So lets so....where do I start. I have been in Tonga now for 2 1/2 weeks. When i arrived, Fehi's family picked me up from the airport. we were driving back to the their village when we got pulled over by the cops, they gave the cop what looked like 20 pa'anga and the cop let us go. I guess you can bribe the cops here pretty easy. We quickly dropped off my things and went to the wharf to drop off Fehi's brother, he was leaving for a week on a small boat with some other fisherman. they ended up getting stuck out in Ha'apai because the weather was to rough on the sea.
The family I am staying with are so generous and nice. They put me in the best room in the house. Whenever i come out of my room their is food on the table. Always eating!!! hahaha. The food is so filling and heavy its hard sometimes to eat it all. Actually most of the time i cant finish the food that is given to me. They tell me that its ok i have a small palangi stomach! and maybe someday I can have a big strong Tongan stomach. When they bring me food, they usually wait till after i am done eating then they will eat after and usually not in the same room as me. I'm trying not to think about it, but the way that i was raised it makes me feel awkward to receive such generosity. Every one is so nice here.
I got very sick, i am still not sure from what. i couldn't hold anything i ate or drank in for two days. Finally the nurse from the mission here came and took me to the hospital (fale mahake). We had to lie to the one doctor that was on staff at the emergency room to get an i.v. we told him i haven't eaten or drank anything for three days. The hospital, from my previous experience only with American hospitals, seemed like it was out of 1920. the bathroom was worse than most outhouses I have ever used, things were not sterile, no one wore gloves. besides all that the worse part was that the entire staff in the emergency room went on a lunch break together for a couple of hours. The Mission nurse and i had to stop the i.v. ourselves because the staff was on breaks.
I have been hanging out a lot with the kids that have graduated from Liahona High school, all on the rugby team they call the "Liahona Old Boys". they all use to play for Liahona Rugby. They are all really nice. most of them speak English well, so it makes it hard to learn the language with them because they will all use English with me. They have all been very helpful though with helping to translate words and phrases.
Everyone here is not in a rush to go anywhere, everyone is more concerned about their family and guests. everyone just works to survive and to help others. no one is to concerned with money.
I got sick again, and puked up fish for 3 hours, it was coming out of my nose too. all these little kids around the village just stood their and watched the palangi puking in the alley way! hahaha. alot of those kids i buy candy (loli) for. They help me a lot with little phrases that are common, and the way they explain it is much more simple than older people.
Dealing with immigration here is the worst headache in the world. I have been to immigration more times than i can remember. They want to charge me 2,000 pa'anga to do research here. they wanna kick me out of the country mid August. They said that i could stay if i volunteer at a church school. So that is my plan now. Most of the schools here are run by religions. Each school has its own color. everyone wears button up shirt, a tupenu the color of their school(lavalava), and the Ta'ovala(hand weaved mat around the waste). all of the schools rival against one another in rugby(akapulu). When Liahona(mormon school) played Atele(government school) their was a huge fight after and tons of the mormon kids got arrested for beating up the Atele students.
Yesterday I worked in the bush. That is the phrase for the farm land, also called (uta). We harvested the watermelons all day. Apolosi's brother has been staying out in the bush in a little Fale-Tonga for more than a week watching after the crop.
Soon I will be leaving on the boat to Matuku. the island where I am going to be studying various fishing techniques. some are the No'oanga, where the shark is caught with a lasso. another is the Maka'feke, where the octopus is caught by tricking it with a rock and stick at the end of a string. one more that i find interesting is the Aukava, which is where pieces of the kava is placed in the water and when the fish eat it the pass out. I'm sure i will have a better explaination for all these when i have actually done them and gotten better at them.
That's what I have got for now. if anyone has any question just comment them and ill write about it.
