Tonga: Singing, Snorkeling, Fed by Toi, Part 2

Walking home from church in Vai Malo

Joyce, walking home from church in Vai Malo

The big church in the Neiafu

closer look at the churchgoers

Boys spent a morning on Pia's plantation.

playing Uno with some neighbors

hiking the tallest point in Vava'u

Goodbye to Mike, a day before our 20-year anniversary

Another relative of our NZ friends.  She has 5 sisters working on postgraduate education around the world, her mother was principal at the church school, her parents currently mission presidents in Papua New Guinea.
She's home running the family business.  

Sage gets to drive the boat.

Swallow's cave

These aren't my pictures, but this is what it looked like when we were there.

Mariners Cave

Toi's Monday night dinner - a complete roasted pig

The relatives who took us back to the airport.  Lena, husband, and baby Mosalina.

Lena's house

Ride back to the airport.  Goodbye to Toi.

Every person got weighed so the plane could be well-balanced

watermelon hit the spot, back on the mainland

Toni

Goodbye, Tonga

Sunday:
I went to 4 different churches to hear the people sing!  A highlight for me.  We listened to another 4:30AM singing-devotional while in bed, but I'm not even counting that.  First, we attended the LDS church with the YM from the campout, where the bishop asked Mike and I to share a few words.  People laughed in the right places, so at least some people understood our English!  Secondly, we attended a big church in town; thirdly and fourthly, little churches in our little village.  We spent the rest of the day relaxing at home.  In the evening, we "climbed" the highest "peak" in Vava'u.

Monday:
Another 4:30AM singing-devotional!  I get goosebumps on my arms just thinking about it!  Mike came over a little later than I, and got bit by 2 dogs on the way - scary!

We had gotten to know a man named Pia, a Tongan who had worked for many years as a schoolteacher in New Zealand.  He took Danny and Oak to work at his plantation in the morning, while I took Mike to the airport.  The boys helped build a fence out of coconut tree trunks.  Mike had to fly back a couple of days early for work, causing us to spend our 20-year anniversary in different countries.

After dropping off Mike, the kids and I went out on a boat to some off-shore snorkeling.  It was a real highlight!!!  Swallow's Cave - where we swam through schools of hundred and hundreds of fish, an off-shore reef, and then Mariner's Cave - where we got to swim through an underwater tunnel to reach a cave.  The view back out to sea was surreal.

We returned home to a roast pig dinner from Toi.  She had to go home before we ate, so Danny did his best to figure out how to serve our meal!  We asked Toi before she left, but in her broken English, she just laughed and said, "Take the knife!  Cut the pig!"

We also laughed eating dinner because a living pig was snorting and snuffling around outside the window.

The entire day was a real privilege.

Tuesday:
Did a first-rate job cleaning up our beautiful little house, and then drove to our local airport and flew back to the mainland.  We got picked up by Toni and taken to his guesthouse for the night.  I couldn't believe how civilized and wealthy the mainland looked after being in Vava'u!  The roads, cars, houses - everything seemed so rich!  One of the kids said, "It seems like we're back in New Zealand already."  Toni's guesthouse was delightful, and we were amazed at the clean sheets, the warm shower (already mentioned in an earlier post), the microwave, the entire kitchen, the electricity flowing into every bedroom, etc.

Toni was a real talker.  He'd come from England to Tonga in his 40's, and hadn't gone anywhere since.  He was laying out zinger-quotes right and left, with complete seriousness.   For example, he told us about how the new king of Tonga had allowed archeologists to do some work in Tonga and how the archeologists had re-written Polynesian history based on science.  He said, "The oldest residents of Polynesia were in Tonga.  When it got too crowded, they shipped all the mean ones to New Zealand, all the big ones that didn't want to work were sent to Samoa, and all the effeminate ones were sent to French Micronesia."

He yarned on about Tongans, based on experiences with his Tongan wife and his wife's extended family....  (Robin - It was interesting to hear that the HEFY kids stay at Toni's Guesthouse when they come to Tonga!)

Wednesday morning:  Toni drove us for one last play on the beach, and then we flew back to New Zealand.

After 9 days in Tonga, I don't pretend to know much about Tonga or Tongans, but I know a lot more than I did a couple of weeks ago.  I'm thankful for that.  I LOVED our visit to Tonga!

We got home and enjoyed watching "The Other Side of Heaven" with Amy Benton.  Now I noticed the kava drink, the LDS school uniforms, the beaches and coconut trees (even though it was filmed in Rarotonga), the Tongan harmonies during the singing.

When we landed in Auckland, Oak got on another domestic flight to Napier/Hastings to compete in orienteering finals.  The rest of us drove home to a local concerto weekend.  Here's a link to Danny's performance, for anyone interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IySmSe-QKek&feature=em-subs_digest

Link to Sage's school blog:
http://sagesfrankleyblog.blogspot.co.nz/2016/05/sages-video-on-friday-13-may-2016.html