Malo e le lei!
I finally made it to Tonga!!! It has been a crazy week or so ( it honestly feels way longer). We landed in Tonga this past Saturday, after a couple days of training in Fiji. We landed in Tonga, went through customs (this talented girl left her passport and ticket on the plane as we got off, thought I should really make the experience memorable…) Good news though, the flight crew was kind enough to run out to the plane and find it for me, so I made it safely to and into the Kingdom of Tonga. Woohoo!!!
After we landed, we collected the collective mass of luggage from our whole group as we waited for everyone to go through immigration/customs. We were greated by the best welcoming party ever, current Peace Corps Volunteers and staff, who warmly welcomed us to Tonga with excited shouts and wonderfully smelling lei’s. We then loaded up and took a bus into the capital, Nuku’alofa to Peace Corps Headquarters. There we unloaded our one bag we didn’t need for home stay, and ate dinner with the other volunteers (current and new). We received our phones and were then rushed to Nuku Nuku, where we are staying for training. We met our home stay parent or parents and went home that night with them.
My home stay family is wonderful, there are three boys (ages 12, 7, and 3) and my host mother and father. They have been so welcoming and friendly, and I have really enjoyed my experience so far. However, I have to admit the first night we got dropped off (we were literally adopted at the church and went home with our host parent) I was definitely feeling the way you do when your parents drive off, as they drop you for your first weekend of college, just amplified by 10! It worked out though, and I am settling in more and more each day.
On Sunday I went to church, and I was dressed up in the traditional dress (with a tupenu or tied skirt on bottom, and the tavala long grass skirt/mat on top).
(At church with my fellow volunteers (Chiara, Liz, Kevini, Me, & Alex)
After church we had the traditional lu (which is typically made with a meat of some kind, we had corned beef and beef cooked in coconut milk, wrapped in taro leaves, it’s delicious!) It is cooked in an underground pit and is started early in the morning before church (at 10 am) and is ready to eat when church is done!
Since Monday, we have been in training pretty much all day, with language classes at night. There has been a lot of information in the past few days, and culture shock is definitely a thing ( I have to admit I was expecting it, but between jet lag and just the idea that this is finally happening is still pretty crazy). However Tonga is a beautiful place and the people are hilarious and so kind hearted, that settling in will not be super difficult.
So far the hardest part, has really just been taking it all in, which I am sure will get easier with time.
Palangi out!
(P.S Palangi just means foreigner or white person, not really sure the exact translation, but it’s definitely funny to get called pretty much everywhere I go!)
