Placement Rumors

Cultural day is finally over! It is such a relief. It was one of those days that are great laughs for everyone, except for us trainees. We showed off our Tongan handicrafts, did our skits, and performed Tongan dances with our villages.

The day had started off fairly crappy. I had a high fever the night before, didn't get much sleep, and was really out of it by the morning. I took some medicine and within the hour I was good to go!  I made ufi and showed my host family how to make sweet and sour chicken. They had no teriyaki sauce so I had to change my earlier plans. I also had to do a lot of improvising since they had no oil, stove, oven, or baking powder. The chicken ended up coming out like Chicken McNuggets, but still tasted pretty good.

After our culture day was over, our town had interviews with the Peace Corps placement officer. I had a fairly good hint as to where I’ll be stationed and what I would be doing. The project would be IT stuff at a new radio station (with rumors of possible airtime) and setting up / maintaining a new computer center.

I already have some pretty grand plans for the computer center. Supposedly in a few weeks (Tongan time can be much longer), shipments of some hand-me-down computers will arrive. Setting this up would be easy and I have some plans to teach the Microsoft suite of programs, basic computer setup / maintenance, and maybe even some computer science, depending on how advance the class is.

The difficult and time consuming part isn’t in simply completing the project; it’s about building sustainability by showing and explaining this to a Tongan counterpart. Depending on the types and the quantity of computers we get, I’m hoping to get the community together to play some network games. Can we say LAN Party with 40 computers?! I’ve started asking friends to send copies of old school games (that are not very graphically intensive) like Quake 3 arena, Starcraft, Warcraft 1 / 2, and a few educational programs like Photoshop, a compiler for C#, MySQL server, etc.

One of the biggest personal challenges will be adjusting to the location. I knew that after training, our group would be split up. I just didn’t expect to be located on an island with, at most, one other volunteer from my group. I'm trying to be optimistic; even though I really love this training group, I know there are great people everywhere and no matter where I go, I’ll end up meeting more. I do hope that I can visit the training group once every other month or every third month.

On Monday we’ll find out for sure where we’ll spend the next 2 years of our life. Next Saturday we’ll be back to the capital and I can pick up my guitar (thanks very much to my family). In three weeks, we’ll hopefully all be sworn in and become volunteers. It’s an exciting time. As much as I love training, I can’t wait until training is over so I can set my own schedule again. Now if only we didn’t have to pay the lofty prices for Internet here, everything would just be perfect.

What to do with computers on an island?

Lately I’ve been thinking about one of the challenges with computer centers in Tonga. Here’s my understanding of what usually happens; a Peace Corps volunteer comes into a village and sets up a computer center, the volunteer teaches them the Microsoft suite along with basic computer upkeep, then the volunteer’s two years are up and the computer center falls into decline. Nothing is maintained, electricity bills are not paid, and the center eventually shut downs.

The problem appears to be the motivation in up-keeping a computer center. Keeping a lot of computers running is often a painful task, even for the most hardcore computer admins.  If I were in the villager’s shoes/flip flops and the only thing I had to look forward to with computers were Excel spreadsheets and Word documents, I’d be bored out of my mind.


Here’s my theory on how previous volunteers have introduced computers. They come in with the mindset that they can make the people in their village successful by giving them great skills to put on their resumes. At first, the community takes notice of the volunteer’s work because it’s new. When the novelty wears off, no lasting impression is made. How many people remember any presentation on word / access/ excel?  How is it relevant to their lives when they're on a 5 mile island?


When volunteers introduce marketable skills, only the most committed people (those that are probably trying to get off the island) will fully explore the program. For the average Tongan in Ha'apai, why would you need a computer when there's only a handful of them on the whole island?  There’s very little bait, just simply a lot of mean looking hooks. In my humble opinion, trying to sell the importance of being able to create formulas in Excel to people on a small island smells like a recipe for disaster.  I'd like to try something slightly different; it may work or it may end up being worse, who knows?


