Kava Kalaupu

In Tonga, in every village across every island, there is a cultural tradition of drinking kava. For those of you who don’t want to wikipedia ‘kava’ it’s basically a root that is dried and then pounded into a fine powder. That powder is mixed and strained into gallon buckets of water creating kava- a muddy looking grayish liquid that, if consumed in large enough quantities, can induce a feeling kind of similar to being stoned as well as numb your mouth and tongue. However, you need to drink a lot of kava for it to have that full effect- mostly it just seems to make you sleepy. Weekend days, you can tell who has been up late at the kava circle since the men will all have what we pelangis have termed “kava hangovers”. These mostly consist of being fakapikopiko (lazy) and tired and disoriented all day. There is a lot of napping that happens in Tonga, but even more so after a good kava circle the night before. Men get together to drink kava in two settings (women are not allowed to drink kava): the fiekava and the kalapu. The fiekava happens most days, but particularly on Sunday and the circle consists of the fifiekou (minister), village chief, town officer, and town elders. Other people come from time to time, but basically in these settings kava is drank before church as part of the service, after church, or really any time of the day in some way pertaining to church and on church grounds. It’s an extremely respectable event full of serious talk and tradition. If the fiekava is equivalent to an upscale wine bar, then the Kalapu would be the blue collared pub. Men, mostly younger men and those who work in the bush during the day, come to hang out, drink kava, smoke, tell stories and jokes, and sing. Kalapus are also interesting because they are generally fundraisers, either for a community organization or a particular person. Because most Tongans don’t have bank accounts (ideas of savings and money and currency are very different here) a lot of men belong to different kalapus, and hold fundraisers for themselves throughout the year, with all the members taking turns. They money is then stored in the kalapu’s account and given out on certain dates to the men who have had their own kalapus, which are attended by all other members as well as some non-members.

As a mandatory Peace Corps cultural activity, each village had to hold it’s own kalapu and donate the money to a community organization. We had to buy and make the kava, advertise our event, and attend and run the logistics. Now, you may be thinking, hmmm, only men are allowed to drink kava- how could PC trainee females possibly participate? Which brings us to another aspect of the kava circle: to’a. Single (unmarried) women attend kava to to’a (pronounced do-ah) aka sit in a circle full of men in a particular way (with your legs to the side and tucked under you) and serve them kava for hours. Awesome. In return, you get to enjoy the esteemed company of these fine gentlemen, the privilege of pouring ladles of gray smelly water into halved coconut shells for hours on end, and listening to the fine conversation, which mostly consists of said gentlemen teasing and making fun of you and proposing marriage spontaneously. In Tongan culture, this is also one of the only ways to “date”: a boy can ask a girl he likes to to’a for him and he’ll come sit next to her in her circle and talk and flirt all while being harassed and taunted mercilessly by all of his friends, who have come along for support and to enjoy the fun. But, as I am decidedly not looking to date any Tongans, this angle wasn’t really pertinent, and I was left with my own kava circle: a 10 gallon bucket of kava, a plastic ladle, 5 coconut shell cups, and 20-30 Tongan men, none of whom spoke English. I know I’m being a bit sarcastic, and in reality it wasn’t horrible. But, speaking very little Tongan, and only understanding about 15% of what was said to me, never mind about me, and existing solely to serve the men, wasn’t exactly my idea of a good time. I did get a number of marriage proposals, a fair amount from already married men, and, if there’s one thing you need to understand about Tongan culture it’s that everything is a joke or fakakata pe (joking/teasing) - the most valuable skill we’ve needed so far is the ability to laugh at ourselves- so it really wasn’t bad. And the village apparently loved the pelangi to’a; there was a higher turnout at our kalapu than they’ve had in months and we raised over 500 pa‘anga (Tongan currency) for the village scholarship fund. Nevertheless, I can’t see myself to’a-ing again in the foreseeable future, and I’m sure the mental image of me sitting demurely and serving Tongan men will give you all a good laugh.

Homestay Part 1: Vava'u

Malo e lelei!

I'm officially at my homestay in Leimatu'a on the island of Vava'u. Everything is going really well so far- the people and my host family are so so nice! My host mom is Helena and my father is Samu. Theyhave 3 small boys- David, who's about 2ish, Losa- 1ish, and Leiwho is 11. Samu is a teacher at primary school, so he can speak English pretty well, and Helena knows a very little bit. But, they have been instructed specifically not to, so we just speak faka Tonga, and I'm pretty lost most of the time. But they just laugh at me (they laugh at everything and everyone) and I'm smiling, laughing, and trying to figure it out!

