Another week come and gone!

Well I am nearing the half way mark of my trip here in Tonga.  Sad to think about...I am definitely not ready to come home! This week is finals week for my students so it has been pretty relaxed for us teachers! The kids are all pretty excited for the week break and could care less about finals themselves! So...that should be interesting....

Well we went boating on Saturday! Woot! Patch (my professor) found a random guy at the docks to take us out on his boat.  I think there were about twelve or thirteen of us that went. As you pull away from the main island of Tongatapu its amazing how many random little islands pop up everywhere. We went to one little island so that everyone could change into their swimming gear and then we headed to open water where we snorkeled above coral.  It was BEAUTIFUL! It was a pretty cloudy and chilly day so all of us were chilled to the bone but it was definitely worth it.  After a good while in the water, we boated to another island where we camped out on the beach and ate lunch. Absolute Paradise.

Selfie with an Island behind me

Stingray!

On the island that we were having lunch on, a couple of kids caught a stingray. They cut of its stinger so that it wouldn't hurt them....poor guy. haha the kids brought him over to show us.  Pretty creepy looking up close.

The boat we went out on for the day!

I bought a soccer ball earlier this week and I convinced my roomies to play with me last night! I'm having serious withdrawals! We got a couple of Tongan boys to join in and play too! It was a blast. Unfortunately we started pretty late so we didn't get to play much before it turned pitch black. So we are going to have to try again this week.

All my roomies and I are getting pretty excited for our week break coming up as well.  Most of my roommates are traveling out to some of the other Tongan islands like Vava'u and Ha'apai.  One of my roommates is going to Australia and I am meeting my parentals in Fiji! I can't wait! Everybody leaves before I do, so it looks like a will have a few days to explore the Island on my own.

OH MY LANTA! I almost forgot the craziest part of the week! Most of you probably already heard but last week one of my students stole my phone.  Yep....couldn't believe it! I looked everywhere I could think of before I went to the office and told them I was pretty sure one of my students took my phone.  Security rounded up all of my students from that class and they did body and bag checks on all of them. I felt horrible watching all of them go in one by one to get checked. Well after we got through everyone my phone was still nowhere to be found.  I was rather devastated...The office told me to come back in the morning and see if it had been turned in or if they had found any information.  In the morning I went to my homeroom and told my teacher what had happened. She was absent the day before so I had full control of my class (which obviously was a failure..haha).  She was telling me that she would have her husband go to all the places in town where they unlock phones and tell them that if they see my phone to hold onto it and I would pay them for it. Seriously the sweetest human in the world.  I was really hoping it didn't have to come to that point though.  During homeroom, two boys came in and asked if they could speak with me outside.  I followed them out into the hall and they asked if I was the one missing my phone and then one of the boys pulled my phone out of his bag. SO RELIEVED!! I was maybe a little too excited and I jumped on both boys and gave them a hug and told them thank you. They backed away like I was crazy or something...weird.. hehe.  Anyway, I asked them where they had found it and they told me that their friend was the one who took it.  They said that yesterday he had seen security coming to pull him out of class so he put the phone on top of a cabinet before they saw him.  Then he went and retrieved it later.  He must have felt bad because he gave it to his friends to return it.  I, also, think my brother, Tanner, may have had something to do with it.  When I got my phone back I looked at the locked screen and could clearly read quite a few guilt wrenching messages he had sent.  Haha so apparently Tanner is pretty good at guilt wrenching! ha Thanks for that T-bear!  I told the two boys to tell their friend thank you for having the heart to return it. They smiled and went on their merry way!  Friday, when I had that class again I decided to address the situation with my entire class.  I apologized that we all had to endure all the security checks and frustrations of Wednesday.  I explained that my phone had been returned and I was grateful for the honesty of the person that gave it back.  I told my class that I want to be able to trust them, just as much as I want them to be able to trust me.  I want to have a positive relationship with all my classes and students.  They all appeared to be really receptive to what I had to say and nodded with agreement.  Alright story is almost over! Sorry! This morning I was sitting at my desk as the kids piled in and began to study before their exam.  A boy came over and whispered to Make and she nodded to him.  He walked over to me and quietly explained that he was the one who had taken the phone and that he didn't return it because he is shy. He apologized multiple times.  I told him that it was okay and I was grateful to him for being honest and returning it to me. He had a look of relief on his face. I would have liked to talked more but most the class had turned their attention to us so I told him thanks again and left it at that! Phewf! Crazy eh?? What's funny is many teachers weren't all that surprised and told me that they should have warned me not to leave things out where the students can get them.  Mind = Blown.  It worries me when it isn't uncommon and is of no surprise to the teachers that the students just steal things on a regular basis.  Make once mentioned that she always locks the doors to her classroom otherwise the kids with come in and take everything.  Unbelievable. Anyway I am happy to say that this story had a happy ending!

Well thats all from Tonga! Alu'a (bye)!