Kyledwards

5-4-06

A pretty big earthquake hit this morning.  During the shaking I was thinking about if a tsunami would be triggered.  I believed it to be highly doubtful, but after the devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean, I was worried for a little bit.  Almost everything that was on the exposed beams in the house fell to the ground.  Hearing everything crashing to the floor I was prepared for the house to come off its stilt style foundation, but it didn’t.

Once the shaking stopped I got out of bed and looked around the house.  During the shaking the electricity was knocked out and still is out.  I knew if a tsunami was going to hit it wouldn’t take long after the shaking.  I have no idea how fast they move, but I know it’s incredibly fast.  In Kolovai, which translates to water town, there would be very few places to get away from a tsunami.  The ocean flanks the East side of Kolovai about 400 yards from my house and the ocean on the west side is maybe a half-mile from my house.  This thin strip of land would have been destroyed if a tsunami passed like the one in the Indian Ocean.

Today is a holiday so I have no idea if there is devastation in Nuku’alofa.  I can see the church from my house and it’s still standing so I doubt much has been destroyed.  No buses are running today so I’m stuck in my village with a dead cell phone and no idea what’s happening beyond what I can see.  Life here doesn’t seem effected so I bet all is okay.

When the shaking was happening it brought memories back of the 1989 earthquake in the San Francisco Bay Area.  The ’89 earthquake seemed more powerful.  The earthquake that happened early this morning had a couple good jolts, but nothing like the one in ’89. I would assume the difference is because of the style of vault that runs along Tonga.  There is a massive seduction zone not far from Tonga.  I believe it’s the second deepest place ever found in the all the oceans.  The San Francisco Bay Area is on a right lateral strike slip fault (I can remember that from geology in college).  I did learn something in college!  I’d assume the difference in the plate configuration causes different kinds of earthquakes.

My mom and Sarah called me around 8am to make sure everything is fine.  I reassured them that nothing happened.  They told me that the earthquake made News in America.  They also mentioned that it hit 8 on the Richter scale and created a tsunami watch.  Shit, that’s a big quake.  I assume it maybe hit a high 6 or a low 7, but not an 8.  As for a tsunami watch, Tonga doesn’t have trash pickup so I didn’t expect to hear anything close to an alert.  The only warning I would get would be a massive amount of water annihilating everything in its path.

On a lighter note, I filmed a couple rugby games this past weekend.  The first one was a high school game and the second was the Tongan Reds verses the Samoans.  We only lost by one point this time.  It was a better game.

Tomorrow I’m starting my last vacation before I come home.  I plan on spending most of the time in Nuku’alofa and doing side trips to maybe ‘Eua and Ha’apai.  After the vacation my group will be having the Close of Service Conference.  It’s the last Peace Corps related function we have until we leave.

5-7-06

Cinco De Mayo.  Another occasion for volunteers to get together and celebrate.  Of course the celebration had nothing to do with defeating the French, but for pure shenanigans.  The party started pretty slow and never really got going, but some events unfolded that made it worth going.  For and for most the music selection was impressive.  I think I heard one bad song and the host said he didn’t pick it.  I wouldn’t argue because everything else was to perfection in the music department.

Since it was a south of the border holiday it wouldn’t be right not to bring a piñata.  It was made by a volunteer from my group and filled with all kinds of random things.  The idea behind the randomness was for shock value.  You know, stuff like condoms (two volunteers were trying to find them all…. Must be running out huh?), some went for the plastic baby doll with her face bashed in, others went for the candy, and most just stood around and didn’t give a hoot.  I personally saw them fill the piñata so I wanted the fireworks (I’ve got pyromania when it comes to piñatas).

I should also mention there was food.  I think we missed the prime cooking time, but I got in on a Arizona made chicken hot dog that wasn’t too burnt.  The chicken wasn’t bad either, but I try to stay away from chicken cooked by drunken people.

Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling up to par the next day to film the rugby game.  Today is Sunday and it’s Faka-me!  The day in church when all the kids are pimped (One volunteer teaches a girl named Pimpinella) out.  I remember it from last year, but I’m not in Kolovai so I might head over to the King’s church and take a couple photographs of the kids.  If I do there will be a picture for this journal entry.  If I remember correctly, this weekend is the children’s, the next will be the mother’s, and the following will be the father’s.  Tongan style shenanigans.

4-1-06

Generalist.  That’s what Peace Corps basically consist of in Tonga for the most part.  Almost all volunteers came to Tonga as generalists.  College, on its basic level, gave us some education in a certain area, but many lack the skills to apply years of experience in a field.  One volunteer is an environmental education graduate working at a kindergarten. Another is a criminal justice major teaching English.  We get put into positions that don’t need to skills we have learned.  It seems to me that if we applied for certain jobs before we came to the host country, our skills could be utilized.

The Australian Youth Ambassador program is this way.  They apply for a certain position in a database and they get selected for a certain position in the host country.  They get to use skills they know and they enter a job knowing what they will be doing.  Doesn’t seem like rocket science to me.  Peace Corps, at least in Tonga, seems like we get thrown into a position that is “close” to our skill set.

So do countries want generalists?  If I was in charge of a country I’d say no way.  Of course Peace Corps isn’t about the work, but about the experience.  But why would a country want to have a person come to have an experience?  Isn’t that taxing on the people and to government?   If I was in the position to run Tonga, I would get trained people in areas that will affect the most people.  Medical positions, teachers, technical people…  Not generalist.  Unfortunately, most college graduates are generalist.  Experience is lacking with many volunteers in everything we do.  My primary and secondary projects all deal with information technology.  I fortunately studied the basics in college, but most everything I do here I didn’t learn in college.  I either acquired the skills on my own time or I learned them here.  I didn’t come to Tonga to learn more about Information Technology, but to teach people information Technology.  Of course, you never stop learning in an information technology position, but I didn’t come to gain skills.  I’m not complaining about gaining skills.  It will allow me to get valuable experience.  I’ve told many people that in America I would never have the position I have here.  Most start off in a junior level position not a full blown systems administrator (what I do most of the time).

