Hey, hey!
I hope everyone enjoyed the pictures that I uploaded yesterday and today. My dog Nash is getting so big! The other dog in the picture is her best friend, Scobby, who is my principal's dog across the way. They're together all the time! Always chasing each other in and out of my house.
At the moment, I am locked inside my school. This is the second time that this has happened to me. It is now 7:52pm and I quite possibly may be sleeping here. Just kidding! But no more phone credit and people cannot hear me from outside. My only hope is that the students who will come to night school will see me and get help. haha. Oh, another day...
Things have been going great on the island. Yesterday, my friends and I had a picnic on the beach. We drove out to the far North side of the island and planted ourselves under some coconut trees. We stayed until ten o'clock just snorkeling, hiking the cliffs around us, walking the beach, playing our guitars and bbqing. We picked up some chicken and put them on garlic and herb seasoned skewers that I got from the 'Free Table' at the Peace Corps office, and threw them on top of a sheet of medal we found nestled between some rocks. Then, we started our fire, which was very difficult because of the heavy rain from the night before. What we ended up with was what you see in the picture below, which looks like things we're out of our control, but we had chicken to eat and I am happy to report I am still alive and did not die of food poisoning.
When night fell, my friend and I played our guitars. Well, a guitar and a ukulele...I must say we sound quite good playing together. Than we all watched the stars, which are indescribable here. You can always see the Milky Way and it's breathtaking. Listening to the guitar and hearing the water crash against the sand put me to sleep. Island life, man. Island life.

I wish I could be there but right now I have to go to my night class!

'Ofa atu!
Ashley

'Life has become easier, flexible, and more comfortable.' I read this from a student's paper of a Form 6 level. This is a Tongan student, in high school, writing in her second language, summarizing our modern world today in the most accurate and simple way one could ever describe it. She's right. Our inventions today are making things easier but where's the excitment in that? .... I was going to go on a long philosophical stream of conscious rant here but the crew's going out for pizza. I'll get back to you about this later. :)

Peace!

Hey, Hey!
I know it has been way too long since my last blog entry! I have just recently renovated my blog page so, for all of you who are reading this entry via your email account, please go to my actual blog page to finish reading! I just added new pics and such and I am really happy with how the page looks now :) I also added a list of all the projects that I have started at my site and a description of each of them so you have the 411 if you'd like to be involved in any way!

A belated Happy Easter to each of you! I was thinking of everyone as I was celebrating my Easter in the village of Leimatu'a with a friend and her family. I missed going to church, finding my Easter basket in the morning, having eggs' benedict, eating Cadbury eggs and taking part in the family Easter egg hunt! I missed all of it and each of you very, very much. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

As of now, I'm on the main island of Tongatapu. I just finished In-Service Training (IST), which is the 1/4 service mark of my commitment here in Tonga. It's pretty insane how fast time has flown! So much has happened since my last entry to you and it's a bit overwhelming thinking of where to start but perhaps to give you just a snapshot...
-I was the girl's track coach for the sports season which just ended and some of my girls made it to nationals. Very cool.
-My dog, Nash, has successfully learned to sit, stay, and go. (I have to write this. I'm a proud Mom.)
-I sing in my church choir a few nights a week and sometimes sing in village-wide night concerts.
-I started my dance studio, and I love making new dance routines for my girls.
-Overall, I feel totally successful in my community integration and that's a really, really good feeling.

Two other successes for the day...
1. I planted the seed to Mom and Dad about Nash coming home with me after my service and
2. I have a plan for what I am going to do when I return home to the states after PC. Alyssa and I are hiking the Appalachian trail northbound, then biking from Maine to Washington, to then hike south down the Pacific Coast Trail only to then hitchhike to the Mississippi River so we can there build a canoe to row back to New Hampshire. Anyone in?

To New Adventures!
Cheers!

Remember when I joked that school probably wouldn’t start until February as opposed to January? Well, as I suspected, it’s no longer a joke. It’s February and school is just beginning. My school is taking its time getting back into the swing of the school year and all the duties and responsibilities that come along with it.

The first week of school consisted of cleaning-up. Well, the students cleaned up, and most teachers hung out and rested. It was very comical to observe and take it all in. These children, ages eight to eighteen were sweeping, and landscaping with sharp machete blades which they used to cut each piece of grass on the school grounds. I'd see boys up in the trees cutting large branches with these machetes. There's something about seeing adults hand these sharp blades to small children that is incredible...our American kids just could not cut it.

