kava going until early in the morning does not mean that the to’a stays that late. I would usually head home between 12am and 1am.

During this second home stay I also got really sick! =( I still don’t know what it was from: food, a bug, weather, etc… Last Sunday afternoon I really did not feel that great so I went to take a nap around 3pm and almost slept the entire night. The only reason I didn’t was because, well besides a phone call from Mom, I had a really high fever. I was sweating but had the chills so I was curled up in a blanket and I had a pounding headache. And to make things better my stomach was really mad at me. I just tired to rest and sleep the rest of the night and see if I was okay to make it to school the next morning. In the morning not feeling really normal but okay I toughed it out and went. When I got home I went straight to bed and did not move from there all night. I had another even worse fever, chills and headache. My host Mom was so worried about me. She took really good care of me. She made sure I took my pills every 4 hours, gave me wet washcloths, and tired to feed me but my stomach just would not have been able to handle it. Tuesday I decided that I would just stay home from training and language classes to rest. It helped a lot! The fever has not come back but my stomach is still not back to normal. But I think that is just part of traveling to a different country.

Saying good-bye to this host family was just as hard as the first one even though we only spend two weeks with them. It is amazing how much someone can really have an impact in your life in such a short period of time. As I was saying good-bye to my host Mom she told me that her husband never had any daughters and she can tell that he really views me as his daughter and that it is really hard for him to let me go. And I noticed it too saying good-bye to him, his eyes really spoke wonders. He knows who the minister is in Tungua so he wrote a letter for him to watch over me and keep me safe. I am really going to miss him and his wife!!