So why doesn’t Peace Corps change its focus so volunteers help in a way they know best?  It seems like it a waste of people power.  Yeah, two thirds of the Peace Corps goals are to understand the culture and share our own.  One third is to work.  It seems kind of backwards to me.  I found out a couple weeks ago that we are only supposed to work 16 hours a week in our primary project.  Oops, I work about 25 hours a week in Kolovai and at least 12 to15 in Nuku’alofa at either the Tonga Broadcasting Commission or The Tonga National Youth Congress.  I guess the rest of the time we’re supposed to share our culture and learn theirs.  My bad… I’m trying to work and get something accomplished.  Yeah, you can argue that hanging out with the people could make a big impact too.  It does, but at the end of two years how did the people benefit.  Is there anything that can be measured?  No.  Seeing smiles is worth a lot, but I personally feel applying skills I’ve learned will make the largest impact.  And if it’s possible to measurable your impact it’s great.  I’ve kept a spreadsheet since the day I’ve opened the computer center in Kolovai.  There is some data I wish I would have gathered from the beginning, but for the most part I know who is using the computer center, how many people have used it, and if it’s making money.  Most everything I’ve done is measurable.  I think almost every volunteer potentially could measure their impact.  Once the volunteer leaves I think the numbers should be looked at to see if the project was a success or not.  If not, give it one more chance, but after that it should be scraped and something else should be tried.  This matters on what kind of project.  If it is something that shouldn’t be stopped then keep it going.  Some projects will take a long time to see change. Some will always need volunteers.  But some projects are dead from the start.  Unfortunately, I think computer centers are ahead of their time here.  It’s too expensive to keep a computer center going.  In the future, when prices on telecommunications drop it will be a wonderful project.  Right now it’s a money pit.

Peace Corps is a organization that focuses on basic needs.  Computers are becoming an integral part of living on the planet, but I see basic needs here in Tonga that isn’t being met.  The focus is off.  A shift needs to take place so people in Tonga gain knowledge that is more basic than computers.  A generalist volunteer might make an impact, but if you want change get the right tool for the job.  A swiss army knife potentially could hammer a nail, but isn’t a hammer a better choice?

4-15-05

Today I photographed my first rugby games.  The conditioned weren’t the greatest, but I made due with a plastic bag I found on the ground.  It was pouring at the beginning of the men’s game and slowly diminished as it came to a close.  The women’s game was high and dry. It never stopped raining during the men’s game so I was completely soaked.  The Tonga Broadcasting Commission granted me field level access.  How did I get that kind of access?  It doesn’t hurt designing their spanking new website.

When I arrived the head technician Solo greeted me, promptly got me through the gates and told me the female Fujian and Samoan teams were playing.

The light wasn’t great.  I was shooting ISO 400, with a shutter of 1000, and with an F-stop at f4.  As the time past I was forced to decrease the shutter speed to about 500th of a second, then switched the ISO 800.  An evil setting on my 10D, but some images can be usable if the focus is tack sharp.  Another downfall of the 10D: the focus is slow compared to the newer canon models.  Oh I dream of a 1D mark II n and some 2.8 glass. I only have a 10D, 70-200 f4L, and 17-40 f4L in Tonga.

When I got back home I quickly reviewed the photos to see if I got any good ones.  I didn’t chimp on the field because the plastic bag wasn’t going to allow for a good view of the sharpness anyway.  And looking through a plastic bag into the viewfinder wasn’t the greatest either.  I could barely read the metering levels so I switched to using my light meter.  I’m amazed I got any images off now I think about it.

The rain was hampering my ability to get good images and the players weren’t able to play on a level they probably would have liked.  It was muddy, cold, and raining hard for almost half the game.  Constantly, players were getting water squirted into their eyes because they were getting clogged with mud.  Injured players was the norm.  Ankles seem to be getting twisted a lot.  I know rugby players can wear huge cleats and in that kind of rain I bet they had huge ones on.  Probably why so many ankles were getting twisted.

So what did I learn from filming rugby?  Number one, is be prepared for a Tongan rainstorm.  I found a plastic bag that actually worked great.  Duct tape helped a lot keeping the bag around the lens barrel. I wish I brought the lens hood because that would have kept rain off the front of the lens, but I didn’t bring it to Tonga.  Bring Tape. Lucky the Tonga Broadcasting Commission gave me some duct tape.  I should have brought my own.  A rain jacket would have been a good idea, but it was a warm rain so it didn’t bother me much.

Also, having a basic understand of the game would have helped me.  Most of the time it seemed like a punch of massive Samoans and Tongans running around trying to hurt each other.  Unlike football, there is no obvious offense and defense.  It’s a huge cluster fuck as far as I’m concerned, but after awhile I started catching on to what was happening.

Also, the game never stops unless for a time out or an injury.  Getting a good position to get the players facing me was not easy. I was surprised how often misdirection plays were used.  In football the open side of the field is usually played because the amount of field to work with is greater, but rugby doesn’t seem to follow that kind of design.  It was a challenge to capture plays because I was expecting the teams to shovel pass the ball down the lines they formed, but many times it went the other way with a player bulling his way into the opposing team.

This is the beginning of the season so I’m hoping to photograph every game so I can get more practice. I should mention that my 10D past the 10,000 shutter mark today. Well, it’s on its second shutter, but not bad for a corroding 2.5 year old camera. I’m amazed it’s lasted this long in such a humid and salty environment.

4-17-06

I spent the weekend in Nuku’alofa.  Easter in Tonga is celebrated by camping at church.  I wanted no part.  I’m at the point of not really caring about learning anything more about the Tongan culture.  I’ve said before that two years is not long enough to experience a culture in every way, but after two years I’m finished with it.  I will not gain from going to another funeral, Sunday Church, or any other cultural practice.  Yes, I will show my respect, but I will not go out of my way anymore.  I might seem selfish, but after I had a meeting with my supervisors and the Peace Corps Country Director and Associate Peace Corps Director, I can honestly say I’ve done enough.

The meeting happened last week.  It was scheduled so both sides could meet each other. I’ve been in Kolovai for 19 months and it’s the first time it has happened.

I don’t expect Peace Corps to do this all the time, but it would be nice if both sides had some accountability.  Making sure goals and expectations were met.  As a Peace Corps volunteer, it’s our job to make things work.  It’s not the Peace Corps staff’s job.  Maybe I’m wrong, but that is how it works here.  I’m left alone with my projects with very little feed back from Peace Corps and the village.  Most of the time I get no feedback from Peace Corps not because they don’t want to give it, but because I don’t ask for it.  The village doesn’t do anything to help me.  Yeah, the village looks after my wellbeing, but that’s pretty much it.

So the meeting was an interesting one.  Before the meeting, I sent both the country director and the associate country director questions that I’d like them to ask.  Questions like “Who works with Kyle and how often,” “Do you have regular contact with Kyle?  Meetings? A committee?,”and  “What will happen to the computer center when Kyle leaves?”  My supervisors were not able to answer most of the questions. Well, the last one they could and their solution was to get another Peace Corps volunteer.  It was pathetic! Kolovai hasn’t kept their end of the bargain to learn from me or to help me with the computer center.

