Coastal Clean up

This is a video I made for our non-profit VEPA, the Vava'u Environmental Protection Association. It's just some footage from a small costal clean up we held in a village called 'Utungake. You can find more information about our projects on our website.

I've taken so much video footage here in Tonga that I haven't looked at, edited, and posted.....and I'm now realizing that could be a pretty great way to share my experiences. So hopefully I'll get my act together, and put some neat little videos up here soon.

Thanks for checking my blogs.
peace & love,
sas

The Legend of ‘Eneio

Ene- tickle
Io- yes

One day a man was walking along and met a witch. The witch’s mouth was clamped shut. “Open your mouth!” he demanded. But she refused. “Open!” he asked again. But she didn’t peep a word. The man wasn’t one to give up, so he decided to try and tickle her. Sure enough the witch couldn’t hold it in any longer. Her mouth cracked open to say "yes" and a flood of water came gushing out. ‘Eneio has been there ever since.

Just down the road from my house: Eneio beach

Snapshot from my Village 2

“Splaaat!” goes the mango seed as I hurl it into the bushes. I’m surrounded by a treasure’s worth of these delicious little fruits. When Cyclone Rene hit Tonga last week, it shook the trees silly, and now the ground is literally covered. Round, oval, big, small, green, yellow, red, orange…. I’ve been told there are 5 different types of mangoes on the island, and they come in all shapes and sizes. My belly is full and the juice is already dribbling down my face and shirt, but I can’t stop eating these sweet and tart treats. Susana, an 11 year old from my village, has loaded up her shirt with as many fruits as she can fit to bring along.

We walk to the beach and see that it’s low tide. “We should have brought a net” My friend Ha mumbles. She loves collecting creatures from the sea. I follow her in the water down a path of sand through the coral. I wish I knew the names of all the different invertebrates we see crawling around. Susana picks up a sea slug and it squirts out a long thin slimy liquid. An 8 year old boy named Isi comes running up behind us with a purple and black sea urchin.  “These are delicious” Ha explains as we watch Isis beat the urchin with a rock and pull off the outer layer of white spikes. He disposes of the brown guts inside and reveals a few slivers of orange slime that he dips his finger in and puts to his lips. All the kids share a taste.

We keep walking. Ha wants to find “moule o ne”, a grey sea hare with magnificent purple ink that spills out when you cut it open. She eats the white egg inside, and tells me the black egg is “kona”, poison. Her knowledge of the sea is precious, and has been passed down for generations. She picks out some heavy big rocks that I help her lift to see what’s underneath. Crabs scurry into hiding, and a splash of water spurts up as an eel quickly slinks away. She doesn’t find any more moule o ne.

We make it to the other shore and start back towards the village, stopping a few more times to pick up mangoes. “I love acting like a kid” Ha tells me. She’s turning 21 on Thursday. “Me too” I laugh, “I think that’s why we’re friends”.  We’ve arrived in the village and I’m thinking out loud. “Man, this has been a great day” I have to say. Ha turns around with a smile and says in perfect English, “Just another day in paradise.”

It’s a boy!

In Tonga the word “fakahingoa” means to give someone your name, and people quite frequently honor friends and family in this way when a baby is born. Still, I was very shocked and honored to hear that my co-teacher named his new son after me, “Siosiua”, which means Siosi 2. Siosi is my name in Tongan, and 2 is the number of years I will have helped at the school as a Peace Corps. Born on Feb 10^th 2010, I’m proud and excited to introduce Siosiua to the world.

Reflections on Small Island living

 “Can you bring these gifts to my uncle in Salt Lake?” Siliote asked me the day before my flight home for Christmas.

“I’m sorry I’m going to California” I explained, “It’s very far from Utah”
“Oh” she replied disappointed.
“Kind of like Tonga and Fiji….I would have to take a plane”

Tonga is a country where everybody seems to know everybody with 2 degrees of separation or less. Villages consist of a few key extended families, and often as soon as you hear someone’s last name, you can usually find out a lot about them.

My journey home for the holidays was like a return to another world. I could have sat in LAX people watching for hours; mesmerized by all the strangers, and the eclectic mix of cultures busily bustling around. The human traffic at the airport felt bigger than the entire population of my island (Vava’u only has 20,000 people).

But as soon as the car came honking to pick me up, I was swept right back into my old life. It was so wonderful to be with friends and family again! It wasn’t really until my last week home that I felt how disoriented I was wandering out of my island bubble. As I sat in my old bedroom, for a split second it felt like my life in Tonga wasn’t real.

It was a bit far to visit Siliote’s uncle in Salt Lake, so instead I went to see a couple of families related to my village living in N. California. My student’s brother lives in Palo Alto and my home stay family’s daughter and son live in San Mateo. It was absolutely wonderful to meet them. Seeing these extended family members transported me right back to my island again. Here we were miles away from Tonga, but so much of the culture stayed the same.  The family immediately wrapped me up in warm welcomes, and I went right back into babbling away in Tongan, sharing laughs and smiles.

It’s reassuring to remember that America, land of immigrants, has pockets of Tongan communities I will be able to stay connected with in the future. These two years don’t make up some solitary experience that will just end when I leave. Rather, I will forever communicate with the families and friends I have come to know so well out here, and no matter where the next adventure takes me Tonga will always be a part of my life.

This one's for you, Mom....

See if you can find “where’s waldo”…I’ve never claimed to be much of a dancer.

A Shameless Plug

Check out the website I made at www.vavauenvironment.org for the non-profit environmental conservation group we started in Vava'u. Malo!