Things I find __________ about Tonga PART II

Hilarious...
"Tongan cholo" sighting. Wish I had a pic. This guy was Tongan, light skin, strong facial features, had short hair, a white tee, a black tupenu, white socks pulled up, and tennis shoes and he was relatively short. He was out clubbing.

Tongan older women who don't understand English, gathering to watch a Filipino flick with English subtitles and discussing their interpretations of what is going on in the movie.

The Tongan pick up line: “You are beautiful like a swimming pool.” Or if you prefer the longer version: "You are beautiful like a swimming pool full of water."

“Lea ki he lo.” Tonga’s version of the phrase “Talk to the hand” which to Tongan ears sounds like: “Talk to the ant”. Hahahahaha. So “Lea ki he lo” literally means “talk to the ant” but said when you feel like you are being ignored. (This phrase may or may not have stemmed from the American, “Talk to the hand” but it’s funny anyway.)

Different...

Many things.
Laundry
Cooking
Shopping
Driving
Sports
No hot water
No tv - well not at my house
No movie theater (it was destoyed in the riots)
Some family asking for money all the time
Never seen so many drunk tongan men before
Drinking water system
Things to do in my 'free time'
Interactions on the street
No pedestrian has the right of way
Video rental places
Availibility of produce
Sporadic rainfall
Cyclone warnings
etc...

Physical touch. It is not normal to see a Tongan couple show each other affection. It's rare to see a couple holding hands or even one resting their head on the shoulder of their significant other. It is normal however for individuals of the same sex to hold hands, hug to keep the other person warm or lean on each other. This is mostly normal in the states between girls but it is different with the guys. Where in the states, these instances of physical tough between guys would look “gay” in Tonga it is as normal as when you see two sisters linking arms.

Annoying...

#1 on the list: Terrible customer service! Tourists, beware. It’s worse than the pigs that tear up my yard or the 5 million dogs that use my yard as an outhouse!!! There seems to be no such thing as the customer is always right or service with a smile in Tonga. It’s more like service with a smell. They look at you like you smell when they serve you. It’s true. You are inconveniencing them by asking them for a service. I don't know exactly what it is. So far there is a short list of exceptions in my book which is a list of one and that is Teta Tours.

Club-like security at Tongan-Mormon dances.

Good news! I am kutu free!

Meaning I don’t have lice! 7 months in Tonga without kutu! Something to cherish.

Tonga Women's Touch Rugby

A side project I am working on is Tonga Women's Touch Rugby. It's part of an effort to promote sports and healthly living for Tongan local youth girls.

We play touch at Teufaiva field every week on Thursday at 5pm and are working towards popularizing the sport.

The main sport for Tonga's local girls is basketball (not like the basketball we see in the states, more like netball) which has a short season during the Christmas school break vacation. We are trying to create a year round program for basketball so that there will be more girls engaged in physical fitness throughout the year and not just for few months.

More later.

Tonga National Canoe Festival October 1 - 13th, 2007

The Tonga National Canoe Festival is a youth project I am working on with the Tonga National Youth Congress.

The project's main focus is to revive the almost lost art of Tonga canoe carving. We are bringing together 6 master canoe carvers native to Tonga to teach 30 youth to carve a traditional Tongan canoe. There are 5 teams with 6 youth each. Each team represents one of Tonga's island groups: Tongatapu team, 'Eua team, Ha'apai team, Vava'u team, and a combined Niuas team. We will be documenting the whole event from the aquiring of the wood to the launch of the freshly carved canoes on the final day of the festival and the youth interactions with the elder master carvers throughout.

I will soon post photos of our trip to aquire the wood with our head master carver. I am excited about this project as it gains momentum up to October.

Here are the photos:
http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/vanessa.tuione/TongaCanoeFestival

Riding the bus in Tonga

FAKA'UHA TIME!!! = RAIN BATH