Power Point Games

The links below takes you to Google Documents, the page will load and you can view the slides without playing them, or you can click the download button and view the slideshow in Power Point which will show the animations.

Who Wants To Be a Tongan Millionaire!

Jeopardy

Photographs

Below are several pictures of Ha'apai, and other islands from the plane traveling between Vava'u and Tongatapu.

Flying out of Tongatapu

Ha'apai

Neiafu, Vava'u

Neiafu, Vava'u

South end of Vava'u with the island of Tapana 

Letting Go in the Kingdom of Tonga

     This was an essay written for my intro to college writing course. 

beach on south side of Tapana

     The rusted machete fell with a crack I could hear over the engine and the sound of the waves crashing against the crowded boat.  The blade raised again in the air and fell with another crack as the rust became wet.  The third time the knife fell it successfully dislodged the top of the coconut.  With a genuine smile Pita, the hired hand of my travel companion’s family, handed me the seed overflowing with milk.

I took a sip, smiled, raised the coconut and said, “Malo.”  Pita continued to crack the tops off the coconuts for the rest of the family.   Our boat rocked back and forth while I sipped on the sweet milk, I looked out over the ocean to see islands dotting the horizon.  It had been just over a week since I had arrived in Vava’u, the northern most island group in the Kingdom of Tonga, and now I was going to be camping for two days on the island of Tapana. 

Three years prior to this moment I departed from the religious magical thinking I was raised around.  The pivotal decision to leave the religion of my family caused me to leave all that I knew in search for greater personal truth.  My search for a spiritual authenticity that fit with who I was had led to me lightly practice mindfulness and meditation. My journey also led me to many new people and experiences, like my friend Michael whom I was traveling with. 

I finished the coconut milk and began to relax.  The sound of the engine, the conversations, and rocking of the boat began to fall into the background and I was able to appreciate my surroundings.  Soon enough we had come around the north corner of a small island.  Pita jumped off the boat to secure it, and our camping gear along with two sea kayaks were unloaded.  

As soon as our things were on the beach, we said our goodbyes and our family was headed back to Neiafu, the main island in the Vava’u group.   We were alone with the ocean and the beach, the sounds of the water, and I felt like I was at home. 

Being a Utah native, landlocked for much of my life, being near an ocean is breathtaking experience, and I wasted no time to get in the ocean after our tents were set up.  Every ten or fifteen feet there was another mound of coral, each a miniature eco system under the water.  There were plants moving back and forth with the tide, fish of every possible color surrounded me, and poisonous vana with small fish darting between its sharp spines.  After hours of swimming the water began to cool and I knew the sun was setting.

The sky was turning a deep orange, sunburned and exhausted I sat on the beach.  In an attempt to meditate I recognized my breath, and began to look out over the ocean.  The sound of the waves brought me back to my breath as the splendor of the scene became overwhelming.  My natural instinct was to try to cling to the beauty, to make it last, to keep it as long as I could.  However, I went against my human conditioning, I let my self feel the impermanence of the scenery and let it go. Only then did I fully experience beauty for the first time in my life. 

Tapana Island

Sunday in Tonga

The majority of my life was spent in Utah Valley where there is hardly anything open on Sunday, so I assumed I would be prepared for the entire country shutting down.  I wasn’t, I didn’t have an easy time adjusting to not being able to buy a drink, or go to a restaurant on Sundays.

I arrived in Tonga in the middle of the week, and was in Vava’u by Friday.  Suddenly it was Saturday night around 11 pm it was announced we needed to go to the “Chinese store.”  While walking there it was explained to me that the only thing that is allowed to be open on a Sunday are the bakeries.  We bought enough food to feed the all of the family, and carried it back to where we were staying.  The tourist shops had recently gotten into trouble for operating, and the police cracked down on businesses violating the law. 

Sunday seemed to come early, 5 am early.  Instead of the roosters that had awoken me previous mornings, it was the choirs singing beautifully and loudly that had caused me to wake up. The congregations filled the island with graceful and touching praises. 

