You've Got Mail

In today’s day and age a service that us, Americans don’t even have to think twice about. The internet and what we now call ‘snail mail’, is in our everyday life and occurs with as little effort as breathing. When I joined the Peace Corps and first moved to my island it still was something that I did not really give any thought to. Not because I was being naïve but rather it was just a service that you never really have to think much about, it just arrives, everyday. Mail….well mail just comes….somehow….right?? Something that is so basic and in our everyday lives, weather it be the little window that pops up at the bottom right side of your screen or the box you check when you get home from work, it just always occurs with little to no effort from ourselves….especially those bills we would rather not receive at all. Well…how DO you get mail when you live on a little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?? Let me explain….

The post office system here is a lot different, it is not run by the government it is a private organization. Not everyone here can receive mail. To get mail you have to buy a post office box, which does not sound that far fetched except for the fact that is a little difficult to obtain or maintain if you do not live on the main islands. But that is where family or friends comes in handy. But of course for us Peace Corps Volunteers it is a little easier for us. So, how it works for me…once the Peace Corps office receives a box for me they will give me a call and let me know that they will put it on the boat, Pulupaki, the next time it leaves. Once they pay to have to package taken to Tungua they give me a call to let me know which crew member will be taking care of the box.

So ideally when I head out to the boat when it arrives in Tungua I just find the crew member and he hands over my box. Yeah, well….not exactly!! Majority of the time my phone service does not work so I don’t really know that I have a package on the boat until I am sitting in my house working listening to the radio and an announcement comes for ‘Hina, Peace Corps in Tungua to get your box off the Pulupaki when it arrives in Tungua.’ Oh! Okay!! Or...when the boat arrives at 4am, in the dark morning, and you find the crew member who is supposed to be ‘taking care’ of my box really has no idea what I am talking about. So I just have to go find it myself. Which really is not at difficult as it might sound since Tongans don’t have boxes that are red, white and blue and say ‘US Post Office Service’.

So how exactly do we get out to the boat? Well that is a good question…there is no wharf on the island that the large boat is able to dock due to the coral reef around the entire island. So what happens is that when we see the boat arrive on the horizon we get into the little fishing boats and head out to the deep sea to meet the Pulupaki.
Technically, the boat does not ‘stop’ in Tungua. We are just in their path to Ha’afeva and the captain’s wife comes from our island, so we get a special ‘stop’. The reason I have quotes on ‘stop’ is because it is not really a real stop. The boat just stops its engines in the middle of their path and we only get 15 minutes. There are usually anywhere between 5 to 10 boats that head out to meet the boat. When the Pulupaki comes to a full stop they open the doors on the bottom deck and it is a race to get everything unloaded arriving from Tonga and reloading things to head up to other islands.
As you can see here, there are people that are getting onto the Pulupaki while someone else’s luggage is being passed down for someone who is coming to Tungua. Typically the boat leaves the capital island Nuku’alofa at 10pm and arrives in Tungua about 4 or 5am. In this picture the boat was off schedule, but usually all of this happens in the pitch black of night. So once I get my packages off the boat (just to put your minds at ease, I have always received all of my packages) and travel back to the island…I get to sit down and feel like it is Christmas morning. =)