A Letter to Readers

Dear Beloved Readers,
I may not know who all you are, and I hope there are many of you. Sometimes there are times where I feel like my entries are mundane and boring and not so enlightening or educating, but I want to encourage you to please... tell me about your life! I was pondering on my Tongan Life next as opposed to what we now dub as the "Clean Life." I know this sounds terrible, labeling non-Tongan life as "Clean Life", but every time I talk to people from back home, some seem reluctant to talk about their lives because it seems too "plain" as opposed to my crazy Peace Corps Tongan Pacific Island life.
Dear friends, please: I sometimes THIRST for mundane clean life, with washing machines and Starbucks coffee, regular cleaners, mosquito-free zones in the winter, houses without rats and ants and cockroaches and geicos, a bed not closed in by a scratchy mosquito net, regularly running water, normal jobs. So please. Email me, message me through my blog posts... please, let me here from you! My best days here are when I get to talk to family and friends, and when I get message updates via facebook or email from my friends and family. So please: don't worry about living a "normal" life-- I would love to hear about it! And I would love to know who you are. Are you old, young, a stranger, family? Maybe this is a selfish request, wanting to know who's reading... but I want to know who you are, what you think, what you do...
Also, I want to make 2 things clear:
1.) I don't have lice! Bre checked my hair today and it is lice-free! We think the itching might be from shampoo/conditioner buildup since bucket baths and showers don't always rinse out the stuff. But I DON'T have LICE! This is a cause for an applause or a happy dance. Speaking of dancing, I danced/tau'olunga'd 3 times last night at the konseti (concert) fundraiser... lots of money was stuffed in my shirt...I had to dig a $20 bill out of my bra. Don't think this is perverted, and please don't think I'm becoming an undercover striptease dancer. This is just Tongan life. And I made a lot of money for my PTA, dangit!
2.) Also, from my last entry, I realized that I came across as a lazy, uncleanly person--especially with the not doing laundry thing. Here, since I handwash my laundry and have to hang it to dry outside, it's hard to do my laundry during the week since I now teach in the mornings every week. Since it's hot and sticky here, laundry is best done in the morning before the heat and humidity attack. But since I teach in the mornings, it's hard to accomplish this task (usually between 1-2 hours), and especially when it rains so much. I COULD hang it up on my makeshift closet, but if it's moist and rainy outside, wet laundry inside can attrack mold and mildew stains even faster than if they're dry (many of my clothes and underwear--esp. bras--are eaten with mold). So laundry must be tackled with a strategy. I did laundry in fact this morning--and washed my underwear last night so I'd finally have panties to wear-- and as soon as I headed to my friends house, it started raining. The laundry should be read to take down tomorrow, but since it's Sunday, it's technically illegal for me to do laundry, since no one can swim, exercise, or do any type of "work" since this is such a Christian, Legalistic country.
Frustration.
Anyway, dear readers, I hope we're clear, and I hope you don't think I'm a grody young lady who wears dirty clothes and never wears underwear. Although, I must say, sometimes I go Commando just to personally express my empowerment as a female, since I must wear skirts most of the time. It's a statement, that's all.
So friends. Please. Talk to me. Tell me about your suppers and your trips to grocery stores with air conditioning, and your plain sandwiches with lunchmeat and lettuce. Oh, how I miss lettuce. And please tell me about your weekend mall trips or restaurant visits. Or your work occurrences or church happenings, community gossip or even family quarrels or awesome celebrations. As much as I love my current adventure, I also feel very withdrawn from life. The "Clean Life", as we 'Euan PCVs call it.
So don't be ma (shy)...talamai fepau'aki a e mo'ui 'a koe! (Tell me about your life!)
Malo 'aupito, (thank you very much)
Jamie