A day in the life of a Peace Corps Volunteer in Vava’u

Photo: Vava’u Peace Corps volunteers reading at the Vava’u library program on Saturdays.

On Saturday mornings at 9:30, the Neiafu Public Library has its Saturday Reading Program for elementary students throughout Vava’u. It is a great program where students come in and check-out books and do fun activities with volunteers from the community. I am part of the library committee as well as a fellow Peace Corps volunteer. We convinced other PCVs to come help out and read to the children one Saturday. The event went really well. Each PCV took turns reading a different stories such as: I Spy, The Three Goats and the Goblin, and more. Later, the children drew pictures of their favorite story which most of the drawings consisted of me as the goblin eating the three little goats. Oh, these kids have quite a sense of humor!

Photo: The kiddos working hard on their drawings.

The Neiafu Public Library is currently pursuing a WORLD MAP PROJECT. The PCV from Tailulu College is spear heading this project with the library committee. The objective of this project is to paint a mural of the entire world in front of the library building. The students from the Saturday Reading Program will be the ones painting the mural with the help of PCVs and members of the library committee. The World Map Project has been an initiative in various Peace Corps countries around the world. When completed, the World Map at the Neiafu Public Library will be the first one in Vava’u and second in the entire Kingdom after ‘Eua. I believe the project will commence very soon and it will be thrilling to see how it will turn out.

Children’s Day is also coming up here in Vava’u. It should be an exciting event as the library committee has been busy organizing fun activities for all the children. I am not sure of all the logistics, but it is scheduled at the end of May. I heard rumors that I will be working at the face painting booth. Little do they know about my artistic skills? Eeks. It should be fun though and I really look forward to it.

Photos: PCVs, Athletes for Sports Day in the Nuku’alofa competition, and high school staff from the Wesleyan, Catholic, Church of Tonga, and Vava’u High dancing in the street to help raise money to send students to Tongatapu.

On a final note, who wants to go dancing on the street? We do! Some PCVs and I stumbled upon a dance party on the main street of Neiafu after the public library event. Student-athletes and high school staff from throughout Neiafu were busy trying to raise money to send the athletes to compete in the Sports Day Competition held in Nuku’alofa. It was such a fun event with all the jamming out on the street. It was definitely a bonus to have a bunch of palangis dancing around with the crazy flour lady. I am not sure how much we helped raised, but I am sure the event organizers appreciated our participation with “shaking our bon-bons.” In the end, this is a typical day of what we PCVs encounter in Vava’u. We are more than happy to help out in any way possible, as well as have some fun. Just think, we did all this before noon! Taimi malolo was definitely scheduled later that afternoon.