2008

Happy New Year!

Well I remain here in Tonga, spent the holidays falling in love (again but I swear its real real real) and also kicking back in observation phase of my research. Been keeping activity to a minimum, taking my "posting angle" quite seriously. Perched on my front porch of Sailoame in Fanga, watching the dusty cars of Nuku'alofa drive, roll, bump and putter by--an array of cars from colorful painted ones bearing phrases like "Can't make a ho a housewife" (my personal favorite), to two brand new Hummers one black one blue, rumor has it one purchased with drug monies from a well-off drug dealer in Hawaii. Well, must say I have been following two court cases, both weed possession and so have attended church (once), clubs (twice), but seriously posting at Fanga has been occupation #1. I turned 29 two days ago, marked by little fanfare and a box of ice cream, one present was from Charlie who got my name tatted on his shoulder, made me melt just like the Rocky Road ice cream that was my other birthday treat. However the number 29 just doesn't feel as nice as did 28, a nice rounded even number...although if my intuitions are correct, 29 will be smoother than 28...last year was truly a rocky road, and right now I feel like I'm sailing on smooth water...Perhaps I'm just acclimated to the conditions of the journey, this PhD ride, my vaka, the sea. Fanga sits on the lagoon, and the waters of the lagoon are quiet, while the dusty Taufa'ahau road that Sailoame sits on is noisy except on Sunday mornings when Church going activities slow down the entire Kingdom, though not entirely. I must say I am not proud that I have not been blogging more regularly, just that seriously the posting angle really has been my M.O., that and the fact that this internet cafe, despite having two fans mounted and rotating on the East and West walls, is always over-hot and over-crowded with teens tapping away staring zombielike at page after page of Bebo nonsense. Tonight is not exception, with fifteen computers full and I swear every screen visible to me from my vantage point is on Bebo. I fear for this phenomenon, something not right about the slavery of the computer, the interface of the internet....Although, hypocritically I love using it and check my emails every few days. Now that a visit to Auckland with Eve and Melani is scheduled, I am gaining momentem. I asked Soni the other night could I write his life history, had asked before, but been slow to approach it, he will be one of the primarily ones I write about and I know it will be a knock out piece, eighteen years behind bars in Cali and now deported at 47, not to mention the deportation he endured and transcended in the early eighties after a youth in Cali at YA. At any rate, he says he has so many stories...and he a born storyteller (all one does in lockup is talk non stop, not to mention in Tonga in general the oral tradition strong)...So he is a volunteer, a willing key and boy am I grateful.