November 10, 2014

November 10, 2014

Last week, on Wednesday, Nov 5, we flew to Vava’u to work with the teachers at Saineha.  We went with the Hamblins who work in the mission office and President Unga who is the head dude for the FM( facilities management) in the Pacific aread.  After the plane landed and before we ended up at the school, we started inspecting some MQ’s that the missionaries live in.  We saw villages that we have been through and those we haven’t.  The villages are pretty humble as are the dwelling places of the inhabitants.  We think we see many poor people in Tonga, but I think the outer islands are more poverty stricken.  The missionaries were excited to see us, even when Sister Hamblin and I had to tell them what they needed to do to get rid of the mold and other ‘growy’ stuff that was going on in their MQ’s (missionary quarters).  They did like the fact that the Hamblins had brought chocolate as a reward for clean apartments.  They were all given the chocolate bars with promises from one set of Elders that they would work on their shower, which was gross. The sisters mq looked great, they had spent a lot of time scrubbing when they got moved to this particular mq which had been left as a disaster area by the previous missionaries. The worst problem here is ‘old and years of neglect’.  I am not sure how the mission handled the mq’s before President Tupou came, but Sister Hamblin has really been riding the missionaries on keeping their spaces clean.  Although humble, they don’t need to live in pigsty conditions.  We visited 3 mq’s on Wednesday night after we got off the plane and then Thursday, we were off to another adventure, to three outer islands around Vava’u.  That meant a boat ride, which was a new adventure.

President Unga, who is the head of the FM in the South Pacific and is also in our Stake Presidency, was our tour guide.  He was inspecting the mq’s plus the chapels on the islands.  It was hilarious when we got on our boat and he decided to be the boat hostess.  He advised us that if we had to exit the vehicle, to jump away from the boat, and ‘by the way, the flotation devices are stowed in the cabin, but we wouldn’t have time to get them anyway’.  We had a very busy morning, went to 3 different islands, all were beautiful, but different.  On 2 of the islands, we had long uphill hikes.  Garth Hamblin had a pedometer with him and the total for the day of inspections for them was 6.7 miles.  We didn’t get all of those because we went to Saineha to meet with the teachers after lunch which was at 2, so we didn’t get to the school until about 3.

 The islands were dry and definitely needed rain.  The people again are very poor, and have to live on what they raise.  The children were beautiful, but dirty.  I wanted so much to wash faces, clothes and comb their hair.  There are the normal pigs, dogs, but we didn’t see many chickens.  I didn’t even see any cows or horses on the first 2 islands.  I don’t know if they inhabit these islands.  I forgot to ask that question.  The largest island, Hunga has about 400 people on it, but the only vehicle we saw was a big truck that the locals were using to move building supplies, concrete blocks, rebar and bags of concrete up a ramp to a building they were working on.  On another island, there was a ‘new’ Massey Ferguson sitting on top of the island with the name of the company that produces and processes Vanilla.  We did not see any other vehicles there.  Transportation is the boats, and feet of course.  The Tongan school boat is a definite must see simply because of the number of school children who can get on the boat to go to school. It was pretty amazing watching them as they unloaded from the boat onto the dock.  The numbers we saw were not really a true representation of the normal traffic, since some of the schools were already closed for the year.  The first 2 islands that we visited had  big hills that we had to hike up to get to the villages.  The first island, Hunga, had a concrete road and sidewalks that we walked up.  It was the kind of ramp that seemed ok at first but after the first fourth of it, the slope of the hill was much steeper.  I decided I needed to walk partway backwards since my legs were getting really tired.  That was an interesting experiment.  Sandy Hamblin and I walked backwards for a while, then turned around to walk forward.  I had to stop a few times to catch my breath.  We, Steve and I, spend too much time behind a computer and are not getting the exercise that we need.  I’m afraid exercise is not a high priority that we need to change.  We did find out later that the mq’s that are on the outer islands are not being used by the missionaries because the people were not accepting or helping the missionaries with referrals or contacts.  So, President Tupou pulled them off these islands.  The leaders over these islands are now traveling to the islands to make sure they are even having church.  It’s pretty sad to see the churches not being used the way they should. I’m not sure what the Presidents plans are for these little islands.  They sure need the blessings of activity and community since they basically don’t have anything else.  The MQ’s are being used by a member of the Stake Presidency of one of the stakes who visits the branches and stays at the mq’s.  President Unga wants to make sure though that the mq’s stay in good repair and are not being abused.  The second island, Niupopu, just had a dirt and grass trail up the hill to the village, it was also steep, but not as bad as the first island.  The third island, Otea, was a piece of cake, except for the docking experience.  The steps to get off the boat were made for giants, not short people like the Hamblins and myself.  I had to be hauled off the boat.  Not really, but I felt like it.  It’s a little difficult when the boat is going up and down with the waves, so the first step is either a killer or a piece of cake.  When I went to jump off the boat, it went down and I had to jump.  Not a pretty picture except that Pres Unga had a good hold of me and just hauled me up.  I was very grateful for a strong hand and the man at the other end.

