Natural Disasters

In the past 24 hours, we have been threatened with a Cyclone and we had an earthquake..the first quake I’ve ever felt. I was laying in bed reading when I felt a vibration. It kept going and I asked my room-mate Justin, "do you feel that?" He said yes and I said “Is this an earthquake?”. Turns out that even though he is from the West Coast (Oregon), he had never felt one either. We both just stayed there and I asked “Should we just stay here?”, which we did. Finally it was over and we went out and asked if it was an earthquake and of course it was. Interesting, several of our group were walking back from town at the time and they didn’t even feel it.

Here are links to stories about both events:

Kermadec earthquake felt in Nuku'alofaNuku'alofa, Tonga: A magnitude 7.6 to 7.9 earthquake deep in the seabed north of the Kermadec Islands was felt in Nuku'alofa at around 8:30 pm Tonga time.09 Dec 2007, 21:30

Cyclone alert cancelled as Daman weakens Nuku'alofa, Tonga: A Tropical Cyclone Alert has been cancelled for central and southern Tonga as Tropical Cyclone Daman has weakened overnight and is expected to curve southwest away from Tonga today.09 Dec 2007, 07:03

***Other News***
We swear in as volunteers on Wednesday. We had our last class today (Monday) but I have FIVE final interviews to complete later this afternoon. After that, I’m done until we have our ceremony. I spoke to my first home stay family this weekend and they are planning to come to the ceremony.

I got my second hair cut here in Tonga. The first time, my home stay dad trimmed it for me. This time I had my friend Scott shave my head. It is the shortest I think I have EVER had my hair, or at least the shortest I can ever remember. You can't see it in the photo but there was an audience watching as my hair went away. I'm still getting used to having no hair, but I've had several positive comments about my new look from my fellow trainees.

***NOTES***

I don't have a place to live yet either here or once I get to Vava'u. We are supposed to move out of the guest house where we are staying on Thursday. I hope to have more information on what is going on during one of my interviews today.