the end of black

Yesterday, marked the end of the official mourning period. This morning, for the first time in over a month, I chose an outfit to wear to work that wasn't black. It is a nice change, but the simplicity of black did make life easy. It also suited the dustiness of Nuku'alofa.

The last two weekends have been quite good. Last week, the Fitzroy Reds visited Tonga and took on the national team in a game of Australian Rules. This week, I attended the 21st birthday party of our landlord's niece, Etina.

I did my absolute best to avoid celebrating my 21st birthday party, so a Tongan family pulling out all stops was always going to impress me. The celebrations took place on Sunday, starting with church and then following on with a feast for the village and a few other guests.

As we left the church, the number of "bye"s my housemate and I were greeted with, made me think we might upstage the girl of the moment. This fear was further heightened when we were sat at the head table, as if we were guests of some note. Fortunately, the family of the moment emerged from the church dressed in white (everybody else was in black) wrapped in large tapa mats and equally impressive ta'ovala. They looked liked people-sized presents. Several teary speeches, took any remaining attention away from us.

Tongans serve far too much food at any event, and this was no exception. My housemate and I were squeezed on a bench between several Tongan women who kept trying to feed us more and more. At the end, we were forced to take even more food home with us. I now know why Tongans sleep so much on Sundays, after all that food it is all you can manage, or want, to do.

The aim of the AYAD Program to strengthen mutual understanding between Australia and the countries of the Asia Pacific and make a positive contribution to development in the areas of health, governance, infrastructure, education, etc. Arguably, a single game of Australian football has done more to achieve this aim then my entire year in Tonga. The prospect of playing for a national team was enough of a prize for a group of thirty or so Tongans to train hard three times a weeks for just over three months. They are certainly fitter and have a better understanding of this Australian sport. The Reds, who ran coaching clinics at the local schools in the week leading up to the match, certainly enjoyed one of the more eye opening end of season football trips taken this year or any other. With the spirit the match was played in, the enjoyment the Tongans gained from playing (even though they lost on the scoreboard and the haka and singing before and after the game, it will also go down as one of my highlights of the year.

comings and goings, still in black

A regular part of the volunteer experience are farewells and welcomes. The last fortnight alone has seen the departure of Intake 14, and the arrival of Intake 17, of the AYAD Program. So we have just gone through another round of farewells and another week of orientation. This is ignoring all the other palangi, volunteer or otherwise, whose time in Tonga has started or come to a close in the recent while. As a volunteer here, you get to meet a lot of people in a very short period of time, which is certainly a highlight of being here.

Our, Intake 15's, orientation overlapped with the final week in Tonga for Intake 13. We had five hectic days that covered both the official orientation program as well as a multitude of opportunities to learn all about life in Tonga from the three guys about to depart. The latest batch of fresh AYADs were not so lucky, they have to rely on our mere six months of experience. Maybe they are lucky actually, as you probably get more out of your time if you learn things your own way.

The mourning period for the passing of the King is well into its fourth week now. Thirty days of wearing black and counting. The attitude towards the tapu period is certainly becoming more relaxed. Last night I rode our collection of tins and cans up to the recycling centre, forgetting that I had changed on arriving home. However, wearing a grey tshirt, I didn't look to out of place. Most of the people out and about were in colours other than black, with a strong showing of red. This probably has something to do with the late afternoon/early afternoon being the favourite time for Tongan teens to wander the streets passsing a football around. Many of "the youth", as they are incessantly referred to in Tonga, have been a bit slack about the tapu all along. Now they are just being joined in the lax attitude.

Part of the reason for a more relaxed attitude towards the tapu is that we have now passed ten days since the King's burial, marking the end of the funeral period. The Star Cinema has chosen this time to reopen and a good thing too as we seem to have entered the early stages of the rainy season. On Wednesday, a few of us went to watch atypical example of Star Cinema fare - Snakes on a Plane. This film would seem custom made for Tongan audiences. Or maybe Tongan audiences are custom made for this film. Anyway, as we learnt, a late session on a Wednesday is not the best time to enjoy the raucous, laugh-as-loud-as-you-can approach to moviegoing preferred by the Tongans.

That said, given you start with such low expectations, Snakes on a Plane is not the sort of film you walk away too disappointed from. I was actually impressed with how many cliches they managed to fit in the one film. Who would have known that a film about snakes on a plane could feature both a dirt bike scene and a girls-in-bikinis running down the beach scene. The producers sure were clever to have the snake infested plane and storyline take off from Hawaii. I guess I can't disagree with the reviewer who rated this the best movie about snakes on a plane they had every seen. Besides, it was not like there was something better on.