Vava'u Happenings

Here are some of the things that have been happening in Vava'u in the past few days.

Murder in Vava'u

For the most part, Tonga and especially Vava'u is a pretty safe place, but we are not immune to crime. This past weekend a Tongan man was killed on the waterfront. I don't know all the details, but apparently he got into a fight and ended up losing his life. A murder is very rare here.

Tonga Shark Attack on TV

The story of Tessa Horan, a Peace Corps volunteer who was killed by a shark two years ago will be profiled on the Discovery Channel. Horan, who was living in Vava'u was killed February 1, 2006. All the members of her group have now left Vava'u but there is a library here that is named after her.

The segment on her will be featured as part of "Shark Week" on the Discovery Channel on Monday July 28, 2008.

Tonga Peace Corps Group 74

The invitations are now going out to the next group of future Peace Corps Volunteers in Tonga. We are starting to get e-mails from them and some have posted comments on a web site we built for them . That also means that we will soon be saying good-bye to many of the volunteers who are currently serving here. The members of Group 71 will start leaving next month followed by the members of Group 72 who will start leaving in December.

That will leave just my group, Group 73 and Group 74. Group 74 is scheduled to start training on October 9th and swear in as volunteers in mid-December.

The story of Tavi

During my time in Vava'u, I've also heard from several former Tonga Peace Corps volunteers who used to serve here. Recently, I exchanged e-mails with a guy named David, who went by the Tongan name of "Tavi" instead of the more common Tongan name for David, which is "Tevita". It turns out that the original "Tavi" was a pretty interesting guy. "Tavi", the former volunteer shared this story with me while admitting he has little in common with the original "Tavi".

Camping at Port Maurelle, Vava'u

This past weekend I joined a group of my fellow volunteers in a combination camping and sailing trip. We left Friday afternoon aboard Manu-o-ku, a really great boat, and headed to a place called Port Maurelle. Once there we pitched our tents along the beach and camped for the night.


The next morning, we snorkeled then spent the a good part of the day sailing before heading back to Neiafu.

Swallows Cave

On the way back to Neiafu, we stopped at Swallows Cave. I had previously visited the cave, but never with fins and my camera. Inside you can see the bottom of the cave, some 80 feet below you. Here are a few photos from inside the cave. The first is Jessie swimming into the cave, the second is me in the cave and the third is a photo of the roof of the cave.


There are more photos from our trip which you can see by clicking on the "Current Photos" link at the top of the page.

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