During the first week I also attended faculty meetings- now these have been very interesting and have introduced me to a whole other degree of 'taimi fakatonga' (Tongan time/island time). I'll give you an example of what to expect if your principal announced a 12 noon meeting…First, you'd show up on time and no one would be there. Some people would slowly come in and then walk right back out. Others may come and sit but if they were men, they would not talk to you. You'd then go to the office and ask if there was a meeting and if it was in fact supposed to begin at noon. “Maybe it will start at 1pm?” The people in the office would say. At this point, you're hungry so you go home to eat, knowing that you will make it back to school before the meeting starts. You watch a movie and eat lunch then return to school. At this point it's almost 3pm. More people are sitting and waiting in the room so you decide to stay with some assurance that it must be starting soon. To your relief, the principal comes in and without an apology as to being late, things get under way. Five minutes later, the principal leaves and girls walk in with soda and loaves of bread- one for each teacher. A tasty snack you think. Why not? You begin breaking off pieces of bread while others eat out the insides and then pour their soda into the bread, letting it soak up the sugary liquid, before they bring it to their mouths. After fifteen minutes you turn to one of your co-workers and ask, 'Is he coming back? Will the meeting continue?' They respond, 'He's in another meeting.' We wait.

That is an example of what meetings can be like here in Tonga and it is rather comical. To survive it, you must practice patience- a lot of it. Have reading material or perhaps ‘Sudoku’ on you ALWAYS and most importantly, have a good sense of humor. You must remember to just enjoy yourself because it is not bothering any of the Tongans so, don’t let it bother you. This is their culture. They are so relaxed and they don't let time or responsibility rule their life, not even in the work place. You must admire them for this even if their lackadaisical work ethic seems too extreme. I am always learning from the Tongan people and situations like this remind me take a moment (or hours haha) and RELAX even if it is while at work. :)

Good morning!

My day thus far has been incredibly productive and I am happily taking a break, eating my cereal and my vine drink I made yesterday while listening to Jurassic Five, “What's Golden” to celebrate :) I washed sheets, towels, etc. which is always the butt of laundry and hung them to dry. Laundry takes me usually an hour or two to scrub through and my wrist is always left with a rash after rubbing the clothes up against it. I also swept all the puaka (pig) poop from my yard and fetched water from the simovai to fill up all my nalogens. They're now sitting in my freezer cooling and doing that alone is productive because nothing is worse than running out of water in this heat! I also hung out with Lilio and her niece and nephew, and went to the bakery to get them some bread for their breakfast. All of this before 830am. It's been a Tongan morning :) and to top it off, my blog writing was just interrupted for a dance party with Fou leka to Flo Rider, “In the Ayer.” It's going to be a great day! In fact, I'm putting that song on repeat! Dance disco! Throw your hands up!



Puna! Puna!

Last evening a few of my neighbors stopped by my house on their way to the wharf to go for a swim. Even though I had just showered, I could not resist because the wharf is always PACKED with tons of people of all ages swimming, playing music, tossing footballs- just having a great time! Remember, Tongans prefer to go swimming when it is cloudy or raining. Around 6ish in the evening you'll hear the sounds of kids screaming as they 'puna' of the wharf and anchored boats. Puna means to 'fly' in Tongan and the kids fearlessly puna crazy dives and flips into the water. They're absolutely fearless and it is so much fun to watch them! They run one after the other and the other; not waiting for the previous jumper to come up from the water before they make their splash. You'd think people would be constantly diving into one another but no. They're Tongans. They're fine.

After swimming I went to choir rehearsal and even though I was late, there were still Tongans walking in up until the closing prayer! I stuck around and played with some kids who were in the back of the hall watching. They were also playing checkers with an old board and pieces that they had scraped up: pebbles and tossed cigarette butts.

Then I went home and made myself a yummy dinner of eggplant Parmesan with cheese that I had bought on the main island and brought back with me. Cheese you can find here, sometimes. It depends what the boat brings in. Either way, it is so expensive so the dinner was a treat. Of course, my neighbors came over just when I was dishing it up and in good ole Tongan fashion, I served as much of it out as I could. Tongans share everything as I have mentioned before. I am constantly reminded of that and even though I don't have to- being a 'palangi,' I want to make it a habit of my own as well.

Well, time to take a cold bucket bath because this heat is once again making me feel faint!

Thanks for reading!
'Ofa atu!
Ashley