Tonga!

Monday, Feb. 10th

Before our weekly devotional we stopped by to say good-bye to the Forsyths. Sister Forsyth sprained her ankle a week or more ago and it was really swollen this morning. I hope she does alright on that long flight. It needs to be elevated.

We received 3 more requests for water projects today. It is so sad! There is so much need here and we just can’t do it all. We finished up the Nukuhetulu project today and submitted it. Now we have to wait for all of the approvals to go through. That takes forever!! We are really hoping they will let us do this one last project. I will be a real push for us to get it done.

We had lunch in town and then took Ana and drove out to Lavengatonga to check on our project out there. The ministry of health did an inspection on the tower put up there and they want more supports put on it. It was made with steel that came from China and it wasn’t strong enough. We had to have some braces shipped in from Australia and they are putting them up today. We wanted to go out and see the work and check to see if it would pass inspection. It looked good to us, but then the last one looked good to us. We talked to the project supervisor and he said that this will be much better. The engineer will be out to inspect it before they can put water in the tank. We are really hoping to be able to close on this project by next week! This has been our “eternal project”.

FHE tonight was very interesting. President Feahoko and his wife came to talk to us. He is a master carver here in Tongan. He is well known in the South Pacific and now in the world. His work is amazing! And he does a lot of it with a chain saw. I will have to take some pictures.
He also told us some fascinating stories. The Tongan Stonehenge, an ancient stone formation here, is “where time begins”. Tonga is the first country in the world to see a new day and the stone formation is on the corner of the island where the sun comes up first. It is “where time begins”.

He also told us about the Tongan fish hook. It is a symbol of Tonga. Everyone in Tonga fishes and when you go out fishing you must bring your catch home and share it with your neighbors. It is how the Tongans live their lives. They are not selfish. Whatever they have that is good, they share it with their neighbors. It teaches them the principles of the gospel, love your neighbor as yourself. In this country, the people truly live that commandment.