Celebrate, Work, and Explore

The government sponsored a Council on Violence Against Women and Children last week and the Senior Missionary couples were invited to sing for it.  We were even televised.  It seems a bit unusual that we should perform when many Tongan singers are so strong and harmonize beautifully, almost always a’capella.  One of the speakers is dressed in her best in the photo, and note the bare feet------very common.

They have a huge parade here the day Parliament opens.  All of the schools, middle schools, high schools and colleges march through town.  Everyone through high school age has uniforms, girls always wear dresses or skirts to school and are required to wear braids.  They are always clean and well groomed.  

They march past the Parliament Building shown in the photo and end passing the King’s Palace,
where they bow or salute the King sitting on his porch.

This is a mysterious archeological site called Ha'amonga' Maui, a stone trilithon from around 1200 A D.
Each coral vertical rock is 30-40 tons, 

We found this amazing beach by accident and vowed to come back with snorkels.
Saturday is the only day we make time for exploring or the beach.  Most days we work at the office late unless we have something scheduled:  presentations, workshops, training Self Reliance Specialists and Stake committees, FHE,  group dinners and temple nights.  Sometimes it’s hard to find time for laundry and house cleaning.  That’s when it’s nice to have a small house. 

Dick is getting pretty good at retrieving coconuts

The word seems to be getting out that we can help the Tongan people to provide for themselves, and we are surprised at the numbers of people who actually are coming to see us and seem to be willing to work and to become educated.  It's not so common here.  Many are VERY comfortable sitting around, doing nothing.  We had a married couple in this week who said they wanted to further their education and came in a year and a half ago, but couldn't afford the monthly PEF loan payment of 5 pa'anga ($3 US) each while they were going to school, so they had to wait until one of them could get a job and then apply for the loan.  The woman was giggling with excitement to think that her dream of both of them becoming educated might come true.     They only have to pay $5 pa'anga monthly while in school, then after graduation they get 6 months to continue with that amount, then the costs rise when they  have finished their degree and likely have found a job. They and several others have signed up for our next series of 4 Planning for Success workshops starting Tuesday, one of many requirements before getting a PEF loan.   It's great to see people get excited about this kind of opportunity.  Some have called us 'angels'.  We are having fun being the 'good guys'.

THE PRINCESS AND THE PIG

The Princess 

 Dick, Verna,  the Tongan lady who manages our Self-Reliance Center, and I had lunch with the Princess today.   Our manager grew up with her since they were 5, and they are close friends.  When they are in private, they act like normal friends and laugh and have fun, but in public our manager has to walk behind the Princess, wear special clothing and follow all of the rules for being around royalty.  The Princess  may not look like a storybook princess but she was very charming and fun to be around and made us feel comfortable having lunch with her at a local sushi bar.  Lucky for Dick, he had just bought his tupenu (skirt), but still hasn’t gotten a tavala (mat) and rope to go around his waist,  and I still need to
find a kia kia for my waist to be more appropriate for
dress up.

Children delivering funeral gifts.  The lady receiving the gifts are dressed in black with a woven mat and grass skirt.

They say the little pigs are the most tender.  Who needs a fancy grill with an electric spit?

We are crazy busy here, worked an 11 hour day today.  Seems to be common now days.  We’ve been training for a couple of days this week by skype with the New Zealand area office for new PEF  (Perpetual Education Fund) software.  It’s very complicated and not very intuitive.  They gave us 67 pages of instructions with it.  In the meantime, we’re getting backed up with people wanting help to learn about and apply for PEF, scholarships, jobs, self-employment workshops and English proficiency tests.  Also BYU-Hawaii  has their I-WORK program to help Pacific Islanders work their way through school by working at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We started some new Self-Employment workshops this week- one on Wed. and one Thurs.  Most people come thinking we’re going to hand out $, and find out they are going to learn about creating a viable business and how to run it.  In one of our presentations we have great video clips of a lady from Ghana carrying a sewing machine around on her head to get business, and a clip of a lady who couldn't sell her peanuts, so she started making paste of it and selling it in bags, jars and buckets, and found out people bought far more when it was prepared like peanut butter.

