A day in the life of Hina

I don’t think I have explained what type of work I do here in my island. When I received my description of what I would be doing…my main job was to help the youth develop their business skills. I would also help teach at the school, help the local fisherman with their businesses and help the weavers sell their mats. My work seems to follow that description somewhat. You have to keep in mind that we work on island time, so something that would normally take me a couple of days to accomplish now takes me a couple of weeks. When I first arrived here it was summer time for them. So school was out and there were a lot of families visiting and lots of things to do night and day and of course….no work. It was really nice because it gave me some time to get to know the community, work on my language and get used to island life. My work really started in the beginning or middle of January. I started at the school for just an hour everyday half an hour with grades 1, 2 and 3 and half an hour with grades 4, 5 and 6 helping them with English. The rest of my time was filled with just hanging out with the youth and doing all the chores round my house. Like doing my laundry...by hand takes about an hour or so and that is just for a small load. Some of the other chores are: bringing water into my house, washing dishes, and sweeping. Everything here seems to take twice as long to accomplish. So far working with the youth…they have decided on a business to start, I helped them write up a business plan and apply for a grant to help with the start up costs. Right now we are just waiting on the grant committee to meet and approve our grant. The youth want to start a ‘gas station’. But of course there will be no pumps like we are used to seeing when we think of a gas station. There will be 205 liter drums full of the gas and oil for their boats and lawn mowers and kerosene for the lanterns. This will not only help our community but also the neighboring islands that are inhabited.

I have also helped a man in the community who wanted to start a store write up a business plan. I have also started what you could call a mini kindergarten. One day I saw one of the little granddaughter’s of my family writing on a piece of cardboard and asked her over to my house to help here practice her writing. Well that has turned into having 3 little girls from the community, all will be going to grade 1 next year, come to my house for about 2 hours and we practice writing, recognizing and singing the Tongan alphabet and numbers.

Currently, I am trying to get a first aid training here for the community. When ever they have a cut, a head ace or something wrong they always come to my house looking for me to help them. I am not supposed to use my Peace Corps medical supplies to help them so I try and do my best with their requests. I am usually able to help them at least until they can get to Ha’afeva to see the doctor. Here in Tonga going to the doctor and all supplies are free to them. So it is just a matter of getting the knowledge on how to best care until they can get to the doctor.

Here is what my typical day looks like:
6:30 – 7:30 am Wake up
7:30 – 8:30 am Getting ready for the day
(showering, bring in water, eating, if doing laundry get it ready)
8:30 – 10:30 am Helping teach English at the school
10:30am – 12:00 pm Do chores around the house or prepare for the Kindy class
12:00 – 2:00 pm Kindergarten
2:00 – rest of day Study Tongan, go to youth meetings, go to weaving group meetings,
work with the youth if they are mowing lawns, play basketball or go running, cook, read,
chores, go to community events, or just hang out with the youth or at the family’s house
that helps me, oh yeah, or watch movies if someone turns on their generator.
10:00 – 11:00 pm Go to sleep