Tonga!

Wednesday, June 19th -- Thursday, June 20th and Friday, June 21st.

Everyday we did basically the same thing, we went to two schools a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. The military would play with the kids for about an hour, the Navy band would play for half an hour and then the Commodore would come, say a few words and then we would take over. Alan spoke to them in Tongan for a couple of minutes. They loved that part!! Everyone was so excited to see the Palangi man who could speak Tongan. Then I would tell them about the book bags and show them what was in them. Ana helped me by translating what I said. Then with the help of the military men and women we gave out the bags. Each time it was a different yet very special experience. The children were so excited and the teachers were so grateful.

On Wednesday we received a call from Church Headquarters! I about dropped the phone, it kind of scared me. But what they wanted was for us to find a place for two ladies to stay for the rest of the week. They are the sisters representing LDS Charities. The weather has been very windy this week and since the ship is docked 9 miles out, when they can get in to shore they want to stay here and not go back to the ship. We said that we would be happy to take care of them and then called and made arrangements for them to stay in one of the houses at Liahona. Because the seas were so rough, the people who were on the island stayed on the island all week and the people who were on the ship stayed on the ship. That was terrible for the two sisters who were on the ship but great for us, because we were able to represent the church at all of the places where they should have been. They finally made it to shore on Friday morning. We picked them up and took them with us to the closing ceremonies.

The Prime Minister and many members of Parliament were at the closing ceremonies. They had a huge tent set up with chairs for all of the invited guests. We were standing off to the side, just watching what was happening when an important looking lady walked up to us and told us to follow her. We did, and ended up sitting right behind the Prime Minister! They brought us leis and treated us like dignitaries. We were able to watch the whole ceremony seated in the shade, it was great!! Then they escorted us to another huge tent where they served us a feast like I have never seen before. There were rows of tables because it was for all the dignitaries and the military. Alan sat next to the Ambassador from Australia and I sat next to and across from 3 military men from France. There were roasted pigs in the middle of all the tables, probably 4 to a row of tables and then bowls and platters filled with food. There was hardly room to put your plate on the table there was so much food. We couldn’t begin to eat all of the food in front of us, but I noticed that when we were finished and had walked away, the villagers and parents of the school children came in, sat down and began to eat. I know that they had been required to provide all of that food and they are so poor to begin with. It breaks my heart to think about what they had to sacrifice to provide that feast.
The school children put on a wonderful performance for us. Two little boys ages 9 and 7 did the fire dance. It was amazing! They dance for money. Their father died of cancer a year ago and their mother is in New Zealand right now doing chemo treatments. There are 10 children in their family. I know they made a lot of money, the military people were very generous. It was a good cause. At the end, all of the school children, dressed in Tongan costumes, sang to us and did a traditional sitting dance. All in all it was another amazing experience.

We took Elaine Bond and Jana Davies, the LDS Charities sisters, out to dinner later that afternoon and then they and Ana Ika went to Relief Society Enrichment meeting with me. The Enrichment leader call me last night at 9:45, after we got home from the Temple, and asked me to be the featured speaker at tonight’s meeting. I talked about how to have a happy marriage. It ended up being a good evening but it started out slow and late. It was scheduled to start at 6:00. The Enrichment leader and two sisters who came to help her decorate were there at 6:00. I was there with my 3 guests and that was it! The building was locked so we stood outside and visited until 6:25 when the 1st Counselor came with a key to let us in. The Presidency showed up at 7:10 and we started at 7:15. I was really embarrassed. There really is no excuse for this ‘Tongan Time” idea. It is just plain rude! We wanted to be home by 8:00 to watch the closing ceremonies on the news. I was talking at 8:00, we didn’t get home until after 9:00. We had a good time and the Spirit was strong, it just wasn’t a good way to start.

Saturday morning we cleaned, washed and sprayed for bugs. Then we took Elaine and Jana out to see the blow holes. The wind was blowing and the sea was rough but that makes the blow holes even better. It was high tide, the sky was blue and the pictures I took are beautiful. We left straight from there and took them to the airport to catch a flight home. They are amazing women, not only very intelligent and good at what they do, but also adventurous. We don’t know how old Elaine is, but some where in her 70s and Jana is 60. They stayed on the ship for almost a month, sleeping in beds that were 20 inches wide with the next bunk 18 inches above your head. I can’t imagine how some of the men we met can even get in those things. Needless to say, they were living in very close quarters andfunctioning on military time, which meant that they were up at 4 AM every day. It kind of makes me feel guilty about complaining about the schedule we are keeping --- but not really. At any rate, we were blessed to get to spend some time with them and learn from them.

I checked our email at the office today and found one from New Zealand reprimanding us for not closing out a project that was completed 2 years before we got here. Ana receive the same email and she called me all upset. She was so worried about it that she was making herself sick. I was exhausted from the week’s activities and I saw red. I wrote back and listed all of the things that we had accomplished this week and then asked for patience and compassion. We might be going home sooner than we thought, but so be it, I am not happy about that email!

We went out to dinner with all of the other senior couples tonight. We went to the Emerald Hotel downtown. They have a Chinese restaurant that is pretty good. We all ordered something different and then we all shared. They had a private room where there was a large table with a huge lazy Susan in the middle. We just kept spinning it around and trying all the different items. It was a fun evening but we were there for 3 hours and that was to long for me. The chairs were very uncomfortable and there wasn’t much room to move around. By the time we got up to leave I could hardly walk. We have been standing outside at schools all week and standing is hard on my back and hips. This dinner was the final straw. By the time I got home I was really in a lot of pain and it’s going to be a LONG night