Skinny = Ugly

We had to get a photo of this.  It really makes
you want to keep close track of your pen.

Walking around campus last week, the Gardners (temporary dentist couple) discovered a sign in the window of one of the classrooms.  It started with "Lost your pen = No pen", and ends with "Sickness = Death.  It's hard to argue against any of the step-by-step logic, and I think the math is all correct.  I especially liked the skinny = ugly line (no offense to all you skinny people, I don't write the rules I just get to warp them to coincide with my way of thinking).  That really seems to be the thinking over here and I continue to be royal and healthy (translation - not skinny).  

Okay here's a little bit of fun for you.  You might even have to break out your Buck Rogers decoder ring.  Try pronouncing the words out loud so you can understand part of the challenge we face.

Our pongipongi started out with an ‘a'ahi to Elder Vakautakakala.   We then proceeded to faka'uli Elder Tukuhaukava to Vaiola fale mahaki for a faka'ata of his hui tu'a.  

Two things come to mind; 

1. I sincerely apologize to my Tongan friends for the Tongan/English mix (I should be doing better with the language by now).  
2. At least our Tongan vocabulary is actually growing and the names are getting easier for us to pronounce.

For reference:

• pongipongi       =  morning
• 'a'ahi                 =  visit
• Vakautakakala  =  a name you can't say without spraining your tongue.
• faka'uli              =  drive
• Tukuhaukava   =  another name ... I call him Elder Malomi (dimples).
• faka'ata            =  xray
• hui tu'a             =  back
• Vaiola fale mahaki  =  Vaiolo hospital

Putting all that together in a Tongan sentence structure is where we really struggle.  We are thinking of hiring a Tongan tutor to work with us once or twice a week for a little while to see if we're teachable.  We'll see how that goes.

Speaking of the fali mahaki (hospital), here are a couple of photos of the billboard campaign that is going on around the island related to smoking.  We don't see very many people smoking but there certainly are some and their campaign may help prevent some of the young kids from smoking.  These billboard ads seem a little bit graphic (too graphic to post here) but I guess they are trying to make a strong point.  If you're interested in seeing them send me a self-addressed self-stamped email and I'll send you a couple of photos (that way you have to work for them).

Cars with severely broken windshields are everywhere.  We
understand it is from coconuts falling from trees.  This chip in
the windshield if probably not repairable but they just keep driving
even though this one is not on the driver's side (the right
side in Tonga), we see plenty of them that are.

I have a dashboard video camera that I brought with us and have set it up even though there really didn't seem to be a need for it.  A few days ago after we parked at one of the missionary quarters I had a local Tongan come accuse me of hitting his car on the side while parking.  I was glad I had the camera to show that we were not even close.  I think he must have thought we'd give him money or something. He didn't stick around to see the video but I saved it just in case we need it and will keep it running in the car at all times now.  I guess we have a few dishonest people in just about every society.  


Tomorrow is transfers, they seem to come around too quickly.  We're pretty sure that some of the missionaries we have grown close too will be going to some of the other islands and we won't get to see them until they come back.  That is a little bit hard for us as we get so close to them but we know they'll be alright and bless the lives of others who can benefit from their spirit.  We also have our largest group of new missionaries coming in since we have been here, 20 new missionaries.  That means we will have replaced more than 25% of our missionaries in the past 2 months.  Most of the new missionaries are non native which just means more education on health is required.

Mark aka. 标记 from Mark's repair shop.

You might also recognize Mark (photo on the right) from Marks watch repair shop (we posted about him a few weeks ago).  Well, it turns out that after the watch repair to replace the second hand I found that it was now running slow and losing several minutes each day so I took it back in to get the battery replaced (hoping that would solve the problem).  It turns out that the coil inside was broken (surprise) and needed replaced.  He just happened to have one and with a grimace and $70 more dollars it could be repaired.  So now ... it does keep the correct time but the day never changes.  I think I'll live with that until we return to the states.

We also just learned that we may be getting three new senior missionary couples in the next 5-6 months.  One may be a transfer from another mission and we have two additional couples that just received their calls to Tonga.  Lepeka sees them in the medical system as soon as they have accepted their call so we're excited to have new help on the way.

The longer we are in Tonga, the more we grow to love the people and the culture.  It gives us a small glimpse of how life could be if we all genuinely learned to love our neighbors and treat them with respect and understanding.

We attended Church in Longolongo today with Elder Woods and Elder Lomu.

One of Lepeka's little Church friends.  Her smiles seem to capture their attention
wherever we go.

Maui's fish hook stands for everything that is good and promises
prosperity, strength and good luck.

Kava bowl carved from one piece of wood.  This one is on 12" floor tiles
so you can tell it's close to 24" (diameter).  The Kava ceremony is similar on
many of the Pacific islands and is described in detail by clicking here.

The carver of our Kava bowl and several of our trinkets we have purchased
to take home with us.  He also carves jewelry out of wood, cow bone and whale
bone.  He does some pretty incredible work.  He is a member of the Church but
I forgot his name so I'll add that here later.

Randy and JoAnn Gardner arriving from California.  He is a temporary Dentist
they are here for three weeks.  We have enjoyed showing them around the island.