In a year and a half I have…
1. Learned
how to eat the bones and heads of fish clean, and to chew on and suck the
marrow free from the bones of the staple animal parts that appear at every
meal;
2. Eaten
dog, horse, got brains, pig ears and feet (as well as almost every other part),
sea urchin, sea cucumber, a number of other sea creatures I don’t know the
names of, and even sea turtle;
3. Been
a tou’a, serving kava at men’s kava
circles (faikava) and clubs (kalapu) in between intermittent renditions of love songs played by
callused, hard-worked hands strumming easily on wooden ukuleles and guitars
while accompanied by a range of voices from deep, throaty baritones to smooth
sopranos until all hours of the morning;
4. Been
persistently courted by Tongan men with fresh pineapples, watermelons and
coconuts;
5. Eaten
raw fish straight from the sea, marinated only in the fresh, clear salt water
of Ha’apai;
6. Drank
kava, soaked in natural hot springs, roamed up and down the rows of fish,
produce and handicrafts at markets, swung from a rope into freshwater pools,
and walked along abandoned train tracks through fields of sugar cane in Fiji;
7. Been
body-slammed (and still left last woman standing) by sturdy Tongan women twice
my weight during evening games of the island-wide summer papolo league;
8. Lived
primarily off of the rainwater collected in concrete water tanks during the
seasonal rains;
9. Fought
a daily battle against armies of ants that come in at least 27 different breeds
and find their way into everything I own (sealed jars of peanut butter, bags of
sugar, etc.), nests of cockroaches, ever-present flies, demonic, overgrown
centipedes sneaking in through cracks in the floors and walls, rats living in the
cupboards beneath my sink, seemingly drunken, suicide-prone crickets, spiders
the size of my palm hanging out in ceiling corners, termites eating away at my
chair and doors, stinkbugs creeping along my shelves, and months of persistent
lice;
10. Taught
English, computer skills, and fitness and nutrition to students at the primary
and secondary levels;
11. Learned a
traditional Tongan dance (tau’olunga)
in one day and performed it in front of a crowd of people at the opening
ceremony of a completed Tonga Water Board project;
12. Camped in
caves by the sea, using palm fronds as a mat to sleep on;
13. Watched
boys climb coconut trees, toss down heavy green coconuts from 35 feet up in the
air, shimmy down and use a bush knife to crack them open for me to drink the
slightly fizzy, freshly sweet water inside;
14. Helped to start a monthly girls’ hiking
club aimed to encourage young girls to explore our island and to lead
nutritionally healthy and active lifestyles;
15. Translated
a series of children’s stories from Tongan to English to expand English
literacy materials in primary school classrooms;
16. Biked for
miles along still-dark bush roads to see wild horses roaming the cliffs at the
Southern tip of our island at sunrise;
17. Been
chased and circled—and bitten only once—by dogs both on foot and while riding
my bike;
18. Walked
with the neighborhood kids during rainy downpours along the pot-hole strewn,
dirt and gravel main road of our island splashing and jumping in murky puddles the
size of small lakes;
19. Been
chased through the bush and stung up and down my legs and booty by a swarm of
bees;
20. Skinny
dipped on isolated beaches at all times of the day: sunrise, midday and after
dark;
21. Learned
how Tongans use every part of a coconut and tree for cooking, gardening, making
handicrafts etc.;
22. Gotten
lost and found in the bush;
23. Had boils
in inconvenient places;
24. Bathed
with cold water out of a bucket;
25. Used a
handheld fan woven from coconut palm fibers as my personal, and only,
air-regulation system;
26. Raised a
baby pig that was rescued by my neighbors from some dogs;
27. Started
weaving a traditional Tongan ta’ovala;
28. Worked on
building libraries at both my primary and secondary schools;
29. Learned to
speak Tongan (not yet fluently);
30. Learned to
basic Tongan braid (Tongans do it better than the French);
31. Scraped
out a coconut to make a kava cup;
32. Learned
how to make traditional Tongan foods in the underground oven (‘umu) such as lu and vai lesi;
33. Watched
animals be slaughtered and roasted over fires or baked in underground ovens;
34. Read
Tongan hymns at church on Sundays;
35. Slept on
bathroom floors during bouts of food poisoning;
36. Gone
swimming with whales;
37. Snuck out
to the local warehouse turned nightclub in ‘Eua (falehulohula) to boogy the night away with Tongans ranging in age
from infant to 92;
38. Lived
without a refrigerator or oven;
39. Reunited
with friends from high school and college, and slept in a rented camper van on
a beach in Maui after toasting tequila shots to a lifetime of travel and
reunions;
40. Spent one
day learning to surf and one day nearly drowning in the surf in Oahu;
41. Struggled through
26.2 miles of the Maui Marathon alongside my brother and sister;
42. Drank red
wine at an opera, and cruised on a boat in the Sydney Harbour;
43. Gone
canyoning in the icy water running from the mountains, bungy jumped off a
43-meter high bridge to be dunked up to my hips in the river below, hiked for
three miles along rough and scenic terrain of the Routeburn Track in
Queenstown, New Zealand;
44. Watched
seals basking on rocks in the sun while sailing and kayaking in the tea-stained
water of Doubtful Sound in the Fjordland National Park of New Zealand’s south
island;
45. Woken up
to minor earthquakes shaking the foundation of my home, and cyclone (Winston)
force winds blowing rain through the cracks in my windows to partially flood my
home…
Here is the link to a video I’ve
compiled that will give just a glimpse into what life in Tonga has been like
over the past year and a half:
Cheers to another year of
adventure.
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