The boat ride was fun, I loved the waves, the breezes, the views, the water and the sun. It is hard to describe the colors in the water and the sky, so I am not going to try.  Although we felt crispy when we finally completed our task, the day was the best thing that could have happened to us after the week we had just completed.  Work is getting very involved and we needed some days to replenish thoughts, clear out the cob webs and relax.  We had a real physical workout hiking to the mq’s, checking them and then hiking back to the boat.  I decided that day, that riding the waves was a lot like riding a crow hopping horse, you just kept hold of the reins and hung on.  The swells on the ocean were just wonderful and the boat would crash through the waves and sometimes hit bottom, but what a ride.  We loved it.  I don’t think I quit smiling all day.  I slept really well that night.

We were able to attend the graduation ceremony at Saineha.  49 young people graduated and the second time from form 7.  Apparently, graduation ceremonies were held for forms 4/5 because the students didn’t attend school any longer than form 6 which is the equivalent to 11th grade in the states.  Form 7 is actually considered as the 13^th grade here in school.  There are more students who are attending form 7 in both high schools now.  The church doing all it can to promote higher education for all students, that includes vocational as well as academic students.  The Math and Science teachers had decorated the gymnasium.  It is simply amazing at all the things they can do with nothing.  The graduation program was great, we enjoyed what we could and couldn’t understand.  Most of the people in Vava’u do not understand English, so most of the program was in Tongan except for Bruce Yermen who spoke.  He will also speak at Liahona next Satuday, Nov 15.  We had good meetings with the teachers and felt like we accomplished what we needed to get finished.

We have had a unique experience in the last month that we haven’t had before.  One evening after we had returned from the temple about 930, we had a knock on the door.  When I went to the door, I saw three young men who are in our ward .  I was a little taken back because although we do know them, they live in the dorms here and are from some of the outer islands.  These week had been very busy study time for students and internal exams.  As I was asking the young men what they were doing, the young man closest to me asked me if we had any leftovers.  My ears weren’t quite sure if I was hearing what I thought I was hearing, so I repeated, ‘leftovers’???  Muti, the head dorm boy, said ‘yes’, do you have any leftovers?’  Again, I am standing there, thinking what in the world???  Then I asked, ‘are you hungry?’  All three of them echoed, ‘yes, we missed dinner tonight because we were studying for exams and didn’t make it to the cafeteria in time to eat’.  I couldn’t believe my ears, but I promptly invited them in to eat.  Luckily I had cans of chicken, had just bought 2 loaves of bread, had chips and dessert plus some fruit.  I fixed those guys enough to feed an army and just when they were ready to leave with stomachs and eyes bulging, Steve asked if they would like to take some chips back to their dorm.  There was instant ‘yes’ and the chips disappeared with those young men into the dark back to their dorm.  We spent the rest of the evening rehearsing what we had seen and heard from them.  The dorm kids only get 2 meals a day and if they miss their meals they are just out of luck.  These guys are some of the best kids, so we didn’t have any concern regarding what had happened.  It was pretty amazing that they would even come to our apartment and ask for food.  When we have the missionaries, we feed them well, but have never had the experience with dorm kids.

