Just realized that I've been here for over seven months now! It was a harrowing experience to begin with since, unlike the Americans who come enmasse with their language training classes and group get togethers, I am only the second Canadian volunteer to Tonga...and I came alone, landing at the airport with no ride in sight and no idea where the h*ll I was going. Luckily, after sitting there for about an hour I spotted a Nun in a car waiting for someone and I asked for a ride to the school..which I had the name of, but not the phone number...not that I had a phone anyway! It turned out that the Principal thought I was coming on a later flight!! The housing which was supposed to be ready for me at the school had evaporated and so I was put into the guest house where I lived for 5 months, going for days at a time speaking to almost no one b/c I couldn't speak Tongan and staying in my room reading every night b/c I was told not to walk alone after dark in Tonga. Wow, so glad I've moved!
For the first few months my second home was the internet cafe at the wharf where I could speak to the staff in English and get my email and facebook fix. Most of the english speakers I met were tourists so there was little chance to develop any friendships and to put the icing on the cake, the two english speaking volunteers, Daniel from Canada and Chris from Australia, packed up stakes and left in December,2 months after I arrived. Bummer!!
Oh, well, we Canadians are a resiliant bunch and I threw myself into the library work and worked over the 2 month school break almost non-stop..gave myself a treat at Christmas (to avoid a nervous break-down) and went to a resort--alone! I always knew there was a reason for being an only child...I'm used to being on my own! Good thing!
I can say now however, that the people are great, the work I'm doing is very satisfying and it's particularly gratifying to see the students using the library so much, both boys and girls. All the mountains of text books have been taken to the resource room which, with the help of Jen & Mark, my neighbours, has been cleared of garbage. After about 30 trips up the stairs to the teacher's room carrying books, I've managed to get a nice collection up there for them to browse through and I hope use for their classes. Since Mohammed wouldn't come to the mountain, I brought the mountain to Mohammed.
There are still a few annoyances...like the toilet in the admin bldg which was "fixed" by sticking a screwdriver into the flushing mechanism and left to rust away and the lock on the resource room door (I had to practically knock the previous library keeper over the head to get the key away from her) which worked when I used it on Thursday but did not work when I tried it on Friday because it had been bent..funny thing, while I was hammering at it and swearing, the maintenance guy, Fia, came round with a new lock to put on...God heard me!! (Thank you) However, overall, things are much improved and that includes my outlook.
Although my Tongan is still less than rudimentary I can appreciate a good party and we had a great time at a recent social last Friday night (the 3 glasses of wine helped too). It was a gathering for a teacher who was leaving b/c he had a foot amputated due to diabetes...of course there were long speeches and prayers but there was also much laughter, an Olivia Newton John song (in english) played and sang by the principal and deputy principal and the crowd, mainly me, great food and a good time had by all.
This Friday evening, the first Friday of the month, there is a small gathering at the Australian High Commission for volunteers, so I will be attending that with one of the teachers and the new Australian volunteer nurse.
So, the weather now is very nice, the bugs have mysteriously disappeared from my apartment (could have something to do with the daily bug spraying) and I'm learning a little more Tongan and a lot more sign language. The students (and teachers) come to me for help with their english and when we can't understand each other we gesture a lot and make various expressive signals with our eyebrows...it's fun!
Today a young lady came into the library with two very long numbers on a crumpled up piece of foolscap...after many false starts I began to understand that these were numbers from a phone card she had found and that she wanted me to put them into my cel phone to see if they were still good to get credit on. OK, I'm game..I entered the first one and Voila! I now had another $3.00 credit. When I showed her that it had worked and asked her if she wanted to use my phone, which is what I thought she wanted, she said no, she wanted to sell me the $3.00 credit..OK, I gave her the $3.00. Lucky for me it wasn't a $50.00 credit
Lots of time for yoga and tai chi, reading and internet...have begun going to bed at unheard of hours like 9 pm and getting up to greet the new day at 5 am. Life is good and I'm so glad I came.
Hope everyone is well at home, Love to all, Mom/Penny
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Hey, over the hump, well done and congratulations you are still sane and can talk about it all!! It does take time to adjust Penny in another culture and you have done it.
ReplyDeleteHad a good laugh about the $3 credit, the students are not behind the fence. Chris x