A Short History of Me
My name is Chris Williams, I'm twenty-something, originally from Manly in Sydney, Australia and I am currently living in Nuku'Alofa, Tonga.
I am here coaching football (or soccer if you like) for the Tonga Football Association. My official job title is Football Development Officer however within two weeks ( I have now been here three weeks), I was given the job of coaching the national Under 17 team at the Oceania Football Confederation in Auckland on January 8th, 2011. Not a bad gig at all, but more on that later.
I guess you could call this year a bit of a gap year, I have come to Tonga thanks to the AusAid program. Essentially I am volunteering here with close to 25-30 other young Aussies, the majority of whom are working in various ministries and Government agencies. In my opinion I have done quite OK to have a job in which most of my time will be spent in the tropical sunshine, to be in an office that is a two minute bike ride from the beach and I now also have the chance to coach at an international competition.
Before coming here I had been working in a PR agency in Sydney, Res Publica, for a little over two and a half years. Before doing that I studied Sport Management and International Communications at University. I really enjoyed my job and worked with some great people on some of Australia's biggest brands. However while I was studying at University and while working I was also coaching part-time for a semi-professional club in Australia, Manly United. While I enjoy PR, I have always wanted to coach football for a living and this is an opportunity to try and work towards that goal, and "make a difference" too ;) 'Worst case' scenario, in 12 months I'll be back in the PR world, however who knows what will happen in a year!
Tonga
My first impression of Tonga was staring out of a plane window into the dark Pacific before out of nowhere, dull flickering street lights came into view. It was a pretty cool sight, a tiny Pacific Island under a full moon which cast shadows onto the Pacific. We then landed and were introduced to the Tongan way of things. It took about two hours to get out of the shed-like airport and when we did, all our gear was loaded into the back of a truck and Tom (working for the Ministry of Environment) and I jumped in the back of the ute too! No cops seemed to care and it is pretty standard here for people to ride in the back of utes, it's how we got around for the first week!
Tonga (meaning South in Polynesian) is a grueling four hour flight from Sydney and lies on the same latitude as Rio De Janeiro. It is made up of three main island groups - Tongatapu (about 65% of the 100,000 population and where I am based), Ha'apai and northernmost Vava'u. It was the only South Pacific Island not to be colonised (even though the Church now effectively rules Tonga) and at one stage the Tongans ruled over an Empire that stretched for most of the South Pacific. Nowadays the country is a developing economy with a growing unemployment rate and is about to hold the first general elections on November 25 when the King will cede most of his power to a generally elected Parliament.
Our first couple of weeks were spent getting to know Nuku' Alofa, learning the language and going on a home-stay. We also became familiar with The Billfish, about the only pub worth going to in Tonga. On the first night there I met the CEO of the TFA there, the town's lady-boy and a few other volunteers. Nuku' Alofa is a small place and everyone ends up at The Billfish - they also have Black Sambucca so it gets a big tick from me!
I then went on home-stay with my boss, the national team coach of Tonga, Kilifi Uele. Kilifi lives in a small two bedroom house which he built on the opposite side of the inland lagoon to Nuku' Alofa. I spent most of my time there resting, eating and sleeping. Tongan lifestyle is very slow, and relaxed, but is dominated by family-life and church. Kilifi had his father and, during the week, would have a nephew and a niece stay in the small two bedroom house with him and his wife. The family unions are pretty tight and Kilifi refers to his nephews and nieces as his 'daughters and sons'. They also had a pig pen (we caught and roasted one during the weekend there!), cows and cropping area so they are almost entirely self sufficient.
The other major institution here is the church. It is illegal for anyone to exercise, for shops to be open, in fact it is pretty much illegal for anyone (except for foreigners) to do anything but go to church, sleep and eat. Even the pubs shut at 1130pm on Saturday night, which on the first Saturday we were here seemed like an absolute disaster. There are as many as six services on a Sunday, starting at 430am and finishing at approx 9pm. Thankfully I only went to one at 10am with Kilifi, was 25 minutes late and spent most of the time mucking around with a couple of kids in the rows in front of me.
After the homestay we started to meet all the other volunteers here which was good, and celebrated Melbourne Cup Day at the Nuku 'Alofa Club. The Club is Tonga's version of a Country Club and is reportedly very exclusive. It is really just an old Federation style house with a bar in it, but that seems to pass as 'exclusive' here in Tonga. We paid 50 Pa'anga (about AU$25) for our ticket which included free drinks and food for the day and night. I dont really remember much else except I won 250 Pa'anga in a sweepstake, which was very quickly spent as we ended up at The Billfish, grinding away with a few Tongans!