At this point, the associate country director told my supervisors what needs to be done if they want another volunteer.  Fortunately, the associate country director sees eye to eye with me that computer centers are not working anywhere in the Kingdom.  They’re a dead project.  So Kolovai needs to come up with a project that everybody in the community will take part in and the Volunteer will not be the Atlas supporting the project.  I for one do not want another volunteer to be a slave to the computer center.

One of the main reasons Kolovai has been getting so many volunteers, I believe, is because of the royal family.  Some of the royals are nobles in Kolovai.  Before the newest associate country director there was a Tongan running my program.  He is a very important man in Tonga, has connections everywhere, and is good friends with the nobles in my village.  You wonder how Kolovai has acquired so many volunteers.  I can tell you it’s not because there are successful projects in the village.  I’m not the only volunteer in Kolovai now.  I’ve never heard of a village having two volunteers outside of the main cities (except for married volunteers).  If you don’t think the royal family and nobles have influence where Peace Corps volunteer go you’re drinking to much kava.  It should change now becasue the project I’m a part of with Peace Corps has changed. The largest change is a palangi runs the show now.   I don’t think he’ll be influenced was easily as a Tongan.  I don’t mean that Tongans are weak, but have obligations within their culture to please people.  By giving volunteers, the Tongan staff is looking mighty good in front of the royals and nobles.  A selfish act, but welcome to the real world.

So where does this leave me?  I will continue to run the computer center like always, but you better believe I will not go out of my way.  I’ve stopped cleaning the outside of the center to see if anybody in the village will help me.  I don’t expect them to start fixing computers, but I see no reason why they can’t help me with the easy work.

You must understand the most frustrating part of the meeting was when my supervisors asked for another Peace Corps slave.  Slave might be a little harsh, but sometimes it feels like it when people take no interest in your work, want everything without giving anything, and are worried about if they will get another volunteer. Maybe they should worry about the volunteer they have at the moment.

4-19-06

Yesterday I heard through the grape vine that Peace Corps volunteers are stuck on a volcano island called Tofua in Ha’apai.  Usually, about two times a year a trip is planned to Tofua.  This is the first time I’ve ever heard of problems.  Starting last Saturday the weather turned sour.  High winds and heavy down pours have occurred.  The storm finally blew down the phone line to the computer center.

The volunteers are stuck basically in the middle of nowhere and Peace Corps is desperately looking for a boat to go get them.  No Tongan boat will do it, the Tongan Navy boat is being repaired, and the original boat that took them there was lost at sea.  Fortunately, the people on that boat were rescued. The sea is too rough to attempt a rescue.

I almost went on the trip, but decided not to because I had a funny feeling about it.  Not that anything bad would happen, but after Tessa’s funeral I’m kind of hesitant to do anything around a lot of volunteers.  Don’t get me wrong, most of the volunteers are awesome people, but when you get a group of them together it’s not my kind of party.

So hopefully the volunteers will get rescued soon.  I doubt they will go hungry and die of thirst.  There is a water tank I’ve been told on the island as well as locally grown food.  They can always eat coconuts and drink the innards.  They will get fakalele, but so did Tom Hanks.

So today was the start of sport thing.  I say thing because I have no idea what its official name is.  I didn’t go today, but Friday I plan on going to get a couple pictures.  From what I’ve heard, the event is purely track and field.  I hear it’s fun to go because a lot of people turn out.  Well, mostly youth, but that’s why I’m in Tonga: to support the youth.

I’ll write about it this weekend and have a couple photos too.

4-24-06

Today was the final day of the sporting competition for all the high schools and colleges in Tonga.  I was very impressed with the athletes.  I believe this is the 128th year of the event.  I could be wrong, but I swear they said that over the loud speaker.  It seems guys and girls were represented pretty well across all the events except I didn’t see any girls doing the pole vault.  I wonder why?

Most of the time I wondered around taking photos of the different events as the day unfolded.  Unfortunately, almost every event had the sun directly behind the athletes and I didn’t have any batteries for my flash.  Well, I did, but they died within minutes.  I thought I charged them?  Maybe my rechargeable batteries finally died.

Probably the most exciting events to watch for me personally were the pole vault or jumping events.  I’m not a big fan of watching people run around in circles.  I like the sprinting events and relays, but not anything to do with distance.  It’s like watching cars/horses/dogs/whatever go in circles.

Oh I almost forgot the mention the crazy fans.  Almost entirely made up of students, the crowd was out of control.  Sometimes, I’d have to glance over at the crowd and watch some crazy group of kids doing something outlandish.  Nothing to crazy, but it made everybody smile and laugh, including me.

So this was the first time I’ve photographed a track and field event.  What did I learn?  Well, for one, I should have brought batteries that work.  I hate buying non-rechargeable batteries here because you cannot throw them away.  I see way to many batteries all over the place leaking acid.  I won’t contribute to that even though I missed 80% of my photographs because the sun was turning all the athletes faces to a nice shade of black.  That 80% includes the incredibly slow auto focus on my 10D.  I can’t believe how many out of focus shots I got.  I never use the AI servo on my camera, but I tried it out to see if it could keep up.  It couldn’t.  I’ll hopefully be upgrading to something that can capture sports better.  I enjoy using my 10D but most of the time if I need to shot something moving at a relatively fast pace towards or away from me it’s worthless.

So not much else is happening in Tonga.  I’ll be taking a 17 days vacation in less than two weeks.  I’m actually not going anywhere.  I’m leaving my village, but I’m staying on the main island.  I might head over to ‘Eua for a weekend, but I’m not sure yet.

After my vacation, my group (67), will be having our final Peace Corps hoop to jump through.  I have no idea what happens during the COS conference except for resume help, talking about what we’ve done with our projects, our options after we leave, and of course a little craziness.  We are all staying at a hotel a little outside of Nuku’alofa, so it should make for an interesting time.

So I also photographed another rugby game this weekend.  It was the same Samoan team against a different Tongan team.  Unfortunately we lost again, but it was a better game.  Most of the time the Samoan team controlled the ball, but the Tongan team did get one fantastic score.  Thankfully, it wasn’t raining cats and dogs this time so I was able shot without a plastic bag over my camera.

