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!