In general Nuku' Alofa is not exactly what you would call picturesque, the town is full of rubbish, pot-holed roads, half burned-down buildings (remnants from the riots of 2006) and plenty of pigs, dogs and chickens roaming the streets. But you dont have to go too far to find crystal clear water and beautiful beaches. We started swimming in the main harbour with all the locals, Tom and I would try and knock the locals from the jetty into the water, we could only beat the young kids though! Local Rugby teams would go to the Jetty after training and I never stood a chance of knocking them off! We left a couple of times bruised and bloodied but it was always a good laugh and people would often give us a ride back to our hostel in the back of their trucks.
I'll leave it there for now but overall I am slowly starting to fall in love with the place and work is getting better and better too. Despite the pigs eating my clothes at home, being attacked by mozzies, woken up by either church bells, roosters, dogs or people at the crack of dawn every morning, there is something about the lifestyle, the fact that I am coaching soccer full-time and the South Pacific that I like.
Tonga (meaning South in Polynesian) is a grueling four hour flight from Sydney and lies on the same latitude as Rio De Janeiro. It is made up of three main island groups - Tongatapu (about 65% of the 100,000 population and where I am based), Ha'apai and northernmost Vava'u. It was the only South Pacific Island not to be colonised (even though the Church now effectively rules Tonga) and at one stage the Tongans ruled over an Empire that stretched for most of the South Pacific. Nowadays the country is a developing economy with a growing unemployment rate and is about to hold the first general elections on November 25 when the King will cede most of his power to a generally elected Parliament.
Our first couple of weeks were spent getting to know Nuku' Alofa, learning the language and going on a home-stay. We also became familiar with The Billfish, about the only pub worth going to in Tonga. On the first night there I met the CEO of the TFA there, the town's lady-boy and a few other volunteers. Nuku' Alofa is a small place and everyone ends up at The Billfish - they also have Black Sambucca so it gets a big tick from me!
I then went on home-stay with my boss, the national team coach of Tonga, Kilifi Uele. Kilifi lives in a small two bedroom house which he built on the opposite side of the inland lagoon to Nuku' Alofa. I spent most of my time there resting, eating and sleeping. Tongan lifestyle is very slow, and relaxed, but is dominated by family-life and church. Kilifi had his father and, during the week, would have a nephew and a niece stay in the small two bedroom house with him and his wife. The family unions are pretty tight and Kilifi refers to his nephews and nieces as his 'daughters and sons'. They also had a pig pen (we caught and roasted one during the weekend there!), cows and cropping area so they are almost entirely self sufficient.
The other major institution here is the church. It is illegal for anyone to exercise, for shops to be open, in fact it is pretty much illegal for anyone (except for foreigners) to do anything but go to church, sleep and eat. Even the pubs shut at 1130pm on Saturday night, which on the first Saturday we were here seemed like an absolute disaster. There are as many as six services on a Sunday, starting at 430am and finishing at approx 9pm. Thankfully I only went to one at 10am with Kilifi, was 25 minutes late and spent most of the time mucking around with a couple of kids in the rows in front of me.
After the homestay we started to meet all the other volunteers here which was good, and celebrated Melbourne Cup Day at the Nuku 'Alofa Club. The Club is Tonga's version of a Country Club and is reportedly very exclusive. It is really just an old Federation style house with a bar in it, but that seems to pass as 'exclusive' here in Tonga. We paid 50 Pa'anga (about AU$25) for our ticket which included free drinks and food for the day and night. I dont really remember much else except I won 250 Pa'anga in a sweepstake, which was very quickly spent as we ended up at The Billfish, grinding away with a few Tongans!
In general Nuku' Alofa is not exactly what you would call picturesque, the town is full of rubbish, pot-holed roads, half burned-down buildings (remnants from the riots of 2006) and plenty of pigs, dogs and chickens roaming the streets. But you dont have to go too far to find crystal clear water and beautiful beaches. We started swimming in the main harbour with all the locals, Tom and I would try and knock the locals from the jetty into the water, we could only beat the young kids though! Local Rugby teams would go to the Jetty after training and I never stood a chance of knocking them off! We left a couple of times bruised and bloodied but it was always a good laugh and people would often give us a ride back to our hostel in the back of their trucks.
I'll leave it there for now but overall I am slowly starting to fall in love with the place and work is getting better and better too. Despite the pigs eating my clothes at home, being attacked by mozzies, woken up by either church bells, roosters, dogs or people at the crack of dawn every morning, there is something about the lifestyle, the fact that I am coaching soccer full-time and the South Pacific that I like.
What about your inspirational Account Director who cajoled you into writing this? Doesn't she get a mention?! Seriously, this is great stuff Chris, keep it up.
ReplyDeleteHaha, thanks Laura! I will have to try and get a mention of you in there somewhere... Also if there are any grammatical errors feel free to point them out!!
ReplyDelete