Tonga!

Friday, May 9th

After we got a few things done this morning, we took some time off and went into town to get our hair cut. This will be the last hair cut that we will get in Tonga, so we went to see Baby. She gives the best hair cuts on the island and we really wanted her to do the last one. Besides that, we love that woman and we wanted to be sure that we saw her one last time before we go home. She has given us lots of hair cuts while we have been here and she has become a dear friend. We will miss her.

When we got home today there was a Bishop from Vava‘u waiting to see us. He was sitting across the street from our house in the shade of a tree, just waiting for us to come. He is the head of the PTA at the Government Primary School his children attend. He was seeking our help to put a new roof on the school. There are big holes in the roofing and when it rains, the children sit in the rain. All the water has also ruined the floor. It was hard to tell him that we can’t help him. We are not allowed to do any more projects, but we gave him a form to fill out and told him to submit it and if a new couple comes maybe they can find a way to help. We don’t think that will really happen because it is a government school and the church doesn’t want to get involved in fixing the government schools. They know if they do, then more and more will come for help. It is so sad that the government will not budget money to help with the upkeep of these schools. They just say they don’t have the money, yet today and tomorrow there is a huge celebration going on in town. The king is celebrating the 1st birthday of his 1st grandson. He will be the second in line to the throne so it is a big deal, but they will spend tens of thousands of dollars on a birthday party for a one year old while the common children are being educated in schools that are deplorable! Sometimes this country makes me crazy!!!
 When the bishop left, we called Jake. It is his birthday in America today. We had such a good visit with him tonight. We know how busy he is and yet he took some time to just sit down and talk to us. It was good to hear about what is happening in his life and at home. How grateful we are that Tiffany found such a wonderful man to be her eternal companion. We are so blessed to have him in our family!

We were finally able sit down and watch the Priesthood session of conference tonight. It didn’t download correctly the first time and we missed most of it. This time we got the whole thing and it was wonderful. What powerful talks! I’m so glad that they put it out on the internet now so that the women can hear what their husbands heard at that meeting. They are always soooooooo good!