2 weeks after that experience, on a Sunday evening after we had just gotten back from choir practice, we had another knock on the door.  This time it was one of our PNG students who we have been working with since their arrival at Liahona.  This group of kids did a program for us at our home evening one Monday night that we enjoyed tremendously.  Well,  this time it was
Tinieroe, the young man who was the talking head for his PNG group.  The girls are always very shy, don’t speak much when they see us, but they do break their arms waving at us and we get the biggest smiles.  We love seeing them on campus.  At any rate, Tineroe had missed his one meal on Sunday because he was also studying for finals.  These kids are good students and are very serious about their school work.  So, Tineroe, wondered if I had any ‘noodles’.  Again, my brain doesn’t work very fast, so I repeated, ‘noodles’, I’m sorry I don’t have any, but haven’t you eaten?’  Then he told me what had happened.  I was super glad that I had canned chicken, bread, chips, fruit and dessert on hand.  The meal we had earlier was gone, so I couldn’t even offer him any of that.  So again, I made 2 meals for him, one that he ate while he waiting for me and one that he took back to the dorm for a snack later in the evening.

Sunday, after we had gotten back from Vava’u, after choir practice and after Maopa and her daughters visited, we got a call from the mission assistant who we had been talking to earlier about chocolate covered almonds that  Cyndee brought when she came to Tonga.  He told Elder Meyers, that there were some hungry missionaries who wondered if they could have some chocolate covered almonds. Of course, Steve said ‘ come right over’ which they did!!!  Instead of 1 there was 3.  They were so funny, but we finally got it out of them that they hadn’t eaten either.  So lucky for them and for us, I had cooked fried chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes, Kumala which is their favorite purple potato and had some cut up tomatoes that Steve and were just getting ready to sit down and eat when they called.  When one of the missionaries heard what I had fixed, his comment was’ I don’t care if you guys don’t want to eat, but I haven’t had mashed potatoes in 2 years so I’m going to eat’.  That’s all the convincing they needed.  Elder Montenegro was going to be released to go home on Monday, so this was his last night in the mission field.  So the leftovers that I had planned on for the rest of the week disappeared in one small meal for these big guys.  We also sent home a small bag of the chocolate covered almonds with Elder Montenegro and the other 2 missionaries, (Lotulelei, mission assistant who is leaving on the 17^th of this month to return to Reno and I can’t remember the 3^rd missionary’s name)  got mixed nuts with craisons and chocolate covered almonds to share.  We had a fun evening with these young men.  All I could think was that someone fed my missionaries when they were in the mission field, so I am glad to help out.  It is kind of difficult for the missionaries who have to wait for meals from the members, because their meals are missed a lot by the members.  Sometimes they are given money, but they have no where they can go to get food.  All there are is Chinese stores that have some supplies, but not real food and the missionaries don’t have a car nor can they leave their zones.  They either have feast or famine.  We try to make sure they have feast here, but that isn’t good either because then they eat too much.  A mission can be very challenging.

We have had a week of meeting after meeting this week.  Bruce Yermen is here and is training many groups of people and trying to get caught up on all the goings on here in Tonga.  With graduation, external exams, year end tasks, it feels like we got back on the merry go round.  Steve has had the chance, finally, to work with some of the teachers, hands on ‘play’ in the shop.  They have been so excited because, finally after over a year, some of the new equipment has finally been delivered.  It’s so funny seeing 4 grown men laughing, giggling, talking fast and who can hardly contain their excitement about all the new and different projects they can make.  Ideas are popping and they are having so much fun.  The art teacher, who is a very quiet, sober man, can actually speak and laugh and make new things.  They are all on a high with more excitement and laughter than I have heard in a long time.  And what can I say about the proud parents of the projects that are coming from their dreams to their hands and eyes.  Pure joy!!!  Steve has been so excited that he wakes up in the middle of the night thinking about all the new projects he can teach the teachers to share with their students.  It’s Christmas in Tonga in November.  Wow!!!

We had the final teachers meeting this morning.  The principal, Fehi, had everyone bring a small gift, then we played a game.  Oh my, what fun.  We stood in a big circle, while Kehealani, assistant principle,  read the Wright Christmas story.  It was quite a work of art to watch the teachers passing gifts right and left when the words were read in the story.  They were so funny.  They love games and they are just like little kids. They have so much fun!  We laughed and laughed.  Steve and Viliami had made lidded boxes which were beautiful and definitely a hit.  When we had to leave and get some errands run, we talked about the memories that we have made and we cannot describe to others what we feel and experience with these fun loving, wonderful people.  It makes me sad to think that someday this will just be a memory.  I’m not ready for that to happen yet. We keep telling the staff that if they could figure out a way to get our family to Tonga, we would stay.  Unfortunately, that is not going to happen so we will just treasure our experiences and love every one that we have.