Training with the Tongan Navy

For water safety training, we were driven out to the Tongan Naval Base. The base had two small ships in harbor and approximately five men on the grounds (one of which pushed a mower around the same ten feet of yard for the entire three hours we were in the water)and absolutely no artillary in sight. Our water competency test consisted of each of us individually jumping off one of the small ships into the water, where a few Tongan men were treading water and awaiting one of us to start sinking, treading water for 2 minutes without using our arms, swimming about 50 meters alone and then towing another person 25 meters. We did all of this twice. I'm sure you can all guess, I was a little frightened at first since open water is a different concept for me but I had a blast. The water was clear and blue and warm. I could see my own feet below me, which may not seem like a big deal but if you have ever swam in Lake Panorama you know how special that is. On a side note to my Iowa friends, I made a comment to another trainee about there not being any bugs on the water. She gave me a funny look since she is from California. I felt like a complete dork acknowledging that the only "open water" I am used to is lake water that has mosquitoes and dragonflies flighting on it in front of your face as you swim. I feel more and more country every time I mention Iowa. So all went well. I actually applied some of my lifeguard training (Erin, I know you are proud) and taught my fellow PCTs (peace corps trainees)how to successfully tow another individual. After we debriefed and prayed (everything here begins and ends with extensive prayers, I'll talk about that more later) we prepard to leave the base while the captain who had led our session picked up a guitar and belted out local tunes with his few men in the shade. I would sign up for this navy.