Dad's weekly travelog

 This has been a busy week.  All week we have had activities show casing each of the TVET curriculums.  The art classes printed tee shirts for anyone who brought them.....of course we brought ours. 

We took an evening venture back out to the blow holes to see big waves because the wind was blowing.  Big surprise, the tide was out, but I did get some pictures of the sun setting over the coral reef.  It drops 10' or so down to the ocean below.  On high tide this is all covered.



 These are Form 5 students (Sophomore's at home!) at their TVET fashion show. 47 students showed the clothing that they designed and made in Home Ec.  Form 7 fashions were really complex, but the funny part was that they could hardly walk in high heels.  When all you wear is flip flops, high heels were like stilts!

This is the audience made up of the student

 body of over 1000 students all in their uniforms, except the palangi's on the front row!

After seeing the projects that the woods class displayed, I decided that it was time to introduce some changes!  I've been collecting some wood...big surprise....and I turned a bowl out of Tongan Cedar.  It was green, but turned and finished beautifully.  The Principal saw it and said that I have got to get the woodworking students to understand what quality is and how to achieve it. 

 

We got invited to go out to the beach for

 a couple of hours to swim and when we got there Pres. Nau(now) and his family were preparing a feast for everyone and we were all included in the festivities.  This is their modern cooking stove!

 For drinks you get the juice from green coconuts.  But of course you had to learn how to get it out  Whether you are young.........

 or older, they all know how to husk the pineapple,( he means coconut, I'm proof reading).  It is not as easy as it looks.

Old coconuts are opened and shredded the same way it has been done for centuries.  This native caught on real fast!  After they shred it, they squeeze the milk out of it and use the milk for when cooking the lu.  (corned beef, onions and coconut milk wrapped in a taro leaf and cooked, somehow!)  Kind of their tin foil dinner and a main stay of their diet.

 Pres. Nau continues our training on trimming the coconut and hitting the end of it on the three seams,
which opens up the whole the end,  so you can drink it without removing the husk.

Pres. Tupou swimming with his son Thomas.

 The food is all laid out and ready to eat.  They fan it with palm leaves to keep the fly's away.  Little pig, little pig is in the front then the lobsters and crabs that they caught the night before.  They also caught an octopus, which they cooked. Surprise, there were also 4 beef skulls cooked up whole in a pit that is considered a delicacy. They also had their local favorite root plants and bread fruit.
We ventured out and tried new things....some we like and others will have to grow on us.  Brian said that octopus is good, so I tried it and was pleasantly surprised...I liked it!  Maybe we are just adapting to the local foods!  We did not try to skull.

I can't end without another picture of the

ocean.  It just fascinates me every time we come here.  It is like you have never seen the surf before.  I wish we could pipe in the sound along with the pictures.  Mmmmmm, perhaps I got too wordy!

So I'm going to add my 2 cents to this narrative. Words can not describe how beautiful this beach is and how wonderfully calming it is when the week has been super busy.  We have been called to be ordinance workers at the temple on Thursday nights, just for the English speaking session.  We will be set apart Tuesday.   We got visited early this morning by the bishop's wife, asking if I could play for Sacrament meeting.  Apparently, she gets bad allergies with all the burning that goes on almost daily after the harvest and prior to planting.  I could hear her sneezing during the meeting, all I could do was feel sorry for her.  Ola gets asthma also when her allergies flare up, so she was not in any shape to play, but she did attend church.  She asked me after the meeting if maybe I could play next week, but the bishop told her not to impose on me.  I told her I would be glad to help out any time.  We just grinned at each other.  I also had a meeting with the Bishop this am, and was called to be counselor in the Relief Society.  So much for staying anonymous. 

We went to practice this afternoon for the radio program tomorrow and got told we had several musical numbers between now and Christmas, so get my fingers limbered up.  One number I couldn't even read, let alone play, so my fat little arthritic fingers have got to get into shape.  I will have to find a piano and practice faithfully, since the other people who can play this number are singing.  So back to the piano bench and practice, practice, practice,  So here's a lesson to all you grandkids who don't want to practice.  Do it!!!!!! You never know when you will be needed.  So get to it.  That's my lesson with a stick if you will for the day.  Time to be done, we've had a very long day and it's time for my bed. After all it is 730.  We pray for you all and wish we were young and full of vim and vigor.  Ofa `atu.