We got here yesterday morning, and the day was spent eva pe- which means wandering around but includes walking, driving, sitting, loitering-everything- just hanging out! My mom and two of her friends showed me town (Neiafu), the market, the ocean- while teasing me, buying me ice cream,and laughing and singing the whole time. It's really something-everyone is ridiculously friendly and the whole community is completely open. Everyone shares/takes everything and all the doors seem to be always open.

There was an elopement yesterday, so that was the big talk of the town, so to speak, in the weaving hut. In the evening, all the women walked over to the chief's house to watch his adopted daughter and her new husband come w. the minister to ask for forgiveness. He accepted with a lot of joking, and then the groom's family shot and butchered this huge pig as a gift, which was something. They cut it up, and then everyone who had come to watch got a hunk of pig to take back home.Try to picture a dozen or so women, and me!, walking through the roads carrying large pieces of pig carcass- it was awesome.

My host mom is making me a puletaha- traditional Tongan skirt and shirt outfit for church so I'll be sure to try and get photos up when I can! The only thing that is uncomfortable is how respectful they are to all us PCVs. They have cleared out a whole room in their house for each of us, they cook us amazing meals and won't let us help or clean up (although I'mg oing to find a way!) and they even have us eat alone- which is a sign of respect (faka'apa'apa) but it does make me feel a bit uncomfortable. But hopefully in a few weeks I will have settled in and be able to communicate and understand Tongan better!

Water Safety, Lotu, and Preperation for Homestay

I'm in the Volunteer lounge on our last night in Nuku'alofa before we head out to Vava'u and our homestays for the next 6 weeks. Since the scary boat is missing an engine and not running this week we're flyingout tomorrow morning (yay!) around 7am and starting our homestays a bit early.

I am definitely a bit nervous for homestay given mycomplete lack of Tongan language skills. But I'm excited to learn and,with any luck, I'll be conversational at the end of 6 weeks. I'm also really excited to learn about how basic household tasks are carried out in a Tongan village- everything from washing clothes, to bucket showers, to making coconut cream, and I really hope my host family will be able to teach me all of this. Plus, a little basket weaving orcoconut husking would come in handy too.

Saturday we had water safety training, directly after learning about the pages and pages of deadly and dangerous water creatures thatpopulate the south Pacific- everything from sharks to stonefish...awesome. Regardless, it was really fun- we went down to the naval base and a few Tongan navy personel conducted the training, which was honestly a glorified swim class. We had to jump of a ship, swim around a lot, tow people (they neveractually taught us how to do this properly...), tread water, and boarda boat from the water. The ocean was beautiful- warm and turquoise-but very very salty. Some people definitely could not swim, including Carole, a 66 year old volunteer, but she got her lifevest and was a great sport! Lots of bonding and team support between all of us trainees, so that was a definite plus as well.

Yesterday (Sunday) was probably one of the best days. We had to meetup and go to church in the morning, and I wasn't too excited about that, obvi. I went with 3 other volunteers to the Catholic church, partially so Robin would be happy (kidding!), but mostly because I wanted to see if it was any different from a Catholic mass back home. Itwasn't at all- only difference was that they spoke in Tongan. Also, the choir was amazingly beautiful. Singing is a huge part of Tongan culture, and this local church sounded incredible- I can't even describe it. Then it was time for the other two staples of Sunday-food and naps! (Seriously, that's all people do on Sunday: go to church, eat a huge feast, and nap- it's wonderful) We went over to the Country Director's house located right on the ocean and had a very boring hour of training and then pig roast feast! Seriously, roasted pig backed in an underground oven that's dug into a hill. Didn't have any of the pig, but there were at least 5 different fish dishes, all of which we delicious (ifo), and tons of fresh mango, papaya, banana, watermelon, and coconut. The CD, Jeffery, opened up his house and his photo albums for us, and a handful of us spent a few hours on his porch overlooking tropical paradise.

The next time I write, I'll be in Vava'u: reputedly the friendliest of the "friendly islands" and the hottest!

Malo e lelei!

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.