Tongan Haircut

My last. In the 5+ months I've been here in Tonga, I've gotten two haircuts. When I first arrived I was using my clippers, but later I wanted to let my hair grow in a bit. I got a haircut that was ok...just ok...and then recently I was looking like a resident of the Mushroom Kingdom and went in for a second cut. Which circles back to my opening statement.

There are no barber shops here, just stylists, with names like "Barbie's Hair Salon" that don't inspire much confidence in this Ken. I'm also a palangi, with a fine, soft, free-flowing head of hair. Quite different from the hair on your average Tongan (usually thick and curly). Which might explain the frequent Tongan dialogs between stylists when I sit down in the chair (that is, when it's not faka'ofo'ofa palangi, which means "handsome white man" and is one of the few phrases of Tonga I can recognize). But this time, the stylist changed twice before someone started in with the scissors. That should have been my cue to go, but I figured I was committed once I had that towel around my neck. So my real moment of panic came halfway through the cutting when the stylist told me something to the effect of, "my brother cuts men's hair, but he isn't here...but I am trying my best." And since I said I wanted to keep most of the top length, I left looking pretty much like Guile from Street Fighter.

No, I will not add a photo (of myself, but here's Guile to help you visualize). But I will stop getting my hair cut. I assume my beard already helps me resemble the "Canadian lumberjack" from the fantasies of many Tongan ladies, so I'm letting my hair go wild and untamed to match it. Something I have attempted before. At least until it's Mickey O'Neil length, and then I'll reevaluate...or get it cut in roughly five months when I go to New Zealand.

Midyear and Canada Day

I haven't forgotten about the blog, but there hasn't been much of note and I'm determined not to fill this site with rambling day-by-day stuff. That being said, I'll tell you some rambling week-by-week stuff! We just finished midyear exams at the school. My kids (I always call them "my kids" which makes the other teachers laugh, but for some reason it comes out of my mouth more naturally that "my students"; I think because I'm still getting used to the idea that I'm a teacher), did fairly well. Not stellar (well a few did stellar), but because of the way it's all set up, their midyear mark just determines if they can sit the final and has no role whatsoever in their actual final mark.

So with that in mind, they all scored high enough to sit the final if they choose to, and we've still got two more terms to prepare for that. Essay writing was the hardest for most of them, which is no surprise considering English is a second language. I remember French being tough, and I don't think I had to write a bunch of essays on historical topics in my grade 10 and 11 French exams. The most frustrating part is that it's really cultural in Tonga to "save face," and avoid being embarrassed. As a result, I have to work extra hard to get the kids to come forward with questions, because they'd rather not know that risk being embarrassed showing that they don't know.

Canada Day is next week (I'll beat you all to it by 18 hours!), and I've prepared a "lecture" (no note taking required) for my students. The Simpsons joke, "It took the children 40 minutes to locate Canada on the map" is probably an all too frightening reality in my classroom. As previously mentioned, people assume if I'm not from the United States and I say I'm from further north, I must be Norwegian. My "not boring parts of Canadian history" Canada Day class includes French explorers who thought they had discovered China, or at least thought a great lake was the Pacific ocean, the war of 1812, and the Summit Series. I mention hockey enough in class that I thought it would be fun to throw that in, especially for the class where we're studying the Cold War. Keeping in mind that I have just 45min, I decided to forgo a lot of other certainly not boring highlights like Vimy Ridge and Juno beach and focus on some more "fun" events. Remembering my favourite Heritage Minutes helped a lot! So if you do nothing else on Canada Day, be sure to take comfort in the fact that I taught a bunch of island kids, who seemingly never heard of Canada before I showed up at their school, my own skewed and glossed over version of our history!

In the Meantime

If there's something you can depend on in Tonga, it's holidays (and taro). Between Tongan holidays, Australian holidays, New Zealand's holidays, Catholic holidays, and just plain days off of school, I have a day off almost every week. Last week was the March to Parliament (day off), Ex-Student's Day (day off), and today is some Catholic holiday (so, day off). In fact, in the next seven weeks, I will be working for about two of them. The next two weeks are mid-term exams, during which I have to go to school for just one day to invigilate my form 6 students (the ones from the picture). After that, back for two weeks of school, and then three weeks off for the midterm break (I've already booked my flight to Ha'api).

Just sharing a little insight into island living. When I was maybe 10 (? Mom and Dad would know) I used to have a t-shirt that said BEACH BUM with a crocodile wearing sunglasses. I had no idea how true that would become (though my sunglasses are way cooler than that crocodile's 80s pair). I've taken a bunch of pictures around Tonga in the last couple weeks that I'll post, but in the meantime I though I'd just put up a link to an article I just read that basically explains everything that's been going on in Tonga's recent history, and the topic that's on everyone's tongues right now:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/a-party-fit-for-a-king-ndash-but-not-needy-tonga-839606.html