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!