Culture Day

                Our Culture Day was last month but I didn’t get a chance to post any of the pics or write about so I’m doing it now.  When we arrived at our home stays, each village was assigned some cultural assignments for our Culture Day.  Each village had to learn a different Tongan dance, how to cook different Tongan foods, teach some members of our village something American (i.e. song, dance, etc.).  On top of these, all the men had to weave their own kafa, which is a belt for our taovalas that is made out of the husks of coconuts.  Also all the women had to weave their own kiekie’s which is kind of like a hanging belt (Check out the pics). 

                Our village was assigned to learn the maululu which is a sitting down dance.  We had to practice about 4 times and it was quite the pain in the ass but it went pretty well.  We cooked an assortment of Tongan dishes.  My dish was otaika (raw fish) and it was delicious.  I didn’t actually make it like I was supposed to, but it’s probably my favorite Tongan food.  Its raw fish which is cut up with peppers, coconut milk and lime.  We didn’t actually teach anyone from our community anything American but I was able to pull the part of the presentation off by bringing my two year old homestay brother Leki up on stage with me.  He already knows how to answer basic English questions like “What is your name?” and “How old are you?”  So for example when I asked him “How old are you?” he replied “2!” It’s more of him memorizing what he should say when he hears the question rather than him understanding the questions, so as long as I asked the questions in English with a Tongan accent he was able to answer. I took him on stage with me and told everyone that I taught my 2-year old brother to speak English, which was a lie because his parents taught him but most of the people didn’t know that.  He did great, he answered the questions and it was really cute.  

In Tonga when a dance is being performed, people will walk up on stage and stick money to them to show their appreciation.  The other dances have you all oiled up so that you can slap the bills on the skin.  Luckily the Maululu doesn't have any oil involved.

Me standing awkwardly all dressed up for the maululu

Action shot of the Maululu

Walking up the stage with Leki

Another Fotua group shot

Crowd pic.  You can see some of the food we all cooked for Culture Day on the tables

Swearing In

               Sorry I haven’t posted anything for awhile but I’ve been pretty busy and not near a computer too much.  Yesterday was my first day at site as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  We all got sworn in on the 15^th back in Nuku’alofa.  We all arrived in the capital last Tuesday and we had a few days to do our shopping for our house.  Most people had to buy expensive things like refrigerators, stoves, and bikes but I was very fortunate to have that stuff all left to me by the Volunteer who use to be at my site.  My biggest purchases were a washing machine (300 pa’anga) and an arm chair (about 300 pa’anga).  The rest of my shopping was smaller things like pitchers, buckets, machete, etc.  Our things won’t arrive until Wednesday when the boat comes in. 

                The ceremony was pretty nice.  Peace Corps got a venue on the lagoon in Nuku’alofa.  The Japanese, Chinese, and New Zealand ambassadors attended as well as the head of the Anglican Church in Tonga and the guest of honor, the Minister of Education.  I read part of the opening hymn in Tongan.  We all said the oath together, which I believe is the same for all government employees, and then we were called up individually.  There was some food afterwards and then that was it and we were now volunteers.  Most of us finished up our shopping and everyone went out for a great night of partying to celebrate that night.  It’s a strange and great feeling to officially be a volunteer and to have my 2-years of service to have begun. 

                The other new volunteer here in Ha’apai and I arrived back here yesterday morning.  I was picked up by a man from my village who I believe is a minister in the Mormon Church in my village.  I cleaned up a little bit and started my community integration.  That’s basically my only priority as far as Peace Corps goes for the next month or so.  The summer holidays just began so school won’t start again until the end of January.  Now is the time where I practice my language more and meet everyone.  After I settled in again at my house, I went for a walk to go and start introducing myself.  It’s not really me introducing myself because everyone for the most part knows who I am.  It more like me going and greeting people and trying unsuccessfully to remember people’s faces and names.  I was lucky to stumble across a Wesleyan Bar B Q.  I was invited to join them.  They gave me some delicious chicken and manioke.  After I ate, I drank some kava with them for an or so and then went home.  With my community integration for the day done, I went spear fishing.  Before going to sleep I studied some Tongan for about an hour and watched a movie on my laptop.  I imagine that this will be roughly about my schedule for the next month or so.  I’d say day one as a volunteer was a success. 

The Diplomats (I'm pretty sure the Japanese guy in the middle nodded off for a bit)

Group 76 Fotua

Me reading the Tongan Hymn

The view of the lagoon from the stage

Me with Kelly (the Country Director, the head of the Anglican Church (right) and the Minister of Education in Tonga (Left)

Group 76

Some Teaching Pics

Here are some pics of my first day teaching and the last one is my home stay family portrait.  I'm going to get it framed and give it to them for Christmas to hang up.

Moving the benches and tables out of the way for the Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes song

Trying to teach possive pronouns with Tevita

Practicing the parts of the body. (I made the poster)

Activity where I said a body part and they had to point to the part. (This was nose lol)

Me shaping young minds haha

You can see part of the words for the song on the board behind me.

Home Stay Family Portrait 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

Today was our last day of our teaching practicum. Today I taught my students their left and right and some directions. We practiced by doing an exercise where I would tell them to jump, point, look, or step to the right, left, front, or back. After this we rehearsed singing Silent Night. There were 4 of us teaching classes this week at the Fotua Government Primary School. Two of us taught our students to sing Silent Night and the other two taught their students to sing Jingle Bells.
After we taught for about an hour and a half we all brought our students to the hall and we did a small recital where all the kids sang. Here are some pictures of the kids singing.