Let me start off by asking how many computer gamers are in the Peace Corps? I don’t know statistically, but I’m sure there are very few just because of the conflicting environments. The people applying for the Peace Corps are ready to tough it out without electricity and live in a lean-in for their twenty-seven months whereas gamers are hard pressed to leave their computers and electricity. Peace Corps would be pretty far from the normal gamer’s thoughts.

So here’s one of the relatively few gamers in the Peace Corps (don’t ask how I got here). With that said, why not implement computer games to get the people’s interest? What better way to start off teaching typing than through Mavis Beacon’s car race?


My parents used to make me type at least half an hour on the program 'Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing' before I was allowed to go swimming in our pool or play video games.  I thought it was fruitless at the time, but by the time I was in 3rd grade, I had logged enough hours on my 486 computer that I could easily type 40 words per minute.  By 8th grade, I was typing at a rate of 80 words per minute with a near perfect accuracy rating.  By combining the tedious with the rewards, it kept a fair balance between work and enjoyment.

As people's interest in gaming increases, people could even pay money to enter events like a gaming tournament where the winner receives a portion of the entrance fees and another portion could be used to pay for the upkeep of the computers. The list of ideas goes on and on and I have to say that I’m very psyched. Hell, even if the ideas fall through, I’ll still have a blast playing LAN games with fellow volunteers and the community here.

Computer Specs!

I’m beginning to get some really neat ideas about what I would do with the volunteer position at the radio station and computer center. Well, the radio station has a pretty vague job description right now (although I can see it as a great way of advertising Peace Corps events), but the computer center seems to be a bit of free reign.

Yesterday I went to check out some of the computers at the Peace Corps office and quite frankly, they’re not too shabby. The computers that they were considering giving/ auctioning away were Pentium II 200 MHz, 128 MB of ram, and 2 gigabyte hard drives. While this isn't on the same level that most people are accustomed to in the States, it met my expectations for a developing country.

I heard from the more experienced volunteers that the new computers coming in would be a step ahead (though I don’t know how much of a step) of the current ones sitting in the PC office. I’m hoping they’re at least 400 MHz.

I want to see the reactions of the people who’ve never even seen the 8 bit graphics of a Nintendo when they start playing a Quake III Arena game against a roomful of their peers.

Community Days

The last few days have been fairly busy. All of the villages just finished their 'community days'. Most of the community day activities were just games, with ours being no exception. We had a dj for music, a dance, a faikava with a couple of doa’s (sp? – volunteers from the next village that helped serve kava), a 3 legged race, tug of war, water balloon tosses, duck-duck-goose, and the winners of each competition were awarded candy prizes.

The village next over did a community clean up with the youth, which turned out quite nicely. Our village did a community cleanup and it certainly is a lot of tough, manual labor. The people here sometimes joke that they’re lazy, but I disagree. They’re just tired after a long day’s work. For those that have worked menial, yet physically demanding jobs, they understand the difficulties of trying to accomplish anything, like studying, after 8 hours of work.

Our language classes have been switched up a bit; I guess the Peace Corps are trying to do something new. We’re now grouped under how quickly we’re learning the language. There’s been a bit of instruction overlap (because classes have been taught at different speeds), but overall it seems to be working out quite well. We’re all getting a lot of new vocabulary and picking up on the different ‘styles’ of spoken Tongan. The people in my new class are quite the comedians and although it sounds quite trite; I’m enjoying all of it immensely. I think the Peace Corps would be hard pressed to make a class out of this training group that isn’t fun to be around.

In one more week we’ll find out where we'll be placed. When asked about what I was hoping for, I asked for a place that I could get Internet at home. (I have my fingers crossed) There have been rumors going around about where certain volunteers will get placed and we’re doing quite a lot of speculating. So far it seems like the majority of people will get placed in the capital. In a way, I’m not sure if I’d like to be stationed there. Sure there are the luxuries of electricity, good food, the possibility of hot water, and it’s the main connection point to other islands, but it makes me wonder if its what I really envisioned when I signed up for the Peace Corps.

Oh well, the main factor in determining placement is based upon where our skills can be best used. We’ll see what happens! In a certain twisted kind of way, it’d be funny to be placed in a job that I was completely unqualified for, which is quite the possibility.  Rumor has it that people will be placed in banks, schools, NGOs, and government offices.