Also, the same Samoan girls team that played last weekend played against the Tongan girls team.  The Tongan girls got completely smoked by the Samoan girls.  It was embarrassing.  I couldn’t believe how dirty the Tongan girls were playing.  I saw many punches thrown and at the end of the game the Tongan girls attacked the referee.  They threw mud at him and tried to force him to the ground.  It of course was not meant to be mean, but I don’t think the referee was happy being pelted by dirt clods.  Not too sportsmen like, but I wouldn’t expect more from watching the Tongan girls punching the apposing team.

3-1-06

February turned out to be the crazy month. So much happened, I barely had time to sit down and mull over the events.  I still haven’t had a lot of time to reflect, but I feel the need to write down my thoughts.

February first brought serious tragedy.  Tessa Horan’s passing is still causing grief here today, but many have come to terms with her passing.  Today marks a month since the shark in Vava’u took her life.  Many did not know her, like myself, so I felt it necessary to support the people who did and help them in any way possible.  Small things were noticed and I was thanked many times.  I must mention that a few in Tessa’s group were very unhappy how the events unfolded.  Tessa’s passing was treated in Tonga like a Tongan funeral.  The Peace Corps Tonga staff poured every once of energy and love into every aspect of Tessa’s passing.  The staff, once again in Tonga, deserves a thank you from me, the rest of the volunteers in Tonga, and Peace Corps as a whole.  I can’t forget Kelly: the Regional Safety Officer (I think that’s her title) did an amazing job.

At first, I was upset at what was taking place because the funeral was the Tongan way.  Tongans deal with death differently and sometimes it seems kind of harsh in my eyes.  We all deal with someone dying a little bit differently in America, but here, there seems to be a standard way of dealing with death: a cultural procedure if you will.  I will not go into details of the events that take place, but what I’ve observed thus far in Kolovai and with Tessa’s funeral is they all seem very similar.  It starts off usually at the hospital with prayers in the morning and at night.  The body might be moved to a mortuary if people from over seas are coming.  Prayers and staying with the body all day and night continue until the last night before the body is buried.  The last night, people sing hymns all night until the funeral procession is started.  A funeral service is given and ten days after the people mourn at the person’s house.  It’s an exhausting experience just going to 10% of the activities happening.  I don’t know how the Tongans do it.  Of course they think it’s very disrespectful to do anything else when somebody dies, but I believe life goes on and we cannot stop everything.  For the most part, they understand that we palangis deal with death differently.  I know the Peace Corps staff understands that now.

As I mentioned before many people in group 70 were/are upset how things unfolded.  At first I was upset how things were handled because the funeral was the Tongan way.  I assumed it would be handled in the American way while she was here and would return to her family ASAP.

Again, I think we all deal with death differently so forcing people to do it a certain way with somebody they are close to is not right.  Tessa’s passing was the first Tongan funeral for group 70.  For them, I think, they felt like Peace Corps staff and volunteers were using it as a training exercise for them.  Wear this, don’t do this, do that, and more.  It was an emotional time for everybody here.

Almost a week after Tessa’s passing, a category one cyclone pasted by every island group in the Kingdom.  Consolidation of all the volunteers in every island group happened just for safety.  Sarah and I stayed at the Peace Corps headquarters with the rest of the Tongatapu volunteers.  Basically the two days were filled with movies, hanging out, and sleep.  I did comment about it a little last month so I won’t go into details.  I can only imagine a category three, four, or five cyclone.  This place would get shredded.

The last event that happened for me here is Sarah left for America.  Unfortunately, she will not be returning.  We both were able to share the Tongan experience together.  I think if she never came there would be a hole in our relationship.  It’s impossible to truly paint a picture of your experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer.  I hope, over time, I’ll be able to explain my experience to my family.  This journal is a weak attempted.  I probably write down 1% of what is happening around me.  From watching youth getting wasted to the smell of airport the bathroom.  There is infinite detail I can go into, but impossible to convey.  Sarah had the ability to live as a Peace Corps volunteer without being one.  We will not have a gap in our relationship.  Yeah, I’ve spent more time here, but that doesn’t make to big difference.  Some people understand it a lot faster than others or they have somebody to help them understand.  Sarah had a condensed version of Tonga and she learned an incredible amount. We are very fortunate to have had the opportunity to be together in Tonga.

3-4-2006

The telephone line at the computer center has been down for over two weeks now.  I have no idea if it will get fixed.  Hopefully this month TCC will get around to fixing it.  People that use the computer center are starting to get upset.  I think it’s funny because they are so pissed off.  Do they realize that I will be leaving one day and the center will most likely close because nobody has bothered to learn what I can teach them?  Do they realize Kolovai is lucky to have a computer center?  There are less than 5 in the entire kingdom (outside of a main city).  I’ve been in Kolovai for 19 months now and there is a serious dependency issue.  They truly do not care to learn or help. I’m amazed I have stayed in Kolovai this long.  So many other volunteers have left their village that I’m bummed I didn’t so I could work with people that want to learn.

The youth that was selected in Kolovai to become a Tonga National Volunteer never showed up for her interview at the Tonga National Youth Congress office.  So Kolovai will not be getting a TNV to continue running the Computer center when I leave.  What’s new?

The other day I reread an issue of worldview magazine.  The topic was HIV and AIDS and it made me think that Peace Corps shouldn’t be in Tonga.  I’ve written about this in the past and I still believe it’s true.  The entire population of Tonga equals about 100,000 people. That many people die in Africa every 13 days.  Africa has some serious problems that could use every volunteer in Tonga today.  I can’t comment about other Peace Corps countries, but Tonga is a country that needs to be closed.  Place the volunteers where people really need the help.  Not some island nation where people are not starving, not dying of AIDS, and have very little to worry about because family/churches/organizations overseas sends over $200 million American dollars a year.  That’s $2000 dollars for every man, women, and child in Tonga.  That could give a lot of people in Africa, dying of AIDS, the needed drugs to stay alive.  Instead, the money is spent on a big screen TV here in Tonga so people can watch TV all day and not worry about getting a job because family/churches/organizations will give them money eventually.  Trust me, I’m not the only one that thinks like this.  A man that lives close to me has said the same thing.  He is sick of watching people do nothing but wait for their family to send money.  This man had a meeting with the nobles from our village to get youth to help him farm.  He has more farmland than anybody else in Kolovai.  Not one youth offered to help him.  I’m not the only one that sees a lot of people doing nothing.  But why should they do anything?  They have very little worries here.  Like I said, nobody is starving or dying of AIDS here.  Pull out Peace Corps and redirect the money to a place people need help.

End Rant….

