Tonga: Crying for a Hot Shower

Tunitau and Sepa - they sent us to Tonga with the keys to their house

After a couple of hours of scrambling and expensive taxi rides to the Tongan Embassy, we were able to resolve the problem.

Tongatapu International Airport!  Small!  A baggage claim and a couple of customs desks

Airport welcome

2 nights in a village called Houma

Something cool to drink

Kava, feeding coconuts to his pigs

We got our first taste of local Tongan generosity and kindnesses.



We also got our first taste of drinking coconuts instead of water, breadfruit, lu, and even "horsie."

one door is the toilet, the other door is the shower

Kitchen.  The freezer/refrigerator is in the foreground.  The next picture is a look inside...

chicken and coconuts

bedroom

Joyce on a swing in the backyard.

Backyard from a different angle

We drove around the entire main island in a day, seeing some of the main sights.  You pass 36 LDS church buildings, 2 LDS intermediate schools, 1 LDS high school, and an LDS temple on the main loop around the island!

outdoor baptismal font

Green school uniforms of the Liahona High School

Random people on the street

We enjoyed talking with this missionary couple, serving at Liahona.

Lunch stop.  Our boys and Villiami in the truck.

Breadfruit and fish

Remind anyone of the story about Great-grandpa Miller?

Villiami came with us for the day.
He'd been sent home from Liahona because his hair was too long.

cemetery 

That's all the pictures - now there's just writing...

I have never found myself crying before, because of a hot shower.  But, there I was, warm tears running down my face and mixing with the warm water of the shower in our 1-star guesthouse on the main island of Tonga.  We had just spent 8 nights staying with local Tongans who use outdoor showers, and the warm shower made me feel sad that our adventure was almost at an end.  We were just hours away from boarding our flight back to New Zealand.

The idea for this trip started a couple of years ago, when Elder Hamula, our LDS area authority was at our house for dinner following a local conference.  He has visited every corner of the South Pacific as part of his responsibilities.  I asked him what he would recommend to me as top destinations in the South Pacific, keeping in mind that I have more limited time and money than he's had.

His answer was, "Go to Tonga to hear the people sing, and go to Papua New Guinea, because it's so different than anywhere else in the area, it's unlike anywhere else on earth."

So, the idea for our Tonga-trip was planted in my mind.  When we had a two-week school break, and no big commitments; I took a leap and bought tickets to Tonga!  Although it was expensive, it felt cheap to me, because it's so much cheaper than flying to Tonga from the States.  It's a 3-hour flight, and cost about $370 per person.  My plan was to take our backpacking tents, swimsuits and Sunday clothes, and make the flights our main expense.

It turned out so much better than expected!  When we mentioned to Tongan friends from our branch, the Leas, they connected us with people all along the way!  Most significantly, their parents, who live in Auckland most of the year, offered to let us stay in their home in a little village on one of the Tongan Islands (Vai Malo, in Vava'u).

The first part of our trip was the 5-hour car drive to Auckland.  The Lea's parents house was just five minutes from the airport, so we stopped there to meet them and pick up the keys to their home.

John Lea has been a good friend to our boys, and even stayed with us for about a month at the end of the last school year.  His mom got teary-eyed as she thanked us for helping to take care of him.

I remember thinking their Auckland home was quite humble - quick construction, small, hodgepodge flooring.  How my perspective had changed by the time we returned from Tonga, and stopped to drop off the keys on our way back home!

Our first adventure was checking in to our flight, and being told that our little Joycie would have to stay behind!  Her passport expired in less than 6 months, so they wouldn't let her check in with the rest of us.  They asked if we didn't have friends or relatives that could come and pick her up from the airport!  Of course we weren't leaving her behind, but Mike and I started coming to grips with the idea that one of us might be staying home with Joyce.

After a couple of hours of scrambling and expensive taxi rides to the Tongan Embassy, we were able to resolve the problem.

We arrived in Tongatapu airport, the main airport on the main island of Tonga.  This airport seemed the same size as our local airport in New Plymouth!  One major difference though.... SINGING!  A small welcoming group of men was sitting on a bench and belting out a song in that wonderful Tongan-style harmony.

Kava and Vaiua, a young couple, met us at the airport.  Kava served his LDS mission in our area, so it was especially great for us that he spoke English.  They took us to their home for two nights and showed us around the main island.

Their 2-year-old boy was staying in Auckland with relatives, but they had 7 or 8 (?) other kids staying with them, who were relatives or friends of relatives.  Teenagers, Lupe and Villiami, were especially keen to practice their English with us.

We got our first taste of Tongan generosity and kindnesses. We also got our first taste of drinking coconuts instead of water, breadfruit, lu, and even "horsie."  We had our first experience with an outdoor kitchen and outdoor bathrooms.

Villiami came with us for the day.   He'd been sent home from Liahona because his hair was too long.

Kava took the boys to play volleyball with some friends in the evening, while Mike and I went to the temple.

The next morning we boarded a little plane for the island group, Vava'u.

We landed and were picked up, once again, by a friend of friends.  She dropped us off at Tunitau and Sepa's house in the village of Vai Malo.

John had told us, "It's like a New Zealand house."

Well, true in some ways.  It had paint on the walls, a roof which was not made of banana-leaves, and it had a couple of sofas and 4 beds.  Many of the houses around us didn't have sofas, chairs, beds OR front doors.  Outdoor kitchen and bathroom/shower now seem more normal to us.  It was a beautiful setting!  A tiny little village, next to the sea, no facilities.  3 little churches and a school.

We didn't have anything to eat when we arrived, and nowhere to buy it, so neighbors helped us get some coconuts and pull down a few breadfruit from a tree.  Dinner!  They helped us string up one light in the kitchen, and another light in the main house, and pull out the tank of gas that powered the stove burners.  I have to say, at this point, we wondered what, exactly, we'd gotten ourselves into.

To be continued...