Wednesday, April 10th
We went out to visit the Tonga Country Pharmacy today. It is a huge warehouse where Tonga stores all of the medicine that comes into the country. They get meds from all over the world so it makes you wonder how well made they are. And if that doesn’t stop you from getting help here, you can walk into the warehouse where they store it and seen the mold and mildew and just plain dirt everywhere. We were taken into a “sterile room”. We had to put booties on our feet to walk into a room with an open window. It was just as dirty in there and they just let strangers walk right through. It’s scary! They came to us with a request that we supply the paint and labor to paint the whole warehouse. Granted, it will look better, but somehow they have to keep it clean. Plus the fact that they don’t clean anything here, they just paint over the dirt, really bothers me. Will paint kill mold and mildew?????
When we got back to the office we had a very nice lady come to see us. She works for the Tongan Broadcasting Network. They do the TV and radio here. She brought in a request for all new equipment totaling $750,000! It was all I could do not to laugh. A request that high would have to go to the Prophet
himself and it was for a business. How can you run a business with no plan for the future? Some of these people just wait for someone to come in and “fix everything” for them. It’s so sad. This sweet lady is a member of the church so they made her come in with the request. We told her we would look into it but that we were sure the church would not want to get involved with a business. That is not why we are here.We left the office and went straight to the airport. We had a new couple coming in from America today. They are both Tongan but they live in Salt Lake City. When we met them he took one look at Alan and said, “You were my mission companion when I was a young man.” It was another sweet reunion at the airport! President Tukuafu flew in on the same flight. Just looking at him we could see that he had changed. He now carries the mantle of a 70 and there is an added light to his eyes. He told us that he didn’t know if he could put into words the experiences he had while he was away. We hope to have some quiet time alone with him before he is released and perhaps he will share some of them with us. We so love that great man.
After a quick lunch I made rolls for our dinner party tonight. Elder and Sister Johnson are having a dinner for the Vimahi’s. They are the family that had us all over to dinner at their house. Now we are returning the favor and we are all bringing American food for them to try.
Since I have a minute, I want to write down a funny experience before I forget it. When you ask people for directions here they give you land marks because there are no addresses. If you want to send a letter, you send it to the bishop at the church address and he will get it out to the members of his ward. Every village has a church so you just send it to the LDS Church and then name the village. Well, we wanted to know where the Patriarch lived. We were told to go to Vini, (that is the name of the village) to the big mango tree (there are hundreds of them in every village). There will be a horse tied to it ( that narrows it down considerably). Turn right and the house is straight ahead. You can’t miss it, it is the one with the grave in the front yard. The Patriarch’s first wife died and he buried her in the front yard. ( He is now remarried and his wife gets to see that grave everyday). I laugh every time we ask for directions but somehow it works and we find where we need to be.