A women just came by my house to ask if I could type something for her on the computer. I told her, “I will not type it. It’s not my job to type, but to teach people to type. Have a youth come by the center tonight at six and they can type it for you. I will help them if they need it.” People here think I became a Peace Corps Volunteer to type for them?

3-10-06

Not often, but sometimes you’ll catch somebody wearing a shirt saying something that is hilarious.  Well, I think it’s hilarious.  The other day a girl came in to the computer center wearing a shirt and I quote “Viagra is for pussies.”  She isn’t the only one to wear a shirt like that.  I’ve seen an old lady wearing a shirt with an arrow pointing up saying, “The man” and an arrow pointing down saying, “The legend.”  I think that was my favorite.  I want to get a shirt that has some kapekape and pretend I have no idea what it says.  I wonder what would happen?

So another week has passed.  The biggest event was “the greatest reggae band ever” came to Tonga.  I’m quoting what the radio said about none other than UB40.  Oh yeah, UB40 rocked Tonga so hard I saw more youth stumbling home drunk the morning after when I was headed to work in town.  I did accompany a few fellow Peace Corps Volunteers over to the stadium, but I didn’t want to partake in the festivities.  It was too much for me.  I’d assume 10,000 people were there at least.  It was a zoo.  The strangest thing was I saw a lot of people with babies.  Man, these kids will be deaf by twelve.

Not much else is happening.  Finally the phone line has been fixed at the computer center so people can have their Internet and stop threatening my life.  Nah, it’s not that bad, but some people were pissed.

3-12-06

One of the unknowns, I would think, is when you become a Peace Corps volunteer the religion that is practiced in country would hold some mysticism.  In Tonga, it’s Christianity, and for me, has no mysticism.  Not to say Christianity is bad, but it doesn’t seem as mysterious as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islamism, or some other faith not based on the Bible.  Religion in other parts of the world, in my opinion, would be a lot more interesting to observe as well as understand.  I think Western Culture for the most part doesn’t understand why people will strap a bomb to their chest in an act to fight for what they believe.  I don’t think we can understand those ideals because they are so foreign to us.  Our attempt to create a democracy in Iraq will be incredibly hard if not impossible.  I think because we do not understand their belief system.  They will fight a holy war to keep their religious beliefs, so will they fight a political war to keep their government?  I bet they will.  I doubt, in their minds, they will separate religion and politics.  America, for the most part has a separation of church and state but more countries do not have that separation.  So in my opinion the war in Iraq, in the Iraqis eyes, is not just for political reform, but also stepping across the religious line.  That is dangerous territory because we know they will die happily for what they believe.

3-15-06

A heavy rain approached from the north.  I could hear it coming like a muffled freight train.  When it hit ground zero, Mother Nature peppered my house with translucent punches.  As fast as it came, the wallop disappeared moving on to some other unsuspecting, soon to be wet, bystander.

I hear a mouse. It must think my trashcan is a diner open after all the bars close or a dive bar in full swing.  I investigate. Nothing stirs, not even a mouse.  Was I dreaming about a pest party? I get back in bed and lay on my stomach.  A pillow is on my head, not under.  People wonder why I sleep like that.  When all is quiet, a sudden burst of scratching is audible right under my head.  Holy shit, it’s under my bed? No!?  I launch out of bed and pickup my two-inch thick foam mattress off the floor and discover a gargantuan malakau trying to veil its evil doing while I sleep.  A heavy shoe helps at two in the morning.  SMACK!  Oh, you’re not dead.  WHAM!  If my wife was slamming the shoe she’d say, “How unBuddhist of me.” BAM! It’s still moving, but yellow bubbles are coming out. I toss it out back so the chickens can feast in the morning.  A treat for them… A nightmare for me.

3-28-06

‘Eua is beautiful! Some of its beauty reminded me of Hawaii, other spots reminded me of Costa Rica, and some of the beauty is all ‘Eua.  If you are visiting Tonga, get to ‘Eua.  It’s an eight-minute flight from Tongatapu and it will not disappoint.  The only downfall is you’ll need a guide because it’s a maze in the bush.  Our guide was a fellow Peace Corps volunteer.  Chris and his wife Amanda have the pleasure of being on ‘Eua as Peace Corps volunteers and they were nice enough to show us around and cook awesome food.

The trip started with a few volunteers and a friend taking the boat to ‘Eua.  The ride wasn’t too bad.  I’ve heard it’s the roughest boat ride in Tonga.  It was the roughest I’ve been on so I agree.  Once we landed we saw our host waiting for us.  Her name was Diana and she’s the owner of a beautiful guesthouse on the south end of the island.  It was out of town, which was nice, and it was relatively quiet except for the annoying daughter that was harassing us.  Her mom called her the devil child.  After awhile, when she saw we had no candy she left us alone.  Or maybe her mom said to not bother us.  Either way, I was glad she disappeared.

The first afternoon we took a short hike to shower falls.  It’s a small chain of waterfalls that also had a cave that went completely through the island to the other side.  A volunteer from my group told us about the cave.  It sounds pretty cool if you like small dark places.

After shower falls we headed back to Chris and Amanda’s house to have enchiladas.  Amanda slaved away all day to make over 40 enchiladas for everybody.  They were damn good.  We were all fat and happy.

The walk home basically turned into “lets scare the shit out each other.”  I think the devil child spurred this on so by the time we got back to the guesthouse everybody was a little freaked.  Having no light except a small flash light helped a lot.

The next morning we headed out for our loop hike around a part of the island.  It started with going up hill until we reached a small fork in the road that led to an amazing site: the banyan tree.  Wow!  The tree was huge.  Its “an Indian fig tree whose branches produce aerial roots that later become accessory trunks. A mature tree may cover several acres in this manner.”  That’s a quote from the built in dictionary on my iBook.  Yeah, this tree easily was an acre in size.  I’ve never seen anything like it.  Peace Corps volunteers say you can climb to the top, but we didn’t.  It’s a tree out of fangorn forest.

Once we left the Banyan tree we made our way to rats cave.  The cave is rather short, but the best part is one end of the cave opens up onto a bluff that has an amazing view. Birds were flying around and volunteers were hanging on a jug to get a silhouette shot (looking like they were bouldering).

After Rats cave, we visited a couple look outs that had amazing panoramic views.  I forget their names, but they actually had signs.  Leaving the bluffs we started a long trek in the sun down to a small pool were most of us jumped in to cool off.  It was similar to shower falls, but it had a road right to it.  It was a great swimming hole after a long hike.

