Tonga - Part 1

People were skeptical about my decision to spend an entire month (actually slightly longer – 5 weeks) in Tonga, thinking we would get bored and not have enough to do to occupy that long in such a small country.  They clearly did not know about my uncanny abilities to sleep in and to be happy doing nothing for long periods of time.  Unfortunately I didn’t get to do nothing on a beautiful beach the entire time, but for the first week this was our paradise:

The forecast Sean (friend and peace corps volunteer in Vava’u) gave us was “beautiful with a chance of rain,” which was entirely accurate.  It rained a few days in the first week, then was mostly clear, sunny, and hot for the next 3 weeks, then we got a bit more rain.  Matafanua resort on the island group called Ha’apai was beautiful, set on the north peninsula of an island creating two different beaches.  This was great because when it was super hot, I could sit on the side with the breeze and still be comfortable, but when it was a bit too windy and chilly over there, the other side of the island was blocked from the wind by trees and a hill, making it significantly warmer than the other side.  The boys did a scuba course while the girls relaxed on the beach for two days, then we went out with them on the boat on the third day and saw whales!  They are so huge and graceful it was amazing to experience (unfortunately they are not so photogenic).  We also did a bit of snorkeling off the side of the boat but mostly just enjoyed being out on the beautiful ocean on a lovely day.

The food was good, there was a great little day bed to hang out at, and a few nights we had campfires on the beach.  We also started picking up on some of the Tongan language.  Although I have no idea how to spell any of the words we learned, I’m going to write them as if it’s similar to Spanish, in which you pronounce each letter like it sounds.  The first and easiest word is malo, which I take it means hi and/or thank you, and is used in pretty much every conversation along with io, which means yes and is the appropriate response to malo used as thank you.  I learned ofa, which means love, and faka, which means like or in the way of, and is used in conjunction with other words to create greater meanings, such as “faka Tonga,” which means Tongan.  For some reason “faka ofa” means pitiful, and “faka ofa ofa” means beautiful (as in setting or an object, not people).  Some little Tongan boys taught me “faka la a” which means sunbathe.

It wasn’t a resort like you would find in the states with en suite bathrooms, room service, and bathrobes in the closet.  You had to walk down the path to the camp-style bathrooms and ask the kitchen for drinking water, but it was still very nice and a perfectly relaxing spot.

To get to the island on which Sean lives we decided to take the ferry, which is significantly cheaper than flying.  Apparently the ferry goes about once per week and usually around Wednesday evening, but you have to keep a look out and your ears open to make sure you don’t miss it and also that you don’t get there 2 days early, because the schedule is more like an estimate, and it really could come any time within about 3 days of the expected time.  We heard it was coming Wed and we checked out of the resort Tues, so we stayed with Sean’s host family from when he first arrived in Tonga.  They were very nice and welcoming and I even got my own bedroom while the boys slept in the living room, one on a couch and one on a mattress on the floor (I will point out though that even this seemed more luxurious than what the host family females did, which was sleep on the floor in the kitchen – apparently a very Tongan thing to do).  Sean’s host dad decided to make us a Lu, a traditional Tongan dish (we later found out that he has to make this every time Sean comes to visit because he loves it so much).  A Lu is a little packet of goodness made up of meat, onions, and coconut juice wrapped in taro leaves and cooked in an umu – an oven dug in the ground and covered with rocks.  The boys got to help harvest the coconut juice by husking, cracking, draining, and scraping coconuts:

Then we had a nice picnic down by the water:

We heard rumors that the boat wasn’t going to leave Nuku Alofa (the main island) until the next day and so might not arrive to pick us up until Thursday instead of Wednesday.  We heard about 4 different times throughout the day that the ferry would arrive, but no definite answers, so we just bided our time and let the day go by.  Sean suggested we go to a kava circle with his host dad, who is the town officer of the little village where he lives and therefore is very respected by everyone who attends the kava circles (which I gather happen nearly every night with more or less the same people since the villages are so tiny).  Kava is a drink made from a powder that comes from a plant and is mixed with water.  It apparently has an effect on the drinker that makes them sleepy and sometimes makes their tongue or mouth go slightly numb, but this only happens after many times of drinking lots of kava as it builds up in your body and creates a cumulative effect.  Generally only men go to kava circles, but a female is allowed to attend if she is the do’a, who serves the kava.  Traditionally when women are being courted, the man who might marry her sits to her left and they chat all night and get to know one another.  Otherwise, sometimes the do’a gets paid or offered other items (food, not sure what else).  In my case they didn’t have enough notice to bring money for me, but I was given 4 bananas, all of which I ended up giving away before the end of the night because kava leaves a weird taste in your mouth and the men like to eat or drink little snacks in between rounds of the muddy watery stuff.  The younger attendees sit to the left and right of the do’a, and the older and/or more respected men sit towards the top of the circle, and kava is passed around in little coconut half shell cups in both directions.  However much kava is poured for you, you must drink the whole cup in one go.  Part of the do’a’s job generally is to know more or less how full to fill up the coconut cups for each person.  Luckily this responsibility was not mine, as even though I was the one filling the cups, Sean to my left and another young guy to my right were holding the cups and would take them away when they thought they were full to the right amount.  Throughout the night, the men and boys joke around, and this night was a treat because they had two palangi’s (literally people who come from the sun, but it generally means white people) to joke with/about.  Occasionally Sean would explain the jokes being told, but sometimes he would just laugh along with the Tongans and Tres and I would be left in the dark as to what was so amusing.  One of the ongoing jokes was how much to fill Tres’ cup, since the guy to my right was passing his cup around to him and didn’t want to give him too much, but Sean to my left kept telling me to fill Tres’ cup more and more full.  A little later in the night guys started bringing out guitars to play music and sing.  Sometimes everyone in the circle would join in for a song, with different harmonized parts and everything, which was really cool to hear.  It was great to see Sean in this environment, completely comfortable joking around in Tongan with all the local guys.  Working on part 2....