February: There's A Big Rain A'Comin'

The most memorable event of February is, without a doubt, Cyclone Rene. Cyclone Rene reached a category 4, and was, admittedly, a pretty impressive storm.

Peace Corps, obviously being aware of the storm, called my first ever "consolidation" for the cyclone. Luckily, our site in Ha'apai is another volunteer's house, and we were well stocked with water and food and unable to be kicked out (as happened at consolidation points that were Mormon churches...)! The first day and a half or so, the weather was fine, sunny even, and we did feel pretty foolish having all 10 of us (there are so many Peace Corps in Ha'apai this year!) holed up in one house. Still, we made some pretty delicious meals and got the opportunity to finally play board games.

When the storm finally did hit, it was crazy. I've never seen wind or rain that strong. We thought we had done a good job storm proofing the house, but our mats and strips of cardboard were no match for Rene. After we were a few inches deep in water, we realized we needed to move the tarps to the outside of the windows. However, we were delayed by the front door literally flying off. (Disclaimer: the door was very flimsy plywood with cardboard in the middle.) The kitchen door was moved to cover the giant door-hole through which water was pouring into the house, and then a group of us went outside and nailed the tarp over the windows.

Luckily, the storm changed paths after the eye hit us, so we only got half of the cyclone. The winds also stayed pretty high up, and thankfully caused minimal damage. For us, the worst part of the storm was, by far, the smell of 10 people in a wet house...ifo! My village was fine for the most part, which the most damage sustained by the school- we lost our roof on two of the classrooms. But, we were able to recover the metal scraps and nail them back on.

Tragically, Rene hit right as mango season was about to happen this year, and the amount of fallen, rotting fruit was incredible. The winds also did a number on banana and papaya trees, and on certain root crops in the ground.

The other major bit of news from February was the grounding of the MV Pulupaki (the inter-island ferry boat) and subsequent trial. Since the Princess Ashika sank last year, there has been a lot of concern about the boats, and it was discovered that the owners of the Pulupaki had forged safety documents and that the boat was actually unseaworthy. Everyone was taken to court: the shipping company, the owners (including white foreigners!), the prime minister, government officials and tried by a special judicial committee from Australia. They will be returning soon to announce their findings and sentence those responsible.

In the meantime, while the boat was grounded, it meant that supplies were, well, in short supply, especially since the large airplane was gone for two months to be serviced in NZ. But, it's Tonga, and no one went hungry- we just had to get by without ice cream or cakes!

January: A Month in Review

First, Happy New Year (slightly late, I know)! It’s officially 2010, and I am adjusting to making the strange transition from counting the number of months I’ve been in Tonga to counting the number of months I have left. It’s a strange sometimes exciting, sometimes scary process, but one that is inevitable when you are surrounded by community members telling you how soon you’ll leave while simultaneously asking for your stuff! Still, to me, I have almost a full year left, and I am happy to be here. Despite this time crunch, real or imagined, I have a lot of projects I am very excited to undertake this year and am looking forward to less of the awkward integration issues and more productive work.

January was the reintroduction month, after being home for the holidays and the school break. First there was the MST conference in Tongatapu with all the PCVs in my group. It was nice seeing everyone, but slightly unsettling to really realize how little time we have left in Tonga. Then, it was back to Ha'apai and GPS Koulo. We eventually got around to cleaning up the school and after that got finally around to starting classes. It's really nice already knowing all the students and what to expect from them as individuals and as a class. The slight downside is that they all know me (and know I won't hit them!) and are pretty comfortable around me, so classroom control is going to be a bit more of an issue this year than it was last year when they were all terrified of the new "pelangi"!

The one sad event of this month was that Kate and Brett, my fellow volunteers and good friends, had to return back to America. It was very sad to say goodbye to them, and Ha'apai definitely isn't the same without them. The one thing that has positively changed is that, upon leaving, they left me their washing machine (which I frequently used at their house), and it's changed my life! I never thought I could love technology this much. Brett also left me his guitar, and I shall be making a valiant effort to teach myself how to play over the next year. Kate and Brett are missed very much, but I am still looking forward to my state fair debut with them in 2011!