Once we left the swimming hole we kept descending back to the main road.  Walking along the road we heard church bells and people walking to church.  Kids were playing in their yards and pigs were roaming around looking for left over Sunday ‘umu.  We past a gas station with a hand cranked pump that was really cool.

Once we got back to Chris and Amanda’s house she had peanut butter chocolate butterscotch cookies all baked for our enjoyment.

This Sunday ranked number one since I’ve been in Tonga.

I’m back in Kolovai now.  Life after a great weekend is back to normal.  1.5 days can make a difference.  A great mini vacation filled with hiking, photography, good people, and great food.   Thanks everybody who participated! My blisters prove we had a great hike!

I will go back to ‘Eua before I leave Tonga. There is more to see and I want to soak up all there is to offer in such a beautiful place.

2-3-06: Kyle

This journal entry is dedicated to one person: Tessa Horan.  On Wednesday February 1st, a shark attacked and killed Tessa.

When I first met Tessa was in Ahau: the village next to Kolovai.  Sarah was joining group 70 for their language lessons and one day I decided to tag along to meet the trainees.  When we pulled up to the Wesleyan town hall in Ahau, I surveyed the trainees for “Peace Corps Material.”  Top on my list was Tessa.  Her persona was pure outdoor adventurer.  Tessa herself proved it to me by commenting on my sticker stripped, dull black, Marzocchi fork. I briefly knew her, but I could tell a lot of people in her group and other volunteers looked up to her.  In her own group I heard she was known as the true Peace Corps.  Tessa would buy a shovel and the others in her group would buy one too.  They had no idea why they’d need it, but if Tessa got a shovel it must be important.

We will all miss her.  I want to give my deepest condolence to her family.

2-18-06: Kyle

A lot has happened since I’ve last written.  Tessa’s passing has rocked Peace Corps Tonga to the core.  It was a tough week and still is tough to this day because of some tension between people.  I have mixed emotions about what is happening here in Tonga after Tessa’s passing.

Almost right after Tessa’s death a cyclone passed every island group in Tonga.  Of course Tongatapu was the last to get hit because it’s the furthest south.  All Peace Corps volunteers on Tongatapu were consolidated at the Peace Corps office just in case the cyclone gets any closer.  Most of the time was spent talking with other volunteers, watching movies, and hanging out.  The power was out, but Peace Corps has a generator so we had electricity.

On the second day of the cyclone, Sarah and I ventured to the old small boat wharf that is right near the Peace Corps office to see the storm.  The wind was probably blowing at a constant 40 mph and a couple gust approached, I’d say, 70 or 80 mph.  One almost blew us over.  The sea looked completely different.  The water side of Nuku’alofa is very mellow because of its shallow depth and a reef far out surrounds it, but there were waves where no waves should be.

When Sarah and I were dropped off at our house in Kolovai everything looked normal until we opened the backdoor.  Bread fruit trees were/are shredded, our neighbors outhouse was crushed by a tree or blow apart, our neighbors outdoor kitchen was destroyed, and debris was every where.  Most everything was cleaned up in a day, but it looked like a cyclone pasted by and it did.

Everything is back to normal.  The Electricity was restored the other day and we have running water.  Unfortunately, the phone line at the computer center is still extremely filled with static so no connection can be made to the Internet.  The computer will lose money this month.

Also, Sarah’s 23rd birthday just past in Tonga.  We went and got a couple hamburgers with a few other volunteers.  I can’t remember the last time I’ve had a hamburger, but it wasn’t bad.  It’s still up in the air, but many people say Coco’s in Nuku’alofa makes the best hamburger.  I would have to disagree.  Trevor in Ha’apai still makes the best burger in Tonga.  If you have a chance stop by Trevor’s restaurant/bar/hostel and get a burger.  It’s the only restaurant in Ha’apai so you can’t miss it.

Speaking of food.  All kinds of new places to eat have sprung up in Nuku’alofa: Mexican place, a rotisserie chicken place, and a new burger joint.  I haven’t been to the burger joint, but The rotisserie chicken place kicks ass.  Half a chicken, stuffing, french fries, and a little coleslaw for $8.50.  The Mexican place isn’t that great because they never seem to have consistent ingredients.  Sometimes, the burritos are filled with rice.

Also, I never enjoyed going to Coco’s because the owner was a complete witch, but new people own it.  They are friendly, they treat the workers well, and the food is better.  I might stop in there a few more times before I leave Tonga.

1-8-06: Kyle

Sarah and I are back in Kolovai after a wonderful vacation in Vava’u.  I forgot how beautiful Vava’u really is.  This time around it was better because I wasn’t stressed by the home stay experience.  Sarah and I stayed in down town Neiafu at a New Zealand owned Hostel called Backpackers. I would highly recommend anybody staying there because it’s right in the middle of town, it’s clean (no cockroaches), the staff is friendly, and it’s a great place to get hooked up with adventures.  Unfortunately it’s the slow season right now so not much is happening, but I can guarantee during the tourist season Backpackers must be hopping with activity.

Most of our time spent was relaxing, having 2 hours breakfast while watching the hustle of people at the market buying and selling goods. Most meals we stretched for as long as possible.  Having the market so close was so nice.  We got pineapples, watermelons, bell peppers, bananas, and two doors down at the ikapuna we bought a 9lb yellow fin tuna for $24 pa’anga.  Fish is cheap in Vava’u!

The Backpackers also has a full kitchen so Sarah and I made many wonderful meals: Fish with curry, fish tacos, chili and rice.  I was amazed how much American food you could buy in Vava’u.  It’s understandable considering that a lot my palangis head up to Vava’u so they stock all kinds of goodies.  The one downfall is the ice cream selection doesn’t compare to Tongatapu, but maybe during tourist season they’ve got Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream.  I’m dreaming…

For New Years we were on the hunt for a good meal.  The one place I was thinking was closed so we looked around.  We ended up going to the Paradise Hotel for dinner.  Sarah had lobster and I had a T-bone steak.  Both meals were good, but beef here is from New Zealand so it doesn’t taste like good old American beef.  We also had a banana split and a piece of chocolate cake.  The deserts were a five out of 10.  At around 10 we headed towards the Mermaid to find that it was already closed so we decided to head back to our room a stay up until midnight.  Midnight brought fireworks ignited by local kids. Not a pyrotechnics display you’d see at any major city, but a random concoction of bangs, flashes, and whistles. I good end to the year.

Sarah and I did visit my home stay family once.  It was a trip going back to the house.  Before we went my home stay brother asked me what Sarah likes to eat. I told him fruit so there was a lot of fruit on the table when we sat down to eat while everybody else watched.  It was a quick visit.  I’m happy Sarah got to see where I spent most of my time in Vava’u as a trainee.

