I'm officially in Tonga on the main island of Tongatapu, in the capital city of Nuku'alofa. We landed at 8:00am this morning, Thursday, after a 2 hour layover in Samoa. When we landed at theTongan airport all of the Peace Corps staff and some of the volunteers were there to greet us with flower and leaf necklaces, which was really sweet, and everyone made us feel so welcome. We had mini orientation, lunch at the hostel-like place where we are all staying(there are 24 of us in our training group), rested for an hour, and then went to a welcome kava ceremony (google it, seriously) and BBQ atthe house of the Country Director. We then walked back along the ocean to the main drag of downtown, and now I'm at the Peace Corps office writing this.
I am officially here, safe and sound, albeit a bitjet-lagged and confused at the loss of Wednesday. Tonga is absolutelybeautiful and looks exactly like a tropical island should- clear bluewater, palm trees, and everyone seems so nice and friendly! Eventhough all I can say right now is "malo e lelei" (hello) people are really welcoming us to the island. Even airport security was so happy to see the 24 of us, despite us backingup customs and their whole airport (which is the smallest international airport I've ever seen). We're in Nuku'alofa for 4 moredays until we take our 30 hour ferry ride out to our homestays inVava'u for 6 weeks, so I will update soon.
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