Day 10: Saturday
Morning run and facetime attempt? Got ready for shopping in town around 9:30. We left, bought my ukelele! Donuts:) It rained. Came home dropped groceries and then went to the caves. Wes’ family came with us. The couple, their three kids, and their two cousins. We had a tour guide walk us to the cave and through to the back where there is a sanote or a pool of fresh water. (Hey friends! Remember these from Mexico!? haha And our tour guide Steve??) This one is about 9 feet deep so you can swim in it and jump in from the rocks and cliffs in the cave. We all jumped in the first time which is about 8 feet up, maybe, and then Dr. Patch has been here before so all of the sudden he climbs up to another height of probably 20 feet or so and after we double check that its deep enough and then use the flashlights, the only source of light in the cave that we have, him and Alexa jumped. One by one people started climbing and trying it until eventually almost everyone jumped off this rocky edge; most conquering fears of heights, myself included. haha We keep using the phrase, When in Tonga... or Yolo to get us to do and try stuff. haha It just reminded me when I went cliff jumping in Lake Powell for my first time. That was like 50 feet though and I landed in a chair position and about broke my legs. haha I just scratched up my foot on the jump so it wasn’t too bad. One time is pretty good for me though. ;) haha After we all jumped and swam around a little bit and took some pictures, we got out and ate dinner up on a grassy area away from the beach and cave. Wes’ family, I wish I knew their last name, but I guess it works because they are his family, prepared a pig and taro which is basically potatoes. There are lots of things that taste like potato. haha I love the purple potatoes here the best. They’re way sweet and just delicious. :) Well, less people ate the pig this time. Haha I still pulled out a big chunk and pulled through my piece for some meat and ate potatoes while one of the cousins, Kenny, climbed a few cocoanut trees for us. haha It was amazing watching him do it and even more amazing after several girls in the group tried to just get on the tree to start to climb and couldn't do it. Wes’ family was laughing pretty hard at the whole thing and some of the girls were way nervous when he climbed the second tree because he started out by climbing a small mango tree and then basically jumping from that one to the palm tree and then up to the top where he just held on to the giant leaves and used his feet to kick down about 20 cocoanuts which had to have weighed around 10 pounds each. After he kicked them all down he came down the two trees, all bare foot and way fast, and then the other cousin, Mek, used a machete to cut open about 5 or 6 for us to drink. The cocoanut milk is really fresh and tastes like watered down sweet, milk. It’s really good and really refreshing. Bethany loves it. hahaha I think she almost downed a whole cocoanut to herself. And those things are full! After laughing pretty hard about everyone’s reactions to the tree climbing, and enjoying the refreshing tropical drinks, we climbed back in the truck and followed the family out. We drove into town to eat another dinner at a really delicious restaurant called Cafe Escape that the vice principal took us to lunch. We wanted to go for Dr Santos’ birthday and eat there before she leaves Tuesday, but when we pulled up it was closed. There were a lot of funerals going on all over today so we were thinking they must have had something to be at since it was only 6:00 when we got to the restaurant. We ended up driving around for almost an hour looking for a pizza restaurant until we finally settled on one in town that we had passed several times. haha Remember everyone in the back was still wet from the cave so it was an especially long hour for them. When we finally got to Sam’s Pizza, as it is called, everyone was so happy to finally arrive and get out of the truck and know we were going to be eating somewhere. We stopped by a place called Little Italy which makes really good pizza and is a pretty ritzy restaurant, but when we walked in they all the tables reserved and said there wasn’t any availability for a group our size. We ordered five large pizzas, all of them delicious and $30 each.... in pa’angas. haha So they were about $13 in American money. And really...we didn’t care. We just wanted to eat. It kept raining off and on all day and night, so we sat under the little roof covering that came out from the restaurants and stores and waited for our pizzas to be cooked. After about a half hour we had our first one, cheese, fresh pineapple, and ham. It was delicious. And then we got a cheese one as well. Then about every ten minutes after that we got another one until we consumed four full pizzas in about 30 minutes and then put all the left over pieces together in one box and took them home. I was exhausted by the time we got home and just changed into dry clothes and got ready for bed. Dr. Santos came out and gave me this cute, wonderful little packet of art supplies and a cool sketchbook that she brought for each of us art teachers to keep and fill out while we are here in Tonga. There were some really neat mediums so of course I had to stay up and play with them! haha I stayed for about an hour trying out all of the new fun art supplies while listening to John Bytheway, The Five Scriptures That Will Get You Through Just About Anything. haha And yes that’s the real title. I have it on my phone from when I took an ipod on my mission. I listened to this talk one Pday and just loved it. I have listened to it several times since then and really appreciate his perspective and humor on life. The scriptures are wonderful that he gives and really brought a lot of peace and comfort to me when I was out in Chile and still do every time I listen to it. I thought doodling and listening to that would get me prepared for Sunday. By the time I finally went back to my room, everyone was asleep. I slept really good and then woke up to a rainy Sabbath. :)
Day 11: Sunday
Lua was right about the choirs. Janell and I went to the Tongan ward across the street just for sacrament meeting and even though it was really neat to listen to the hymns in Tongan, we couldn’t figure out which one they were singing nor was it as booming and powerful as the first ward we went to last Sunday. I’m glad that everyone got to experience that for our first Sunday. Mr Musicman Lua is incredible. :) After sacrament I went back to the Liahona 1st ward for the rest of church and afterwards met with the mission president’s wife, Sister Tupou, and met her two kids, Jesse and Thomas. They are originally from Alaska and are “adjusting” to Tonga. haha They are really awesome.