There are a lot of touching stories we hear from many of the people who come for help.  A Tongan girl I worked with this evening just got released from her mission in Tonga and wants to be accepted  to  the I- WORK /Hawaii program.  Her father quit farming 7 years ago and moved to New Zealand to try to earn more money for the family.  She hasn’t seen him in 6 years.  After he had been there a year, her Mom went to NZ and spent a year with him, and the girl took care of her 6 younger brothers and sisters while she was 17 and going to school.  The dad occasionally sends some money from doing carpentry and living in NZ illegally.  She had to get a bishop’s letter signed to verify her need for I-work at BYU-H, and it had to be emailed today, so I helped her write a letter, drove her to the bishop’s house for his signature, 50 minutes around the lagoon to the far corner of the island after she had spent 3 hours coming into the office by bus to use a computer for the letter.  Very typical, most people don’t  drive or have cars, and phones are not dependable.  Their numbers are changing constantly.  It’s very difficult contacting people.  Addresses are also non- existent.  Their village name is their address.  The buses don’t seem to be on any kind of schedule.  You just wait, sometimes for hours, until one shows up.  People own them individually (buy a bus and just start driving it where and when you want).  On the way to the girl’s house, we saw a procession of school children and adults (pictured) going to a house where they were mourning someone’s death.  The children had made several items to deliver as gifts to those who mourn.  There were flowers, food, hand woven mats (some can take months to weave and cost hundreds of dollars at the markets) along with quilts and other gifts.  Then, when we arrived at the Tongan girl’s house, 3 of her brothers were in the front yard cooking a pig over a fire made by burning coconut shells, which is in another of the photos.  I don’t know how long he had to stand there and turn the pig, probably for hours.  There is always something new here to experience.  We love helping these good and appreciative people.  The work is rewarding.

CULTURE WEEK AT LIAHONA

Malo e lelei,

The past week was culture week at the high school.  We were treated to different parts of the culture every day.   Unfortunately, we work in town and so we were only able to catch a few things which are pictured here. On Monday they all dressed in traditional Tongan attire.  You'll see that in some of the dance photos.  On Wednesday we stuck around in the morning and watched each class perform their version of the typical Tongan dances.  They mixed it up with some silliness, so you  may see some odd stuff.  Friday was food day and we missed that.  All was not up to Polynesian Culture Center professionalism, but was fun to watch.

Most of the girl's dresses are home-made Tapa cloth, made from the inner bark of local trees.  
They use brown liquid from another type of  tree and
mix it with coconut juice if they want to make a black design.

As for the work, we are busy still learning how to operate in Tonga and under the umbrella of corporate LDS.  I just thought I would never work for a corporation again!  Not a problem, however because we're doing our best to help these people (mostly young adults) better their lives through more education.  Lot's don't even finish high school.  Over 1/2 are not employed.  Our mission president is really on the returning missionaries to get in to school and use the Self Reliance Center as a "bridge", as he calls it, to continuing education after the mission.  They learn really good habits while on the mission, but many don't continue with the good work and study habits that they learned through Preach My Gospel training and the discipline needed to be successful in any endeavor.

The mission president actually has us come in to the office on the day each group is released and give a one hour presentation on Self Reliance...what it is, and what it is not and what is offered right here locally to help them continue on with education through schooling, workshops, scholarships and loans.

You would not believe the amount of attention Self Reliance is getting from "The Brethren" these days.  Think about it....where is the church growing the fastest....mostly 3rd world countries.  How does the church sustain this growth when folks can't even provide for their own families, let alone pay tithes and offerings?  Trouble,too, is that there aren't jobs to be had in many of these areas.  That's why there is a new emphasis being put on self employment.  This will be launched around here in September, we hope.  Big challenges for us here in Tonga where the practice for many decades is to sit back and let that part of the family that is in Australia, New Zealand, USA or wherever send enough money home to keep things just barely going here.
The CIA website actually calls this practice one of the main sources of income for the kingdom. (Remittances)  So there's my soap box for today.  The people are great. They are warm, friendly and always laughing.  It is not hard being around them.  They make living here quite pleasant,  and the weather has been much better than expected.  Mostly low 70s this time of year,  and a fair number of dry days.

We're still working on trying to get movie clips to play on this site.  Maybe another time.