Class 4 and 5 kids singing Silent Night

Class 3 and 6 singing Jingle Bells

This week we taught our students pretty easy lessons. One reason was that for many of us it was our first time teaching our own class and teaching English. Another reason is that the students took all their tests a couple of weeks ago and summer starts next week so everyone is kind of coasting it. If we weren’t teaching them this week, the students would probably just be playing all day and practicing for their Culture Day on Monday. All the schools on this island and the surrounding islands are going to Pangai and performing Tongan dances and singing. We will get a chance to go and watch it.
Right now it’s Friday afternoon. We’re celebrating Thanksgiving Day tomorrow. Each village is in charge of cooking their own turkey and then we split up the different courses. So our village is in charge of desserts. We’re cooking carrot cake, sweet potato pie, caramel pie, and brownies. So we’re all going to a big hall with the food tomorrow morning and staying there till 2pm. Then we’re all going and drinking on the beach for the rest of the day. Should be fun. I’ll take pictures and post them here.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Check This Out

So Darren showed me how to embed videos on the blog.  Darren runs the dive shop down the road.  This is a video he made for his dive shop, Happy Ha'apai Divers.  I don't when I'll be able to post my own videos but hopefully it will be in the next couple of weeks.

Ha'apai Divers from Darren on Vimeo.

First Days of School

               This week we had our teaching practicum where we taught real classes.  I am teaching at the Fotua Government Primary School.  The school is about a ¼ mile down the road from me and I ride my bike there.  I was assigned to their class 5 class which is made up of 10 students who are around 10 years old.  We could teach anything we wanted for 2 hours.  That’s the cool thing about teaching English at the primary level.  You can pretty much teach whatever topic you want as long as it is in English.  I’m writing this on Tuesday night so I’ve had two days of classes so far. 

                I decided to start off with an easy topic for my first day of teaching so I chose to teach about the parts of the body.  We had written lesson plans that were supposed to last for the full 2 hours.  I was finished with everything I had planned about half way through.  However the lesson was a success as far as I was concerned.  The kids learned the 10 vocab words I wanted to teach them and they also learned the Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes song despite me screwing up the dance a few times.  So after an hour, when I had finished everything I had planned to do, I gave them a 15 minutes recess to go outside and do whatever.  When they came back we did another exercise where I pointed to a part of the body and they yelled out what I was pointing at.  Ex.) I would point to my nose and they would shout nose.  So with about 25 minutes left of class I tentatively asked, “Have you guys ever played Duck, Duck, Goose?” They replied with, “DUCK DUCK GOOSE!!!!!!”  It was a big hit and apparently one of their favorites.  The funny thing was that the class 1 and 2 kids (5 and 6 year olds) were let out early, so soon after our game started, the size of the circle was doubled in size to maximum capacity and around the circle was a larger circle of standing spectators.  It was wild.  I felt like I was at a cock fight or something lol.  It would become eerily quiet whenever someone was going around the circle saying duck but the second they said goose and the chase began, everyone would start screaming and cheering them on.  To add to the noise a few of the students had drum sticks on them and would start banging those too.  Also Tongan kids are tough.  They were sliding and diving on the concrete floor to get back to their place in time.  It was awesome.

                Today’s lesson went pretty much the same way with 10 new words about the parts of the body.  I planned it a little better and we didn’t run out of activities and I taught them how to sing and dance the Hokie Pokie which they loved.  I’m teaching again tomorrow morning and on Friday morning.  There is no school on Thursday because it is the first EVER Election Day in the Kingdom of Tonga.  For the first time in the country’s history there will be a democratic election for public officials.  It will be very interesting how the elections turn out and if there are any dramatic changes although none are anticipated.  However I’m sure that there will be many changes over the next 2 years. 

                We have less than 2 weeks left of our home stay and basically our training.  Training doesn’t officially end until December 15, when we get sworn in, but everyone is going to their sites on December 4^th and that will be pretty fun.  I’ll be staying here in beautiful Ha’apai.

11/4

Not much to write about.  This week is our last week of language classes.  Starting next week we will go to Faleloa (the village at the end of the island and where I’ll be living after training) everyday to receive our technical training.  From what I understand, we will be split up into the different sectors which we will be teaching.  So I will be grouped with the other primary school teachers.  Our main instructor will be Dora who just arrived this week from Bulgaria.  She has been a language teacher for Peace Corps for many years.  She is our teacher because our primary task is teaching English to our students. 

Today Laukau was driving into Pangai to go shopping I think, so some Peace Corps volunteers and I caught a ride with him.  I’m hopefully picking up my bike from Juleigh, one of the volunteers in Ha’apai.  Sarah (The volunteer who just left and who used to live in my house) left my bike with her, so it will be real nice to not have to walk and hitchhike everywhere. 

For the last few days it has been really hot here.  Yesterday was by far the hottest.  It felt that way anyway because we couldn’t do anything since it was Sunday.  We literally just sat around talking to each other, sweating.  I think it was probably only in the low 80’s but humidity is ridiculous. 

That’s all for now and here are some pics.

Homestay Bedroom

Homestay House

Homestay Living Room

My Homestay Mom, Lei

Our Bus