October 1, 2014

October 1, 2014

Today has been a happy/sad day.  We arrived safely from Vava’u after our flight on the small plane had been cancelled due to bad weather, rain, which is good for the islands.  However because of the cancellation we got to fly back to Tonga in the MA60 which we have never flown on.  That was a real treat to fly on an airplane that actually has an isle you could walk through and flight attendants.  Because the plane was big, we could fly over the storm.  However, because we weren’t on the little plane, we weren’t trolling so we couldn’t see the whales in the water.  The flight was a whole 50 minutes instead of an hour and 10 or 20 minutes.  It was a nice adventure.

Today we went to police station to identify the items that got stolen from our office last week.  Luckily for us, the police recovered Steve’s computer, our phone and my computer bag.  However, the key for his mouse was missing, as was the sim card for the phone.  We had to laugh a little when the police needed our phone number, because they had our phone with no sim card in it and we do not have another phone.  The bad thing, but good for us, was the kids who stole the computer, locked our access to the computer with a password that we didn’t have, but they added their name and a password.  So we don’t know if all of our pictures, documents, and projects we are working on are still there.  Paula, our IT guy said, “no worries, we can recover it”.  But we have to get it back from the police maybe tomorrow after they have gone to court to state their case, so we still don’t have access to it.  All we can think of is the thousands of pictures that are on that computer which covers our entire mission and all of the documents that we need to complete our projects.  It feels like right now that the last 14 months of our lives have been wiped away and we have to start over again.  The good thing is we still have my computer, but I don’t have all of Steve’s information on it.  So, we know that Satan is working really hard to discourage us, but we are trying to go forward anyway.  It’s a bummer though.

Now, I think maybe I need to back up a little bit to explain about our robbery.  Last Monday was a really rushed Monday with lots of things going on.  Elder Pearson had been here over the weekend, and we had been to about 4 meetings that he spoke at.  We had a student assembly that morning, when Elder Pearson talked to the student body.  He gave such a good talk and emphasized that importance of education and of learning English.  He even stressed the fact that students need to graduate with their diploma and also have a certification in a trade area, so that they were employable.  No missions until after graduation from high school theme was really emphasized.  I don’t know if this is happening in the states or not, but we have quite a few young men who drop out of school to complete a mission, which creates a major problem for them after missions with continuing their education.

 After the assembly, we had to get downtown to get some papers notarized, which in and of itself was quite a complicated process.  Luckily for us, the manager of FM went with us to where she gets her papers notarized and could translate for us.  We found a lawyer after many stops who could notarize our papers.  When we asked him if he needed identification or our passports, he looked at us and said, “no, you are a religious person and I trust your word”.  Then he didn’t charge us for stamping and notarizing our papers.  That was an amazing deal.

Then we had to get to the airport to pick up the Alands, we got there late, but they had only been off the plane and waiting for us for about 5 minutes.  That was so much fun to see them.  We then had to get to more meetings regarding our new assignment, which was.... (this is where you hear the drum roll).  A donor has given a very large sum of money, $75,000.00 for 5 years to the TVET programs at Liahona and Saineha and we have been asked to establish a program and plan regarding how the money is to be spent.  We have to write a 5 year plan on how to enhance the TVET program and keep it self-sustaining.  This will include teacher training, equipment, curriculum, etc.  This is a big thing with a lot of responsibility to set it up in such a way that the administrators and school can manage the funds when we are gone.  Our minds are whirling.  As we have been meeting with teachers and administrators, we are amazed at how little they comprehend the whole scope of what needs to happen.  Our teachers don’t even know how to budget their money or even order what they need for the next year.  Most of them have lived without and made do for their whole lives, so learning how to manage their money is a huge responsibility.  In addition, there are programs that are totally broken that somehow we have to revive, get the teachers to take ownership of their programs and curriculum.  We have still not figured out what happens with the ordering process here, it is a very broken system which has got to be fixed before any of this assignment can take place.  So we feel like the chickens that cross the road, do they run fast or try to fly, hoping they don’t get run over crossing the road.  Unfortunately, we aren’t as skinny as the chickens and we don’t run or fly as fast as they do.  Sooooo, we need lots of prayers.  We will meet with the mission president next week to share our thoughts and get his input.  We have thought about extending our mission, but after today, we aren’t sure what we really want to do.  I think Satan is working mighty hard to stop this work from progressing.  However, we are surrounded by very good people, we just pray that we are up to this next adventure.

