Tonga!

Friday, April 4th

We went to the village of Hofoa on our way into work today. We met with Salisi and the teachers and administrator of the Government Primary School in the village. We took pictures of the desks that we donated to the school. The parents and teachers have really cleaned up the rooms and they put some new coverings on the floors. It feels so much better than it did the last time we saw it. Now it is a place where the students will want to come and work hard. The kids love their new desks. Before we left, they presented us with a beautiful picture that was hand painted on a tapa cloth. It is a picture of the school many years ago. This school is the oldest primary school in Tonga. The ocean used to come right up to the edge of the village and the picture shows a little inlet where the first baptism into our church was performed. It will be a real treasure for us!!

Ana is leaving tonight to go to New Zealand to her son’s graduation from college. We knew we wouldn’t have much time with her today, but she didn’t even get into the office until after 11:00. We needed to get the Dental Clinic Project submitted today, before she left. She has to approve it before it can go on to the Area Office and she will be gone for a week. I had the project all written up and submitted but she couldn’t get into her CHAS account to approve it. If you have an LDS account, you have to change your password every 6 months to protect your account. 

She just changed her password and today the new one wouldn’t work. It was so frustrating!! It took about 45 minutes, but we finally got her on CHAS and the project approved. Now she can enjoy her trip and I can relax!!

On the way home we stopped downtown and did a little shopping. It is supposed to rain hard tomorrow and if that is the case we won’t want to go back in. We need to pick up a few things at the fair, but that might not happen if the weather is bad.

We stopped in at the FM office and talked to Toa and Silongo. Toa is helping us with the finances on the Vava’u Hospital Project. She sent all of the information off today and hopefully the supplies will be sent next week. We found out today the the company in Australia sent theirs a long time ago and they are already on the Warf. That will mean that we don’t have to wait for a boat from Australia. It shouldn’t take too long to get stuff here from New Zealand. They send ships more often.

While I was talking to Toa, Alan spent some time with Siolono talking about the best way to ship things home. We are trying to find a way to get all this stuff home!!! We really need to get right on that.

After dinner we went for another walk. My knee is doing much better today. Hopefully that means that there is nothing seriously wrong. We have tried to walk more this week and I really think that helps me.

 We have got to be more diligent about that.