August 16, 2014

August 16, 2014

Today we had a first.  We were able to go whale watching with the Senior Missionaries.  Elder and Sister Hamblin set up the tour which was guided by a man by the name of Sam and a trio of young people to assist him.  Georgia, a young lady from England was the naturalist who guided the tour and who educated us regarding whales.  She has a profound love of these mammals of the sea.  She started out doing research on the Blue whale and her life has guided her from there.  She has followed the whales since she got out of high school and has managed to have trained with some people who are regarded as experts in the field of whales.  She was certainly passionate about whales and the ocean.  She looks like a stick, she is so thin.  Georgie, as she liked to be called, was a wealth of information.   We had a perfect day to go, partly cloudy, no hot sun , no wind, no rain, calm seas.  The owner of the boat also has a 6^th sense about where to find these big critters, in the huge ocean.

We found out that baby whales, calves, are about 4 meters long, about 12 – 13 feet long.  They are unable to swim on their own, so they piggy back for a while.  They cannot submerge for more than 5 minutes and have to learn how to navigate in the ocean.  Their mothers nurse them (whale Milk) for about 10-11 months so they gain about 40 kilograms of weight per day, weaned and then they are considered old enough to go on their own.  The youngsters have to gain enough weight and be big enough to go south in the summer to feed.  When the whales come north to Tonga, they don’t eat. The mothers have their babies in protected area away from their natural predators.  Those with youngsters who are weaned, then mate again.   I don’t remember if the calves stay with the pod (group), but I think they have to because of safety in numbers.  According to Georgie, whale pods have their own culture.  They learn eating and behavior patterns from their pods.  We saw a baby whale that was probably about 2 weeks old.  He or she was learned how to breach, which is jumping out of the water and flopping on their backs, making a big splash.  We also got to see momma show baby whale how to breach.  She was spectacular, lots of water and lots of air in her performance.  The baby was a show off breaching as many as 4 -5 times before resting, and then started over again.  It was truly awe inspiring.  It’s also funny to see a baby whale playing.

We also got to see many very large whales who Georgie said were males competing for a female; that’s when we saw some spectacular jumps, twists, turns and tail smashing moves.  A whale has a lot of tail that moves tons of water.  We did get in a group of about 4-5 whales a couple of times.  Sam slowed the boat down when we got near a pod to let us watch the antics of the whales.  In fact after we saw probably 3 males courting a female, we left and realized that 2 of them followed us for a while.  A couple of people on the boat wanted to swim with the whales and got into the water with the guides.  However, the whales are shy and left the area.  Georgie went into the water with the passengers, but she had on a wet suit so that she wouldn’t get so cold, but she did anyway.  The guys that went into the water didn’t have wet suits, so they got pretty cold.  The water was not warm by the way, since it is still officially winter.  Georgie also saw a shark, so she signaled those who were in the water to get back into the boat.  She told the sharks were not dangerous, but she treats them with respect.  Georgie also told us that the whales collect barnacles, so breaching gets rid of the barnacles, which is a sort of parasite.  A whales skin is very sensitive and a lot of sea critters take hunks out of their flesh, so I guess all the acrobatics that we saw today were more than just being playful.  What a fun day.  However, I am still moving in the motion of the boat and the waves.  I hope that doesn’t continue too long.

I guess I forgot to mention the X-Factor which was quite a musical, singing event since the students like to perform and hear themselves sing.  I was asked to be a judge, but I had to be pretty critical about singing in tune and in time to the music played.  There are many young students with a lot of talent, but the students from the middle school were spectacular, out did the high school in a big way.  I was feeling bad that I had been hard on the students but when I heard the middle school students that performed, I was glad I was a stickler for the tone and staying in tune.  The younger students will be a great support to the high school when they move up.

We also got to participate in the recital of the choir, music and PE dancing classes held the following Friday.  My goodness, there was some great talent.  I was glad to see that a couple of the music students that we had taught included in the piano recital part.  They played more advanced hymns than what we had left them with, so I was glad to know that they were continuing their music studies.  The music teacher is new to Liahona, but she has been involved in music her whole life.  She sang a song for the student body that was unbelievable.  Apparently she studied opera for the last 2 years,  then decided she didn’t like the travel and came home to Tonga.  I don’t know this lady’s name, but she was sitting by Ola who was sitting next to me in one of the pictures Steve took.  She just joined the church last year, Liahona is extremely lucky to get her as a teacher.  She has much talent and is willing to share. It was a great event showcasing the other talents of the students here.  Of course I loved it.

We had a stake dance Friday night which was also a ‘big deal’.  This is the kind of activity that the whole family participates in.  Tongans can’t not dance, turn on the music and they just automatically have to dance.  Steve and I also danced which is rare for us.  Steve even got to dance with his favorite teacher, Maopa.  She is a hoot and had to jive.  Her husband was there, but he has some  diabetic sores on his feet, so he can’t dance much.  So Steve got to fill his place.  I had to take pictures, but my pictures weren’t very good, not as good as his moves when he got into the dance.  We had a fun time laughing and enjoying our friends.

We also got to go out to dinner to the Waterfront, new place that we haven’t been to with Bruce Yermen, the Woods and Holbrooks.  The food was very good,  I think that we will take Cyndee and Margaret to that one when they come.  We have other restaurants of varying degrees of good to eat at and price, but we’ll work up to that one.  It would be hard to start with the best and then work our way down.  Everything is relative here.  We’ve been here long enough that everything is starting to taste good.  Of course we don’t have much variety, but at least there are some options.  I do get tired of my own cooking, doesn’t seem to matter where we are.  I like to eat out.