Bucket Baths by Candle Light

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted anything. After two months of living on my island I have finally made it back to civilization and the internet. =)

I am sure the first think you are all wondering is: how my island is? Simple answer….I love it!! =D The people are really nice and have welcomed me into their lives with arms wide open. On the island we do not have electricity or running water. Almost all of the houses have solar power that provides them with light at night. My house does not have solar power, but I was told that my house was on a list to get solar power installed maybe in March. (I guess it is a government funded project to provide all the outer island houses with solar power and they will be coming back through to all the houses that did not get it installed the first time through.) All the churches and about 10 families have generators that they use to watch movies and charge their phones. It is actually a really funny event when they watch movies. When one family turns on their generator every one knows about it and will go over to watch the movie or just bring their phone to be charged. So you will walk into the house and it will be filled with about 20 or so people watching the movie. Oh, and you can’t forget all the people standing outside looking in through the windows. The one plug now has about 3 or 4 power strips plugged into it and each slug is filled with cell phones and there is a line of phones to be next. But I always get special treatment…no matter whose house I go to, once I walk in the door they always magically find an empty plug for me to use. At my house I have two kerosene lanterns that I use to do everything from cooking to taking a bucket bath at night. The youth that I work with have a generator that I can use whenever I want, but gas is very expensive so I have not used it yet. With that being said, I have not really been able to use my computer to write down my experiences. So I am sitting here in one of the other PC Volunteer’s house on a Sunday finally have electricity without having 20 or so Tongans around. I will do my best to account for all the exciting experiences I have had so far.

The first couple of weeks on my island was full of hanging out with the community, playing volleyball with the youth, lots of eating, and getting to know everyone. During the Holidays a lot of family from all over Tonga and the ones who moved away to New Zealand come back home and spend about a month or more with their family. For the first month I was kept really busy, there was always something to do or some type of event to go to. One day we took a boat ride to a neighboring island to have a kaitunu (picnic). A bunch of the youth and I just get into a boat and head over to a different island. It took about 45 mins to get there and as soon as we got there some of the boys went out to go fishing. Below is a picture of what the boys brought back. So no need to bring food with us on a picnic just go out and catch some fish. =)

Here are some of the youth cleaning the fish getting ready to cook some of it and preparing the rest of it to eat ota (raw). Oh yeah, no need for napkins, plates or anything of that nature...that is what the trees and leaves are for.

So being the only single girl on the island who is not related to anyone on the island the youth always want me to tou'a (serve kava) for them. Well this time I just took picutes for you all to see..no serving this time. As you can see in the picture the kava bowl and the cups that are used. If you look in the background of the picture you can also see a couple of the men with guitars. All the men will sing while about 3 or 4 of them play the guitar. I really love it when they sing...I always tell them that they need to sing if I am going to tou'a...it is the only form of entertainment for me. =)

My island being so small (about 1 mile by 3/4 of a mile), you are able to walk around the entire island in about less than 2 hours. Below is a picture from the first time I walked around the island with a couple of the youth from the island. It was high tide when we decided to go and I took my camera of course so there was some points where unless I wanted to get wet we had to do some climbing. Which was fine until....I got stung by 2 wasps: one on my left big toe and the other on my hip. Oh man did it hurt!! This picture was taken on the opposite side of the island from where we live. The beaches have a lot more rocks. If it is low tide you are able to walk around the entire island without getting wet.

Sports Day!! There are about 4 other inhabited islands along with Tungua. Once a year they have something called a sports day where the other islands come and the women play basiketi bolo (basketball) and the men play volleyball. Below are pictures of both sports, volleyball is played just the same as it is in America. Basketball on the other hand is very different. As you can see below there is no court and the hoops are completely different. Once the girl with the ball is in the half circle no one can block her but she cannot move from the sport she caught the ball.

Funny story about this picture. Right after I took that picture I felt like the ball was going to hit me so I moved a little to the right and the ball hit me on my left arm. I was so thankful that it did not hit my camera.

Our only source of water on the island is rain water that gets collected from the roof tops and put into a simivai (cement water). When I arrived my house did not have a simivai. I had just been using the simivai at the church hall next to my house. The youth told me that they would move one of the unused simivais from around the village to my house. So about 6 weeks or so of being there they finally organized themselves and moved a simivai to my house. The picutes below kind of show the process it took to do such a thing when you have no equipment just man power.

First you have dig it up so that you can fit palm tree trunks underneath it to be able to roll it.

Next you need the man power of....oh lets say about.......the whole village!! and the only truck me have on the island.

It took us about 2 hours or more to move the simivai about 50/60 yards. It was a slow process since each time you moved it just a little you had to take the tree trucks from the back and place them in the front and then move the simivai. It was such an amazing site to see and the teamwork was absolutly amazing!! I am very thankful that everyone came to help, men, youth, women, children and even some of the elders. I was really touched!

Sorry that was not able to be as detailed in my stories as usual and there are lots more stories I was not able to write about this time. I will try to be a little more disciplined in writing some of them down after they happen and just type them up when I come into town. I am glad that I was able to post the pictures for you all to see.

Thank you for your support, love and prayers. They mean more to me than you know. Hope all is well in your lives. I will be back into Nuku'alofa in about a month for training so look for some more pictures and hopefully lots of stories. =)

WELCOME TO TUNGUA!!!

Here is my island!! This picure was taken from a neighboring island that I went to with the youth of my island to have a kaitunu (picnic).

Here is my house!! =)

The youth made this sign for me so when i was arriving in the boat I could see the welcome sign from the water. I was really touching!

Here is the front of my house. My house used to be the town clinic built by the U.S. Army about 7 or 10 years ago. For whatever reason the clinic closed and now it is my house. It is really nice inside...very American...it is two bedrooms, a storage room and the bathroom and shower are inside.

Pictures

Here are some pictures that I tried to upload before I left for my island but the internet was not cooperating. They are picutes from during training and our swearing in ceremony. Enjoy! =)

Susana and Ana - two girls from my village in Tu'anekivale

The boys from my village in Tu'anekivale. They were really excited to have their picutes taken while they were jumping. Right after they jumped in the water they would come running to me to see the picture.

A sunset in Tu'anekivale


My first homestay family in Tu'anekivale. This is about half of the family...everyone else was at work.

The children from the family. Just a bunch of cute little energetic kids!


At my host family's stores before they took me to the airport.

Ana and Me. She is the little girl who would just walk with me no matter where I was heading to in Tu'anekivale. She was always very quite but always smiling. =D

Ha'ano - staying with Grant (another volunteer) for a week during training. This is his view from his house.

My second homestay family: Kei and To'a (both wearing black). Another volunteer and her host mom.

All the girls of Group 74 at Swearing in. We all had our traditional formal clothes on that our hostfamilies made us at some point in our training. The swearing in ceremony was at a beautiful resort west side of Tongatapu.

Peace Corps Tonga Group 74 - Our whole group at the swearing in ceremony with the prime minister.