Our cultural day is this Friday. I need to make something Tongan, teach my family how to make Teriyaki chicken, practice our group dance, and cook some good ole Tapioka before then! I’ll be sure to bring my camera.  I can’t wait to put up some of the videos / pictures that I’ve taken (once I finally get stationed). There’s less than two weeks left in Haapai and then we’re back to the capital!

Trip to an outer island

There’s a blackout right now so I’m typing using the laptop’s battery. Today’s been another one of those great days. We had a ‘business meeting’ on a fairly remote island with no electricity and only rudimentary plumbing. In other words, we had a meeting for an hour, then got the rest of the day to kick back with other volunteers.

We traveled there on a small Red Cross boat, which so happened to look like the rescue boat. A thought crossed my mind; if this is the rescue boat, what happens if we need to be rescued? I then decided it was better to just let that thought slide.

Before boarding the small boat, the driver mentioned that the capacity was 15 people. We told them we needed to fit 16 Peace Corps Volunteers. He laughed and said he was talking about the weight of Tongans; the boat could easily hold the weight of at least 20 of us 'palangis'. (Tongans weigh quite a bit more than us)

Despite the lack of modern day appliances, the natural beauty of the beaches more than made up for it. We played soccer, football, had a makeshift volleyball game, and went snorkeling to see clam communities. We also learned how to climb coconut trees (where my feet got torn up a bit – coconut trees scratch). All you need to survive on a desert island is a machete and plentiful coconuts.

At one point I was just sitting there wondering; how did I get this lucky? I get to meet lots of great new people and travel to some of the most beautiful places this world has to offer. I still can’t believe this is the Peace Corps!

Earlier Muli and I went to take a stroll around town with the lights out. It was a weird sight. The night is pitch black without any lighting, yet somehow some of the Tongans were still able to see me! Next week will be quite busy. I have my PAKA tools due (which I barely started), our community day activity, and a practice language test. I guess I’ll have to cut down on the beach time a little and concentrate more on language studying.

Sunday Church

We just finished another dance lesson at one of the volunteer home stays. The trainees in our town are getting ready for cultural day (where we’ll do a group dance for the village). We have the first verse down and just learned the second. The volunteer dance instructors have been really nice, patient, and can bake some killer banana cakes.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated so here's what's happening.

I helped fixed the backyard fence of my home stay; it involved laying lines of barbed wire to keep the pigs enclosed. I also started lifting weights with another volunteer in town. Hopefully we’ll motivate each other to go and work out regularly. It gets a bit depressing sometimes because we're probably lifting at the same level as 14 year old Tongan girls...

Sunday church was interesting. I thought we were going for the usual hour, give or take a bit since we're on 'island time'. As soon as I donned my taovala (its a big woven mat that gets wrapped around the waist for formal occasions), I felt irritable bowel movements.

Mind over matter; "I can hold it for an hour; it’s not that bad." My family and I start walking to our normal church, but they continued walking. Muli tells me that today we’re not going to our church, but instead we're going to the next village's church. I tell myself that its still ok, I can handle walking a little extra! Mind over matter!

I forgot to bring my watch and I’m wondering how much time passed. I ask the Peace Corps volunteer sitting a couple seats away, but she just gives me a hopeless look and shrugs. More than an hour and a half passes by and it seems like the minister read the entire Bible twice, all the while accompanied with hymns in between each story.

I sighed with relief once church services were finally over. I couldn't wait to get home. I was in for another surprise though! We weren’t going straight home; we were instead ushered into the town hall for a village feast. It was great food, but it would’ve been better if I didn’t have to use the facilities! While we were eating, I’m told that it’s the only meal for the day so I better eat up.

Great… After Church and the feast finished, over a combined 3 and half hours passed. I'm thanking God that I didn’t shit my pants.

We bought some fishing wire / hook at the local store on Wednesday. A couple volunteers came to my town and we went fishing. Fishing in Tonga doesn't consist of using a pole or even a net this time around. We went old school by tying one end of the wire to a three pronged hook and the other end to an empty glass bottle. Since we couldn’t throw it out too far, we would take turns swimming out in the ocean to place our hook / bobber (a makeshift empty plastic bottle).