SO HARD TO HAVE TO LOVE FROM A DISTANCE..........New Baby FORD GOLDEN ROPER

We were so excited that Cody survived about 18 weeks of bedrest to get this
adorable little guy here in good health, born on May 12.

HAWAIIAN WEDDING-----WYLIE AND EVELYNN

 We left Tonga to attend Wylie and Evelynn's wedding in Hawaii.  You would think that since they are all Polynesian islands, it wouldn't be too far to travel.  We had to go through New Zealand to get there.  With layovers it took us 23 hours of travel time.  And it was well worth going.

The wedding was simple and beautiful, performed by a very humble Samoan sealer.  One of the photos is in front of the Hawaiian temple, and the rest are in a grove of spectacular banyan trees, then more were taken on the beach by their professional photographer. We then had to leave for an appointment with BYU Hawaii Admissions to learn more to help the Tongans with their applications and to get them involved with the "IWORK" program (to work their way through school at the Polynesian Cultural Center) and to learn about the scholarships available.

We were watching scuba divers along this rugged southeast coastline on Oahu

Back in Tonga----One of many strange vegetables we are learning to cook with, purple KAMALA.

The long brown root is KAMALA,  purple inside.

OUR SNORKLING BEACH AND OTHER TONGAN TIDBITS

The island and reefs are all coral

Grave sites.........Coral, beer bottles and plastic flowers

Fishing Pigs on the beach

The view across the street from the office

The Self-Reliance Office

"A  coconut windshield"  These are common in Tonga, and people just drive with them like this.
You learn not to park under coconut trees. 

Our little Toyota Yaris.
This is our laundry room in back of our duplex........outdoor washer and air dry where the rain won't bother it.
but better than washing in 3   five gallon buckets like the ladies below.

These are some of the unusual leis we were given

We finally went in this meat shop today.
They don't even sell meat.
It is common here for people to wear shirts or towels on their heads to protect them from the sun.

WE ARE REALLY IN TONGA

We arrived in Nuku'alofa, Tonga on Thursday, April 10 on a cool rainy day, greeted by a dozen or so people who showered us with wonderfully unusual leis and greetings.  It was a fun surprise after being told one couple would pick us up.  We were taken to lunch by the mission president (Tongan) and his wife who moved to Tonga in July after many years of living in Alaska.  We have had a lot of help from other missionary couples who are here for humanitarian projects and teaching and other types of work.  They've been running us around to get driver's licenses, a car, cash, food, ect.  It is very difficult finding where things are.  There are almost no addresses and most of the streets don't have names.  It's not easy finding things like meat.  One store we found that said  "Meat Store"  had mostly trikes and plastic flowers.  One store actually had Kirkland bags of walnuts they had brought from Costco in Hawaii and were charging $45 a bag. Although chickens are running around everywhere, eggs were $7.50 a dozen.  Coconuts, bananas, taro root and about 20 varieties of sweet potatoes are all common here.  Lots of white bread and white rice and fatty milk.  We might be returning home with a lot of extra pounds.

We have spent a lot of time training at the Self-Reliance Center Monday and Tuesday.  We are the only missionary couple working in the center.  There are a few volunteers here as well and a local Tongan girl who is a paid center manager.  Weekly workshops are offered to people who want to further their education and  receive scholarships and/or loans.  We are learning about those and we'll be helping to expand the program to help them either find jobs or become self-employed.  The center is desperate for help.  They have had as many as 30 there at a time waiting to be helped.

The Tongan people are incredibly loving, all dedicated to Christian religions, respectful and appreciative, and so fun to be around.  Their English is rough, but way better than our Tongan.  It's been difficult to understand the cell phone and internet plans in Tongan-English, but we finally got hooked up today, however, the internet doesn't work, so we're back at the Service Center for access.

Oh yes, they do drive on the wrong side of the road!  Dick just started driving yesterday, and I haven't tried it yet.  We yield to the right if we remember.  Turn signals and windshield wipers are opposite where they should be. We call it the missionary wave when the wipers turn on instead of the turn signal.   And I keep getting in on the wrong side of the car.  Round-abouts go clockwise and feel awkward, but we are still in one piece.

We're excited to be involved in such an exciting and inspired program.  We feel that our learning capacities have increased as we are dedicating our lives to such a worthwhile cause.