Mourning the Death of Tessa Horan

Hey ya’all. Somber email coming from Tonga. Tessa Horan, a volunteer from the new group who had just moved to Tu’anuku in Vava’u two weeks ago, was killed in a shark attack. She was 24 and from New Mexico. She was to be a teacher at a local primary school and work on projects with the youth in her village.

Her evening routine was to play soccer on the beach with the guys from her village and afterwards to go swimming. Last Wednesday, February 1, she and a few guys went out swimming further than normal. They were swimming towards the Pulapaki, a big freight/passenger ship that runs inter-island routes, when she was attacked.

The guy closest to her bravely answered her cries for help and tried to hold her and swim to shore. Men on the shore rode to them in a canoe but by the time they got to them, she had passed. The shark only bit her once, in the thigh, but took her leg. She died of blood loss.

We were all notified and met at the hospital. There, we had a church service led by her village. The next day, we met at 5 am for prayer services that ran through 1 pm. The village did all the traditional tongan funeral preparations: a traditional kava ceremony the night of her death; decorated the morgue and patio at the hospital in flowers, tapa and woven mats; running prayer services; and decorating the funeral truck in tapa, mats, and black and purple.

When the time came, we placed Tessa in the back of the truck and rode with her, leading a caravan of 20 vehicles. as we approached the airport, driving through hard hard pouring rain, we saw youth from her village—dressed in black and their finest ta’ovala mats—sitting along both sides of the road, forming a tunnel for us to move through. That was by far the most moving moment of the ceremony. Then, Tessa’s body was flown to Tongatapu.

From Thursday night through Tuesday, prayer services were held at the morgue. People were there at all times, singing, drinking kava, praying. Thousands of Tongans were there to pay their respects.

The new group of volunteers—those who had just spent three months with Tessa during training—flew to Tonga on Friday morning.

Us older folks stayed in Vava’u. That friday, we went to a kava fundraiser in Tessa’s village. She has some great guys in her village. They told about how Tessa would always go with them to their farm plots and try all the weird Tongan fruits that we’ve never heard of in the US. They went to her house at all hours of the day and night to talk and she always welcomed them, many times cooking for them. After only two weeks, they viewed her as a true member of their village.

That Sunday, peace corps called and said that they were going to fly us to the capital on Monday. The volunteers from her group organized a bonfire at a local beach resort and told stories about Tessa.

The next day they held the funeral mass and all of Peace Corps went to the airport to see her off, as she was flown to New Mexico shortly after midnight, Wednesday morning.

3 volunteers from her group have decided to end their service and return to the states. I can only imagine what they are going through---only two weeks into the difficult adjustment to village life and they were faced with this, without close friends and family to help them cope.

Her family has set up a Web site dedicated to Tessa and has already raised more than $10K towards projects in Tu’anuku. Check it out here: www.tessahoran.com

Unfortunately, I didnt get a chance to know Tessa well. We had a few conversations during their training, but I had only seen her once since she’d moved here. But, we all did know her enough that we unanimously had been hoping that she would be assigned to Vava’u.

Thanks for taking the time to read this and for checking out the Web site that I sent.

I hope that all is well at home.

Best,
Joey