March 13, 2014

Another week, with more happenings.   The principals and spouses of the schools on Liahona, the ITEP missionaries were invited in addition to Brother Wilde to a culteral event and dinner which was catered by the students in the hospitality and catering program at the high school.  The food was very good, a mix of Tongan that was a little Americanized in some parts.  The ITEP couples supplied some of the desserts and they were really good, we also had some Tongan favorites.  The set up, table settings and serving was done by the form 7 students who are learning the catering and hospitality career study. They looked very smart and acted like they knew what they were doing.  Of course, they were directed by Maopa and their hospitality teacher, Faftia Uipi. I think the most impressive thing though about the evening was the cultural event that took place after the meal.  The program was put on by the Tongan department and believe me, it was spectacular.  The young people danced beautifully.   The MC of the program had worked at the PCC, Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii, so he had really prepared these young people to perform.  They were poised and graceful, we were in awe as we watched them perform. The dancing was superb.  I can't believe  how energetic the young men were and how much fun it was to watch them have fun dancing.  Several of the young people are members of our ward and also take music lessons from us.  It was fun to see them in a different setting, performing well.  We thoroughly enjoyed our evening.

We were also invited to a "New Beginnings" evening on Wednesday for the young women of our ward.  When we gopt their we were really surprised at how few adults were present at this program.  Only 2 mothers of the girls in our ward, the bishop, 1 member of the bishopric and the young womens' presidency, plus the stake leader and high counselor were there.  When the meeting started, the counselor in the young womens presidency, who is also the stake young womans president, told us that the majority of these young women live in the dorms, so their parents could not be in attendance since they live on the outer islands.  I felt so badly for these young ladies because they looked so beautiful and had prepared so much to present to us, just a few members of the ward.  I was also really surprised when the new young womens president asked the girls if they had completed any of their goals and there was not one single girl that had.  I talked to the Ola who is the current stake young womens president and she told me the worst problem they have is the girls who come from the outer islands who always lose their books and don't follow up with finishing their projects when they leave school.  This is a symptom of the mentality of the whole island which is evident in about everything.  The Tongan philosophy is, "there is always tomorrow, don't worry", which is really hard to work with to get any change.  It is very frustrating to those of us who are American who want things done yesterday in our fast paced society.  Because these people are so kind and loving, they don't want to hurt anyones feelings by insisting that things get done promptly, they will tell you they will do something just so you will feel better, but it won't get done.  They say what they think you want to hear then do what they do, wait until tomorrow or when ever.  The people that are going any where who are Tongan, also get very frustrated with the old philosophy.  It's very hard to change  the old ways since most of the elders of Tonga want things to stay the same. Its what they know.

We have been working again with helping the teachers work on budgets for supplies and equipment for their next term, in addition to looking ahead to next year.  This is a major hurdle to complete.  Planning for the future is a hard concept for many of these people to get their heads around.  Our goal is to have the budgets planned, in to MM to order by the end of this week.  Steve has been working very hard on trying to get this completed,  it is coming along, slowly though.  It's not like the US where you can just get on line and order things.  We have had to learn to wait and wait, then wait some more.  Patience is not our virtue.  We need to learn that.

The weather continues with its extreme heat, then down pours of rain.  This morning when running to our department meeting, Steve just took off his sandals and walked barefoot with sandals in hand from our house to our meeting.  When we got to our destination, he just slipped his sandals on and went to our meeting, just like our Tongan friends.  Sometimgs umbrellas are helpful, sometimes  not.  Sometimes they just aren't big enough to keep the rain off or too big so when the wind hits them and inverts the umbrella, they don't work so well.  It is fun though we  have just learned to get used to being a little damp when we get to our office.  The air conditioning feels wonderful even if we are a little wet.  I guess we are getting tough now, at least we have learned, wet is cool.  Tongans love the rain!  I totally understand now why they love the rain so much.

Sister Aland and I had music lessons again last night.  As is always the case, we had more come the second lesson, about 24 last night, started out with 18.  And of course, we get the younger children under 12 when we ask for the young single adults so the students can hold a church calling in music when they complete our course.  We have to move so fast because we have to teach all the theory and learn basic hymn playing in 8 weeks.  It really pushes the students and the teachers.  By the time we teach music after working all day, we come home tired and really hot.  Most of the places we teach have no keyboards, so the students have to learn on a paper keyboard for several lessons before they ever get to touch a keyboard.  Most places do not have air conditioning and these 2 palangi ladies die in the heat.  That is probably why we are so tired when we finish for the night.  I am to the point that I would just love one evening a week that we don't have anything to do so I could just stay home.  It has also been really hard to find the time to get groceries which in itself is a major chore.  Sounds like I'm complaining, but this is life in Tonga.  I don't know if this experience is like other missions, I can't imagine doing anything different.   We do love our mission,  but we need more senior missionaries, probably world wide.