One of the things that our kids miss while cruising are typical stateside milestones like the First Day of School. Where I grew up the first day of school was the day after Labor Day, which happens on the first Monday of September. Five year olds begin kindergarten, and while Olive doesn’t turn five for another couple of weeks, she would be a kindergartener now. We were lucky enough to send our kids to the General Primary School in Matamaka Village for their first day last week!
We sailed to a small Tongan island called Nua Papu and found the Matamaka village before dinner time. The village has forty-nine families, 20 children between the ages 5 and 11, and a two classroom school to support them. The principal, Pitisi, welcomed our family on the beach that evening and asked the kids to come to school at 8:30 the next morning.
Ruby carefully planned her clothes for the next day and insisted on shampooing her hair (which hadn’t been washed properly since the last country we visited). She calculated what time we would need to get up to make her breakfast and dinghy in on time. I baked a loaf of special gluten free bread for them to take sandwiches. We piled all of our extra children’s books to donate to the library. Ruby and Olive were both so excited!
They arrived on time the next morning to Pitisi’s classroom and started the day with singing and a prayer in Tongan. All of the kids leave their elementary school speaking English fluently, prepared for their secondary school work. My kids were called on to introduce themselves. “Hello, My name is Olive. I am four and a half years old. I am from America.” Pitisi asked about her school at home and she stated proudly that this was her first day of school. She asked her what she had at home and she replied, “Not very much, really.” As we walked around the village later I was grateful for her reply. These families live in houses with similar sized living spaces as we have but they do indeed have very very little. Ruby introduced herself shyly and then each of the students began their scripted introduction.
“Hello my name is Maka. I am 8 years old. My father is a pastor. My mother is a housewife. In the future I would like to be a rugby player.”
“Hello my name is Ata. I am 9 years old. My father is a fisherman. My mother is a housewife. In the future I would like to be a nurse.”
“Hello my name is Kahi. I am 10 year old. My father is a pastor. My mother is a housewife. In the future I would like to be a nurse.”
I could only conclude that every girl child would grow up and leave to play rugby, and that there might be a nurse or two around with a short lived career.
In their separate classrooms Ruby and Olive followed along with the lessons in Tongan and English. Olive worked through both alphabets and worked hard on her penmanship. Ruby learned to count first in Tongan before she worked on the math assignment with the older kids. She came home with a notebook full of copywork with Tongan songs written out and carefully translated. She found the division assignment too difficult but tried to work through it anyway. Olive was eager to skip class and head to the library, the third room at the school. She pulled stacks of books off the shelves for me to read her throughout the day. I soon found myself sitting under a mango tree reading Franklin to many of the younger kids.
Everyone runs home for lunch and returns a bit later. We took Olive home and Ruby stayed through the rest of the afternoon. When we returned we found that Ruby had led her classroom through two craft projects which were hanging around the classroom. She seems to get by with a few words and some sign language everywhere she goes. The students finished their day with Phys. Ed, 30 minutes of play out on the lawn.
Ruby and Olive have concluded that school is hard and they love it. For me it was an amazing day of chatting with Mosese and Pitisi and getting a really good look at day to day life for these Tongan villagers.