For bait we found Bob, this pretty giant creature that resided in a very tough shell. We tried to crack his home open with everything from coconuts, slabs of concrete, rock, and finally a pair of Leatherman’s pliers did the trick. To this day I still don’t know what Bob was. I just know he has a wicked hook, takes more than 2 hours to die after being gutted, and the fish don't find him the least bit appetizing.

After fishing, another volunteer and I bumped into a more ‘seasoned’ education volunteer that we met on Friday. She complained to her vice principle about kids turning in papers that had blatant plagiarism. The next day the vice principal talked to the veteran Peace Corps volunteer and asks for her help to correct a paper. The paper turned out to be someone else’s homework from another school!

On Wednesday we did an exercise where we had to write down our worst day and our best day. It took me a minute to think of my best day. It was one of those days (I think it was a Saturday) where I just woke up thinking “This is going to be a great day!” At the time, I had declined all my law school apps so I could try to get officially invited into the Peace Corps. Now that I look back, it was an impulsive move because if I didn’t get into the Peace Corps, I had a year and a half to kill before I could get into law school again. I'm glad it worked out though.

Anyways, back to the topic of the Best Day! That day I was nominated for the Peace Corps to serve in Tonga so I was pretty psyched. Work just flew by and I got to go home a bit earlier than normal. With my schedule, I didn’t work Sundays and Mondays so my weekend just started. A friend from high school invited me to a birthday party for his sister and I went to visit. There was a local band playing in his backyard and there were plenty of free / good beer.

Some of my friends that I knew since elementary, high school, and college were there. I bumped into a friend that I hadn’t seen in a few years and got to talk with her for a bit. It was just one of those days that was just perfect, though it just sounds fairly lame on paper.

Then when I got to thinking about the worst day… I couldn’t think of anything. I know it sounds stupid, but I can’t really think of any day where I was just like “Damn, this day is the worst day in my life”.

Palangi Night

Yesterday was one of the worst times to get sick (not that there's ever a 'good' time to get sick). We had a ‘palangi night’ where it was just Peace Corps volunteers and staff at the only bar on the island. It was the first time that we’ve touched alcohol since landing in Tonga so we’ve been alcohol deprived for 26 straight days (though whose really counting).

It seemed like the perfect formula for some good ole binge drinking. Even a headache, sore throat, and a congested nose couldn’t stop me from downing a few beers. Another one of the volunteers knew that I was sick so he brought me some Sudafed (thanks Adam, it helped). We were forewarned about the expensive price of beer there so I came prepared by bringing a few extra pa’anga (money) and coming on an empty stomach to feel a buzz faster.

One of the female volunteers came from a higher altitude place and was able to down beers without stopping; she finally stopped at 9 beers in the three-hour frame that we had. Anyways, it was just really neat to kick back with all the other volunteers / trainees in a non-academic setting and get to know them a bit better.

Ikai Amelika

It’s another day of language training! We’ve fallen into a good routine. Monday through Fridays (except Wednesdays), we have language in the morning. On Wednesdays we cover business, medical, and safety/security training. Other than going to town to catch a rugby game and having some sweet and sour chicken at another one of the volunteer’s house, things have been pretty uneventful.

Funny things are still happening though! Before I left America I remember asking my older brother if he would mind if I brought along the DVD series ‘Firefly’, a TV science fiction that we both loved. He said sure so I popped it into my bags and didn’t think much about it. Now I made good use of it! I let the neighborhood kids watch ‘Firefly’ on my laptop. There were about 10 kids crowded around a small 15-inch screen with all of them attempting to make out the dialogue from the barely audible built-in speakers. I went inside for a moment to study a little and when I came back out, they were pointing at one of the scenes of a spaceport and saying “Amelika? (America?)”. For the next 10 minutes I had to explain that America did not have spaceships or spaceports with my horrible Tongan, which was pretty much pointing at the screen and saying “Ikai Amelika”.