After church I walked over to the edge of campus and read for awhile by the temple, and then went and skyped with my sisters for a little bit. The connection was really good and clear and probably only cut out like five times.....;) haha But really, that’s good for the wifi here and I was grateful. Well, we just had a nice long relaxing Sunday and all were asleep by 10:00.
Day 12: Monday
I didn’t have my phone since it was charging out in the living room. None of the outlets work in the bathrooms or bedrooms so we get ready in the living room or kitchen and plug everything into the outlets out there. Not having my cell phone means that I didn’t have an alarm so I just relied on hearing either the really awesome roosters who we love so much......... not. haha They are beautiful and are everywhere and I’m grateful for chicken and eggs, but these little birds start crowing at 5 or 5:30 and the sound that comes out of them is not a normal cock-a-doodle-doo. hahaha I thought an animal was dying somewhere in the fields the first time I heard it. Just kidding, it’s not that bad. We’re used to it now. haha Well, I got up and got ready. Some of the girls made cinnamon toast for breakfast for all of us. It was really nice and tasted really good. I taught today with Dr Santos observing me for the first time. We were on assembly schedule because a speaker, a tongan woman that had interned in the white house from January to July of this year, came to speak to the students. I really enjoyed her talk and hearing her story. I ended up using it in class to segue into my lesson. Her first name is MIkita Tonga but all throughout her internship and being in college she went by Tonga so everyone knew where she was originally from although she was born and raised in Oregon. She has accomplished some really great things and since we are learning about sign writing and self identity, we are making name posters using the skills we have been working on the past week. I told them to think about their names and what they mean. I wrote my whole name on the board, which I loved hearing them read, especially my last name.:) I talked about my middle name and how May is a common middle name in the States but I got the different spelling of Mae from my grandma and great grandma. I have always been kind of proud of sharing my middle name with them and having a piece of them to live up to as they were both incredible women and great examples to me. Well, I think they got excited about the assignment and got to working after that. I have to mention that I have adjusted to some aspects of teaching pretty quickly. I can’t believe it’s only been a week because I feel like I have been here much longer than that and I feel like I already know these students pretty well. I love them all, first of all. haha They are all so funny in their own way and have such great personalities and talents. I do get after them already though, and I think they’re starting to get a feel for me. I use a little of the “Tonga way” and mainly my coaching skills from Bingham to express myself when they aren’t following directions or they try to leave class before the bell rings. haha I really connected with one of my form 4 classes today, though. I really loved that. I think I will always have a soft spot for kids 14-16 years old. It started with that first year of coaching sophomore basketball!;) haha I really do love them all though and I love teaching. I still have lots to work on and it was good talking to Dr Santos afterwards to get some good feedback for next time. She’s actually leaving tomorrow night already. We went out for her departure and to celebrate Luciba’s birthday, one of the other teachers here. We finally made it to Cafe Escape! I love that restaurant. haha And afterwards I got introduced to some amazing ice cream from a Burger place in town that I will most definitely be visiting again. :)
Well, having one week down is pretty crazy. It has already been quite the adventure and there are still six weeks of teaching left and another three weeks of traveling on top of that. Here are some of the things I’ve learned in my week of student teaching and being here in Tonga: 1. I love watching the sunrise on a horizon of palm trees. 2. I love the smell of salt and ocean all the time. 3. I love being a teacher. I couldn’t stop smiling the first day we were walking through the “halls” or sidewalks under a small roof since the whole school is outside. I was so happy to have my little bag and heading off to the art room and walking by all of the students and saying hello and good morning. 4. I love reading good books. 5. All high school aged students act the same no matter where they are in the world. haha I have my good students, my bad students, my punk students, my hard working students, my quiet and shy students, and my students that talk and joke and of course every class has the class clown. 6. I love Tongan art and I love my Tongan students. Their art skills blow me away every time I watch them work. I’m impressed every day and they seem to do it effortlessly.
I’m so grateful to be here and I’m so grateful to be in this phase of my education. Every day I get reassured I am in the right profession. I love that.
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