The few Sundays I was able to spend in Tonga were relaxing, albeit were probably considered extremely sacrilegious by those observing us.  In order to buy things, we had to pay off an owner of a store to break the Sabbath laws.  We went to beaches and swam at the wharf (with those of the opposite sex no less.)  I made sure as not to laugh too loudly, and to try to be more reverent when I was walking about and saw a congregation being let out of their services.  

The last Sunday I was in Vava’u, I planned on attending the Weslayan church with the family I was staying with.  I had a shirt picked out, and a tupenu ready to be worn, that is until I became violently ill.  Being as sick as I was, I had to stay home while other members of the family went to the services. Looking back I wonder what I did to deserve not being able to attend church services--was it the swimming on a Sunday, or buying beer on a Sunday? 

It wasn’t until last Sunday that I was able to attend a Tongan church service.  I chose to go to the Tongan United Methodist Church.  While I was driving there I became lost, rendering me 30 minutes late, but thanks to everything running on Tongan Time, I was actually 40 minutes early. 

Being the only palangi on the church property, I attracted a lot of stares and pointing fingers.   I waved hello to a group of women and gave a standard greeting. They laughed and yelled “The palangi knows tongan!” Continuing into the chapel I sat in the back.   The children playing in the front stopped immediately and pointed at me exclaiming “Who’s the white skinny guy?!” I laughed, gave the peace sign and stayed in the back.  The service was filled with beautiful music, and an impassioned sermon. Definitely something that I will look forward to attending again. 

Nuku'alofa Pro-Democracy Rally

Immediately upon landing at the Fua’amotu International Airport early in the morning on June 8th 2010, there was an energy on the island that I wasn’t expecting. A 20 minute ride landed us in the village (wherever Jaqueline lives) a mere five minutes away from Nuku’alofa’s city center.  Breakfast was served seconds after arriving, massive amounts of bacon, and an intimidating pile of toast awaited us in the kitchen.  Pleasantries were exchanged, and the family caught up while I was fed. 

Shortly after we finished breakfast, conversation headed towards the palpable energy I felt on the island when we landed.  There was going to a rally today in downtown Nuku’alofa. All the high school students were let out of school to march through the streets in to show support for having more commoner seats in government.  Currently, there are only 9 seats in parliament elected by the people, the rest are appointed by the King. 

One of the aunts volunteered to drive us to the city.  With the Royal Pacific Hotel as a backdrop, students from Liahona, Tonga High School and other secondary schools walked down the streets.  Marching bands played music as people cheered.  It felt like a parade for the students, and in a way it was a parade for the students. In a country that is increasingly influenced by western culture, it seemed to me that the youth have a desire to be more equally represented. 

Weaving through the streets and ally ways, I had a distinct feeling that I was witnessing history in the making. Children singing, smiling, and waiving. The energy I was feeling seemed to me to be filled with optimism, and possibility.  This was balanced by a reverence to the monarch.  There were no signs sharing political messages, but the knowledge that this was happening because the people desired to have more fair political representation.

The beauty of seeing the hotel being rebuilt with the rising generation parading in hope that they’ll have a government that the people will have more representation in gave me hope that in this small corner of the world their lives are ever improving, and will have brighter futures than previously thought.

Introductory Post

Until I moved to Salt Lake two years ago, I had no personal experience with the Tongan culture or language.  It seemed that within a week of moving here from Utah Valley I had very few friends who were not Polynesian.  Being immersed into a culture when you were raised with no cultural roots yourself is a fascinating experience, and one that I hope I can explore more deeply along with the study of the Tongan language. 

Through two years of conversations, I was able to grasp for just a second what it might mean to be Tongan  Growing up I was taught to dislike my extended family, whereas Tongans consider their first cousins siblings, and love their aunties and uncles like parents. I had no idea where my ancestors came from compared to my newfound friends who new which village their family lived in before coming to the states. There is a connection between family members that runs deeper than the palangi family experience.  There are many aspects of the Tongan culture that I view as a much better way of operating. 

Two years ago, never would I have guessed that I would have been able to be in Vava’u for three weeks to experience a culture and country that I have grown to love from the outside, nor would have I guessed that a life goal would be to learn as much as I could about the Kingdom of Tonga and it’s people. 

Being in this class has been not only a learning experience about the Tongan culture, but I have learned a lot about myself, my beliefs, and how I view the culture I grew up in.