We spent the evening then at dinner with the senior missionaries, laughing, talking about our missions.  We didn’t get home until after 9:30 which is late for us old folks.  We did not go back to the office to pick up our computers.  We had left them before and the office was locked, so we didn’t think there was a problem.  Tuesday when we went back to the office, we then noticed that Steve’s computer was gone, my computer bag with our cell phone was also missing.  It was weird because the doors were locked, and my computer which was on my desk was still there.  We immediately contacted FM who then contacted the police.  Then the questions began.  We had to go to Nukunuku to make a report.  We couldn’t figure out why we got targeted.  Then we found out that over the course of the weekend that there had been many break ins on and off campus, many items missing.  That didn’t make us feel any better, however the recovery of the stolen items was quick because of the work of a young teacher who was on the ball.  A back pack had been stolen from the office of one of the teachers here on campus during PTSA.  It was a bright orange.  Laina happened to be downtown when she saw 2 young men walking,  one wearing the backpack.  She took a picture of them, then they both turned around to talk to someone and she got a picture of their faces.  She immediately turned it into the police.  The coconut express started working, several of the teachers on campus then started putting 2 and 2 together.  Two of the teachers, Lolo and Fefita had sons who knew the kids and had been to their home several times.  However, they had never been in the kids bedroom.  While some friends entertained the young man that had stolen our items , one of the boys went into the bedroom and saw computers and saw ours.  There are not any oversized, teal colored computers on the island.  Then the head of FM contacted the police and our computer, plus several others, cameras, phones, etc were recovered.  We were notified on Wednesday that our computer had been recovered, but we would have to identify them.  In the meantime, we went to the headquarters of TCC which is Tongan Communications Center, reported our phone gone and they were able to track the simcard and numbers called with the card.  We had just put $40 pa’anga’s worth of money on the phone so we could call our family.  So the phone was used up to the last 6 cents worth.  We are now trying to get a report on the numbers called to hand to the police to see if they can use the numbers to see who else may have been involved in the thefts.

It seems like last week flew and changed courses so many times, that I felt like I was looking through a kaleidoscope.  We would take a step and the complexion of what we were doing kept changing.  Piano lessons have become a real challenge trying to fit them in.  I have a private lesson on Wednesday, then teach a group in the North stake at 6, which I had to do alone this last week.  The senior couples who had gone to Eua ended up having to stay another night because the plane they were supposed to fly on cancelled for some reason.  That made it so the Alands and the Woods were stuck.  It turned out good though, because there were only 4 of the 24 that showed up at the music lesson.  Something else was going on that night, or those who signed up found out that they would have to do some work to learn.  Wednesday evening, we had dinner with the senior missionaries after piano, which then means that I will miss another sewing session with Maopa.  Oh well, another day, I hope.

We flew to Vava’u  on Thursday on a puddle jumper.  It was so big that we could only get one leg between the rows to get to the front, where our seats were.  The Alands, who got stuck on Eua, made it on time so they could fly with us to Vava’u.  They had 20 minutes to get off their plane and board the next plane for their scheduled flight to Vava’u.  It didn't turn out to be too bad because the plane that  we were flying on to get to Vava’u was the same plane.  There was 1 stop at Ha’api that had to be made, about a 10 minute layover to pickup new passengers.  We stayed on the plane because it was such a struggle to get through the aisle that was about 6 " wide.  Steve saw whales in the ocean which was fun for him while we were flying.   The ocean was pretty wild with white caps and there was one whoopsie when we were gaining altitude.  The pilot told us that the winds this time of year are pretty turbulent over the ocean.  Ha'api was very dry, looked like the trees, bushes and grasses were brown and wilting.  Unfortunately for the people of Ha’api, little progress has been made for housing, at least the new housing.  They are also out of water due to the drought that is happening here.  Water is being shipped from Liahona to Ha’api to help the people with drinking water.