Yesterday I read a book called the Minutes of The Lead Pencil Club.  The book basically has stories about how to live without technology.  My favorite little blurb was about a computer center in Micronesia that has a state-of-the-art computer center, but not a single bathroom for the children.  It made me think of the computer center in Kolovai.  There fortunately is one working bathroom.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about grant writing and the money that follows.  To say the least, throwing money at the problems that we see is not going to solve anything.  It’s all about needs verse wants.  Did they want a computer center in Kolovai?  Of course they did.  It’s not a need, it’s a big fat want with many zeros.

1-14-06: Kyle

It’s been a long week.  Almost everyday was spent in Nuku’alofa working, and hunting for stuff to kill a rat and to unplug our outdoor shower.  It really sucks when you can’t find rat poison, but we finally got some.  The shower, we think, got plugged on Monday so there was standing water in the shower until Friday night.  The water smelled like a septic tank… That’s where the water drains.  So it was a great surprise to get home on Friday the 13th with a full moon beaming down to find the water was not there.  I poured some toxic liquid drain opener and did a little dance to hope it’ll help the situation.  Hopefully we will be able to take a shower without our feet smelling like poop.

Last night Sarah and I went to Magic Land!  It’s not a circus but a traveling carnival with rides, a show, games, and fairy floss!  The rides consisted of a ferries wheel, a spinning swing, carousel, the octopus, the helicopters, a spinning and puke ride (Sarah’s name), the magic mouse, and a rollercoaster that looked like a dragon.  According to Sarah they were all pukey rides.  I brought my 10D to get a couple fun shots of people having fun.

The show, I thought, was a little risqué, but entertaining.  Most of the female performers were dressed in g-strings and small tops covering their boobs… nothing more.  I bet most males enjoyed the show.  One juggled, another hula-hooped, a silver guy, a.k.a Pluto, contorted his body into a pretzel, a midget women swung from the trapeze by her hair, and more.

When it was slow I noticed the creator of Magic land.  I friendly man named Bruno who told us about magic land, where it goes, his other acts, and a little about his life.  He was actually born in America, but is full Samoan.  He’s been back to America once and doesn’t like it anymore.  He stays at magic land where it is and never travels outside its borders.  His parents owned magic land before him so he has been bringing smiles and laughter to people all his life.  Not a bad gig.

To completely change the subject, Sarah and I watched group 70 swear in as volunteers on Thursday night.  It was a typical swearing in with nothing-outrageous happening.  The Volunteers of group 70, I must say, had the most entertaining floorshow out of any group I’ve seen thus far.  The floorshows are always comical, but with their Vava’u style pointy hats, tongues hanging out of their mouths (Scott), and getting hooked on the Tongan mat and having to have Poli come to the rescue made it extra special.  Way to go group 70!

1-15-06: Kyle

I realized in my last journal I skipped over our Christmas holiday in Nuku’alofa.  We decided to stay in town that weekend a long ago, but plans changed at the last minute because the original place we were going to stay at didn’t feel right, so we did stayed at the International Dateline Hotel.  It’s a nice place with three television channels, hot showers, a pool, and it’s right on the water front.  It’s centrally located so we could get ice cream on a whim without having to take a long bus ride to town.  They do have ice cream in Kolovai, but I think it’s best not to spend a lot of money on luxury items in our village.  We are already labeled as being rich so we don’t want to reinforce it.

The one downfall of the weekend was the maggots in the bathroom trash basket.  It’s seems the International Dateline Staff forgot to empty the trash from the last visitors so a bunch of maggots were enjoying the rotting stuff in the trash.  But over all, the place is nice.  Don’t expect the Maui Hyatt…

Today I notice the prime minister had a lot of police and military officers at the Wesleyan church.  Usually when the King comes that is normal, but this is the first time it has happened for the Prime Minister.  Are they worried something might happen?  I read an article last night on Matangitonga.to about the government schoolteachers going on strike again because they think the government denied promotions to the striking teachers.  If this is true or not I have no idea.

Also, While on Matangitonga.to there was an article about banks putting credit limits because the country is running out of money.  The government says it is due to the pay raises given to the civil servants.  If this is true I do not know, but I bet the boost in wages has made a large impact on the financial situation.

Today was the first time in weeks we had ‘Umu at ‘Eke and Laumanu’s house.  They’ve had family visiting from both New Zealand and Australia.  It’s been very busy at their house lately so it was probably good we went to Vava’u because they could use our toilet and shower.  Maybe that’s why it got clogged?

Rambo is the newest member of the family.  Well, I highly doubt the Tongans consider him a member, but Sarah and I think Rambo is an adorable puppy.  We fed him a little today after ‘Umu just to let him know we are friendly and we’ve got food.  Of course we don’t want to steal him from the family next door, but it’s tough to watch such a cute dog not get love.  Hopefully while we are here we can enrich his life a little just like Taha.

1-19-05:Kyle

The other day in our part of the village they celebrated the erecting of streetlights.  The lights are indoor fluorescent lights so I’m not sure how they’ll last, but the street to our house and beyond is lit up now.  The celebration took place at our neighbor’s house so the party was basically at our house too.  They starting setting up the tent at around 2 o’clock and cooking food a little bit later.  It was a big BBQ with, beef, ham, chicken, sheep, and sausages.

Many women were dancing and got Sarah up for a little while to dance too.  I sat with the men around the kava bowl with the men.  It was actually the first time I had kava tonga in Kolovai.  I only had one cup and I made it clear that was all I was going to have.

The last package Sarah family sent had a lot of magic bubbles so Sarah decided to break the ice with a lot of the kids and had out magic bubbles.  They kids loved it, but some to the parents were annoyed.  It was fun to watch the kids run around blowing bubbles having fun.  One little boy, Ma’ake, glued on to Sarah almost the entire time and was speaking to her in Tongan.  Sarah, for the most part, had no idea what he was saying, but how Ma’ake didn’t even flinch while sitting on Sarah’s lap, and snuggling up to her.  Most children, I think, feel that everybody is their parent, more or less, and can find love from anybody.  Love, and abuse unfortunately.

Right before the food was going to be served a man that was sitting close to me suddenly stood up, tripped on a empty plastic water bottle, and took a nose dive into the bushes right in front of our house.  It freaked both Sarah and I out.  We both thought the guy was in serious trouble, because when they got him awake he was gasping for breath and shaking a little.  At first I thought maybe he has diabetes and just lost it, but the more I think about it I think he just got up to fast, fainted, lost his balance, and went crashing down.  Thank the stars he did hit our house. If he did I bet he would have broke his neck.

