Hi all. Don't get too excited, it's Kaitlin's mom here (at Kaitlin's request) to update a little on happenings of the past month, to the best of my ability to remember what she has told me. I borrowed the picture from one of the other group member's posting. It is at the airport upon their arrival in Tonga. Kaitlin especially wanted me to explain that she has limited internet access where she is now, so has been unable to be in touch with anyone, but she misses and loves all her friends & family and is hopeful that once she is back on the main island, internet access will be move available to her and she can be in better touch.Anyway, they landed safely on the main island of Tongatapu, where they stayed in the capital Nuku'alofa for 3 or 4 days before flying over to the island group of Ha'apai for their 12 weeks or so of language and other training. Kaitlin made it through her overweight luggage problem thankfully without issue. Someday we WILL be better packers! She did not even get charged from L/A to Tonga for having one overweight, which was very nice. The group has been split up into different villages. They train with their village grouping Monday through Thursday, then come together as a bigger group on Fridays. Kaitlin loves her homestay family, there are some children and grandchildren in the home, but I don't remember their ages. Mondays through Fridays are really pretty much occupied with classes, currently a big focus is on language skills, which her homestay family helps with. Weekends are free thus far. She attends church on Sunday mornings with her family and then they gather for lunch.
Kaitlin was very happy this past week. They had interviews for their placements early in the week and were notified on Thursday of where they would be assigned. Kaitlin was thrilled to get her first choice. She will be heading back to the main island after training completes in early/mid December. She has been assigned to a Wesleyan Church School in a small village to teach 5 & 6th graders (9 to 11 age range) English. Also, the Wesleyan Church Schools are planning a transition to bilingual education, so she will be assisting the teachers there to put that in place, as well as assisting in the library. But more details of her assignment will become clear as time goes on. Tonga has two schools, government and the Wesleyan Church schools. Anyway, she is, as I said, thrilled to have this assignment. She doesn't think that there has been a Peace Corps placement in this village, or if there has, there has not been anyone there for a long time. And it is about 30 minutes outside of a larger town.
She has had some beach time and snorkeling time and has made some good friends in the group. I think some of them will be within close (relatively speaking) traveling distance once she is at her village. The food has been fine although she has not been able to be strictly vegetarian. There are a lot of root vegetables, yams, etc and chicken, pork & fish. She has not had any illnesses, but has a cold right now. It has been somewhat rainy since they arrived, and of course humid, but she doesn't seem to mind that greatly.
We don't have a handle on how long mail takes, but her address right now is
Kaitlin Tufts, PCT
Peace Corps
PO Box 147
Nuku'alofa
Kingdom of Tonga
South Pacific
(You must include the South Pacific, otherwise it tends to end up in Africa)
She will have a different address once she is in her village, but any mail sent to the above address will eventually get to her. She will update her address once she knows it.
She does have a phone, but has not lately been able to buy more airtime for it due to difficulty in getting to the bank when it's open and then the store. There is no cost to her to receive calls and she is on a plan that allows her to call anyone in her group as well as the Peace Corps offices without charge, but she must of course pay for calling here. Her phone number is 011-676-77-85690. I use a calling card which puts it at .43 a minute. Although I haven't tried using Skype to call her cell phone, I checked the price on that and it is also .43 per minute.
From the East coast, there is currently a 17 hour time difference (they are ahead). But guess that will be 18 hours once we return to standard time. I am of course, not suggesting that anyone call her, just wanted to relay the calling situation. But if anyone wants to ever take the plunge, right now her weekends (beginning Friday afternoon into Saturday here) seem to work. She is in church usually until around noon on Sundays, and then lunch. Of course, any night owls out there have a few more options (that doesn't include me) :)!
Well, guess that's it for now. Hopefully Kaitlin will be able to take this blog up soon. She always has excellent information when she does it, and I would also like to see some pictures!