Vava’u, is a beautiful island, but it was at least 10 degrees hotter there.  The humidity was in the 80% so we felt like we were melting.  Elder and Sister Aland, have not been to Vava’u, so this was a new adventure for them.  We had some really good meetings at the school, met with the TVET faculty and presented the program to them regarding the TVET, changing to Applied Technology, extra program funding.  The school at Vava’u is another step in time.  The campus is placed on different levels and has covered walkways, for protection from both the sun and rain.  The island is extremely dry also, very noticeable from the air and on foot.  This is still tourist season, so there were many sailboats in the harbor.  They come because of the inlet that is protected from ocean storms, tropical weather and whale watching.  Those of us who don’t live near the ocean, just can’t get enough of watching the water and the boats.  Love it, love it, love it.  Dee and Elaine Simmons are the ITEP missionaries here.  Elaine went to school with Loretta’s mom.  They are also terrific people who took wonderful care of us as drivers, tour guides, caterers, hangout place between appointments.  We even got to do a little beach bumming with them, and have a quiet restful Saturday.  We  had a wonderful rain on Saturday and Sunday.  We told everybody that we brought the rain, we were so pleased to have some moisture from the sky.

Sunday we went to a ward conference, where we had an interpreter who made the meeting much more meaningful with his translation.  We also had one of the missionary sisters interpret during relief society.  The Tongan sisters have the same lesson manual, but the lesson was sure different.  However, I am just glad that I could understand some of it.  The ward also had a dinner prepared for those who attended the conference.  We were embarrassed about lining up for lunch, so we just quietly left and went into town where we bought lunch. Apparently the relief society noticed that we left without food, so they delivered food to the Simmons to give to us. When we got back from lunch, Elder Simmons brought us back the lunches that were prepared at the ward.  They had enough food for 2 people in each container.  We decided that since we had just eaten, we found some people who were working at the hotel and gave them our lunches.  They were very grateful for the food.  It was good food, by the way.  Sunday we had a wonderful rain, the good soaking kind of rain. 

By Monday, the greenery was back to green.  Monday was a very humid day.  We got lots of work done, had family home evening with the other senior missionaries.  It was really fun, but by then we were tired of staying in a motel and were ready to go home.  Tuesday when we got to the airport, we found out that our flight had been cancelled because of the rain.  We were scheduled to fly on the puddle jumper.  Luckily for us, the MA60 was still coming to Vava’u and we were able to get a flight home in a BIG plane, 60 passengers, with aisles you could walk down and flight attendants.  We were really up town on that flight.  The missionaries, who were scheduled to be on our earlier flight, went with us and they enjoyed the luxury of that flight also.  For some reason, missionaries have not been able to fly on the Ma60.  We told President Tupou that we would love to just use that plane because it flies every day.  The puddle jumper plane flies Tuesday’s and Thursdays, which really messes up our scheduling.  So we hope we can start flying on the bigger plane.  When we got home, we also had to feed the sister missionaries, so I had to mix up some chicken salad sandwiches, chips, cake, etc, then we went out to eat at a pizza place.  So much fun.  Then we got to feed the missionaries the next morning.  I introduced them to Monsters.  They really liked them.

Today is a holiday for the Tongans, so we are still working, but in grubbies.  We needed a down day and time to catch up on all our correspondence.  We had a ton of letters to write and just catch up on laundry, etc.  So far, we have worked through lunch. My stomach is starting to revolt.  Life continues to roll on.

Steve took some time to cut out some wood for one of our favorite woodcarvers.  Bishop Niu (new)  has been very sick this last month and hasn’t worked much.  When we saw him today, he was back to feeling punkie.  When Steve took the cut wood back to Westover, he came out of his house covered in a sweatshirt with a hoodie and a blanket wrapped around him.  He was freezing, I can’t even imagine that since the last 2 days have been about 86 or more plus 80% humidity in addition, so pretty hot.  I woke up with a start this morning with the thought that they need food.  So we took another senior missionary couple with us and stocked up on groceries for them.  I don’t know if he knew what to think about us and groceries, but we were certainly glad to help.  He and his wife have 6 children all under 9.  The baby has also been very ill.  These people live day to day with what they can earn.  I hope we did the right thing.