So today is Thursday.  Sarah and I are just relaxing around the house, doing laundry, and thankfully our shower was fixed yesterday.  It’s been about two weeks since it work correctly.

Supposedly, the new Volunteer from group 70 is moving to Kolovai today, but Sarah walked by her house and saw it was still a work in progress.  Soon enough she’ll be here learning everything training doesn’t tell you.  It’s not the Peace Corps trainings fault for not teaching us everything.  Coming to your village for the first time can be pretty scary.  You have no idea what to expect.  But Peace Corps Tonga, for the most part, does a good job.  Cultural training could be a little more in depth.  Like what is the correct order to thank people in a fakamalo?  Should you make food for ‘Umu is people invite you over?  Is it okay to ask questions?

Asking question is a very strange thing here in Tonga.  I rarely ask questions, because I think people identify you as stupid.  Very few people ask questions.  The best example I have here is at the computer center: they call my name, I come over, they tell what they want, and I do it.  They don’t phrase the question in a question, but say “can you insert a picture for me.”  It would be nice if they asked how they can do it.  Most of the time I show them once and from then on they can do whatever task, but some rely on me to do a lot for them. Last night, at the computer center, kids wanted to play a game involving fuhu. So I showed them where the game was, pointed out the name, punch_out.nes, and got them on their way.  Many times they ask me where certain games are and I tell them it starts with a “P” or a “T,” not a “D”.  After awhile, they become proficient at doing everything for themselves.  Now if they’d runt he center.  That will hopefully come soon.

1-21-05:Kyle

I officially have my first boil.  It’s on my head along the crown.  It’s not the most painful thing in the world, but, at times, it can feel like I have a mild headache.  Also, I told the Peace Corps Medical Officer about a lump behind my ear and she says I also have a boil in my ear.  How that happened I have no idea.  It feels like a mild earache.  I hope it doesn’t get worse.  I have medicine so it shouldn’t.  My right kidney has been a little painful as well.  Summer in Tonga seems to increase the likelihood that you’ll get sick.  Dehydration, humid weather, and the heat can effectively kick your butt.

Lately I’ve been thinking about how NGOs seem to work here in Tonga.  I can only comment on what I’ve seen so I can’t say if they are all the same, but it seems very strange that there is very little accountability.  It seems they are out to get money and hopefully be able to help the people once all the kinks are worked out with the workshop, program, or whatever is supposed to help the people.  Most of the time it seems that the NGOs have to constantly kiss the ass of the donors to get the money to stay alive.  Most of the time, energy is spent getting the money and not working on effectively helping the people.

The crazy thing is workshops are the main way of disseminating the information.  As far as I can tell workshops don’t work.  People go to the workshop, they might listen, and then they go home.  Do people use the skills learned from a workshop?  In theory yes, but I don’t think it happens to often.  Some workshops even pay the people! But what is the best way to teach the people about issues that can and will affect their life?  A workshop is a form of education, which is good, but no follow up or sticky to the issue, in most cases, happens.  It seems workshops follow the newest buzzword of the day.  No focus is made to eliminate the problems at hand because the focus seems to change so often.  One month a workshop might teach an effective way to limit farmers from using pesticides and the next month a workshop on how to compost.  It seems there is no staying on one subject and sticking to it.  If the money that comes is for composting, NGOs will get the money to teach composting, and forget pesticide awareness because there is no money being given for that anymore.  By not sticking to one issue or program, NGOs are effectively diluting their ability to help.  I don’t think it’s the NGOs fault, but the higher echelons of the system: the donating bodies.  The donors completely control what the NGOs are doing, for the most part, because NGOs need the money.  It’s unfortunate.

Some programs are lasting.  Year after year, certain programs contribute to helping the people, but some do not.  And it seems that a lot more energy and money is spent on the new programs because it takes longer to get workshops off the ground.  If they’d just stick to a couple issues and keep hammering away, I believe, change will happen.  Keep the issues simple: don’t litter, don’t physically or mentally abuse others, primary education, and healthy eating habits.  Some would take a lot more work, but if they stick to fewer issues, it’s bound to be tattooed on people’s brains.  If donors stuck to a few issues and didn’t force NGOs to change their focus, change would happen.

There is one institution that effectively stuck to one issue and completely changed the country: religion.  I’m sure on the current statistics, but I can guarantee over 90% of the people believe in God.  It’s probably closer to 99%.  That’s an incredible success in change.  You can argue if it was a good change, but that is not the point.  The point being that change is possible if you truly embrace whatever you’re trying to improve and do not waver.

1-28-06: Kyle

The last couple days it’s been raining pusi mo kuli.  I seriously thought our sima vai was going to be empty and having to find water that was drinkable.  No worries the sima vai is doing well.  A lot of the namu larvae have come out in our water so I hope we will get some clean water for the time being.

Not much else happening.  Just working at the computer center, still helping TNYC, and going to the TBC to help the IT person clean up the mess the last guy made of their systems.  It’s nice to actually have work to do and figure something new out.  Unraveling TBC might take some work, but it will be an accomplishment.  There are a couple strange things happening with the Linux server that I cannot figure out, but in time I’ll understand what the heck is happening.  Add a couple more lines to the resume that will hopefully allow me to find work when I get home.

Sarah and I have been thinking a lot about home lately.  Mostly thinking about jobs, food, and fun.  At times, I feel like it will be a huge transition for both of us, but dealing with Tonga time, it will be a breath of fresh air.  I still undecided to what I’ll do when I get back.  Most of the time I think about a career in photography, but I know how hard it is.  Another part of me wants to work in computers, but will it make me happy?  I have plenty of time to think about my options.

So the new Peace Corps Volunteer is in Kolovai.  Valerie arrived on Wednesday night to a big house on the Wesleyan primary school property.  Sarah told me she has an indoor shower (with tile), a big living room, a pretty comfortable bedroom, and a good size kitchen.  Makes our house sound like a shack.  Oh wait, it is.  No, our house after 16 months feels like home, but I’d give a lot for an indoor shower.  Hot water isn’t on the radar anymore.  Our solar shower does an awesome job.

So today marks 224 days until COS.  It sounds like a long time but to this day I’ve spent (doing the math…) 547 days in Tonga.  That is subtracting my trip to America.  224 days doesn’t sound bad.  They are dropping like cockroaches.

I’m also working on a page about what to pack for future volunteers.  I hope it will be helpful.