Tonga!

Saturday, January 25th,

We got up early so we could clean the house and do some wash before we headed out on our adventure with the other senior missionaries. We have all been looking forward to this day for weeks. We are headed to the island of Fa’fa. It is probably the nicest island in all of the Tongan chain and there is a wonderful resort over there that we have been dying to see.

We were worried about the weather yesterday, but today the sun was shining and the sky was a beautiful blue with white puffy clouds … perfect! 17 of us went by boat for the 30 minute trip to Fa’fa. The pictures will speak for themselves! They gave us a folly for the day so we had a place to change our clothes and somewhere to lay down if anyone wanted to do that. It had two bedrooms where people could change their clothes and a bathroom that was very interesting. It only had three walls and the shower was outside. It was in a fenced area and it was beautiful, but still it felt a little strange having it all out in the open. There was a bamboo curtain you could pull down if it was raining, but that just blocked off the sink and toilet, the shower was out in the open.

They had a huge hammock out on the beach and 4 wooden loungers, but we also took mats. No one spent much time laying around. We swam, snorkeled and walked the beach looking for unusual shells. It was hot and we all got a little sunburned, but the water was cool, the snorkeling was amazing and the setting was breathtaking! It was a fabulous day. We had a great time. Lunch came with the price of the trip and the food was amazing too. It is a pricy place to go stay, but the cost of the trip for a day was well worth the money. We won’t do it again before we come home but those that will be here next summer really want to go back again. They had a little gift shop where I found a t-shirt that I liked. I have been looking for one since we got here and I finally found it. Alan bought it for me.

By the time we got home, I was exhausted. The heat really takes it out of me. We both took quick showers and discovered that we got more sun than we thought we did. It doesn’t matter how much suntan lotion you put on here, the salt water washes it off quickly and everyone gets sunburned. I have some blisters on my back, so I will be sore for a few days. I guess I will have to wear a t-shirt if I want to snorkel. That seems to be when I get it the worst.