Tongan Culture

Sione and Keiti Po'uha and family (Photo from July 2017)

We met some of our Woods Cross Utah Tongan neighbors here.
At 1st meeting they become your best friends (we love Tongans!)

I've been capturing some of my thoughts on Tongan culture for a few weeks and thought this would be a good week to post them.  They are my thoughts and I hope you can feel how much I love the people of Tonga.  When I point out differences to the way I may be used to something that does not mean I am being negative.  There are certainly things we can learn from each other and I hope I do my part and incorporate the many good things I have learned.

Tonga is definitely a culture of friendliness.  It is hard to describe as it almost seems too friendly, maybe even fake upon first arrival.  However, you soon come to realize that it is indeed a very genuine friendliness.  There is so much to be learned here from that perspective.  Life in the U.S. can certainly make one become skeptical and even cynical so it won't be easy to overcome years of bad habits but I am getting better.

Food and Drink

Kumala is a sweet potato and is quite
good.  The color takes getting used to.

I find the food here to be good but not what I am used to so I am glad that Lepeka is a good cook.  We eat mostly at home.  Lepeka does a little bit better with some of the fish dishes and I like the watermelon.  Rice is very available which Lepeka likes but I'm not a big rice fan.  I find I am liking it more as long as it has the right sauce (preferably a sweet chili sauce for my taste) .   Typical Tongan food does not include potatoes very often but they are pretty available as well as chips (french fries).  They have other potato like roots that they prepare similar to potatoes.  I find them a little bit dry but not bad.

Ota ika and manioke

Fish is of course, one of the mainstays here on the ISLAND.  You can find it for sale everywhere and it is obviously very fresh.  Ota Ika (raw fish) is available everywhere as well as grilled fish and battered deep-fried fish and chips (french fries).  It is always a delicious option in almost every restaurant and you can always count on it to be consistently good.  Raw fish is never found on my plate but Lepeka likes it.

Skewered and roasted

Puaka or pork is also an important source of protein in Tonga.  Most umu meals (ground oven) are centered around puaka.  They also grill it over an open flame roasting the whole pig ... head and all.  Pigs ears are the most sought after delicacy but you need to be at the front of the line if you have any hope of getting some.  I am so courteous and always leave them for others.

Get your dog hot ... not your hot dog!
(photo used with permission from
Elder Grant)

Just a subtle hint here:  if you get offered a hot dog ... make sure it is what you are thinking and not just hot dog.  They are eaten all the time and the missionaries tell us how good the meat is.  I can't bring myself to try it so I'll just have to take their word for it.

Meal at Sabrina's Chicken (delicious!)

Chicken in the restaurants is mostly fried with a few rotisserie over open flame options.  Both are very good but we are selective in which restaurants we eat chicken (we are more open than most of the senior missionaries and always ask the Elders and Sisters which ones in their areas are okay for us.  So far their recommendations have been spot on.

Beef (and I use that term loosely) is available but nothing like a good beef patty at Crown Burger or a Maddox Steak House Steak (shameless plug for both).  I have not found any steak for purchase at the stores that I will purchase again.  There is however, one restaurant that offers a New Zealand Steak that is pretty close to what I am used to in the U.S. (Roby Anne's behind the Kings Palace - order the fish and leave the Steak for me).  It is a small place and they like reservations.  We typically spend about $55. USD for two good dinners so it is expensive by Tongan standards but quite reasonable for a good steak and fresh mahi-mahi.

Diet Coke (or any diet drink) is pretty hard to come by (no soda fountains) and canned soda is sometimes outdated (but still drinkable in a pinch).  We drink a lot of bottled water and I had one of our friends ship a bunch of Crystal Lite lemonade (single serving packs) which works for me.  We also bought a Magic Bullet and Lepeka makes the best pineapple, coconut, mandarin orange, and banana smoothie anywhere.  They have a pineapple/coconut fruit juice that is GREAT!  I'm hoping we can find something like that when we get home.

Shopping

Just prior to the grand opening

This photo was taken before the no
photo signs were posted in Costlow.

Shopping has improved quite a bit with the opening of the new CostLow store but there are still limitations and we have to shop at several stores to get all the items we like.  It is definitely getting better over time as they keep adding to their inventory.  Bread is best from one of the main bakeries and is made fresh daily (no bakery at CostLow).



Vegetables are purchased at the downtown open air market or one of the roadside stands and they are very good when in season.  Bananas, watermelon, and coconuts are available year round but pineapple, lettuce, and avocados are very seasonal (which I don't totally understand why they are seasonal as temperatures only vary about 10-15 deg on the average year round).  Tomatoes, onions, cabbage, carrots, celery, peppers and various other veggies are available most of the year as well.

Most prices seem pretty reasonable with the exception of meat and dairy products (i.e. butter and cheese which are pretty high but not so high we don't buy them).  Fresh milk is not available anywhere, only boxed non-refrigerated milk sold in small cartons.  Beef is available but local beef is grass fed and can be pretty touch.  There area  couple of restaurants that offer a New Zealand steak and that is much closer to what I am used to in the U.S.

Driving

When driving in Tonga you
must be ready for anything.

Wrong side of the road ... steering wheel is also on the wrong side (two wrongs don't make a right in this case but we are coping and so far so good).  It's not as hard to get used to as you might think.  Driving is also SLOW which is probably good since there is so much foot traffic right along the road almost constantly.  Maximum speed limit anywhere on the island is 70 KPH or about 43 MPH (not that you get to drive that fast very often).  There are often tractors and trucks that keep traffic down around 40-50 KPH everywhere (25-30 MPH).  In town it's even slower.  When driving in Tonga, anything goes as there don't seem to be many rules (except the speed limit).

School crossing guards are students

There are no traffic lights anywhere on the main island but they do use roundabouts in some of the more congested areas in town.  They seem to work pretty well with the amount of traffic and due to the fact that drivers are very courteous.  Someone will always flash their lights to let you in ... not worrying about the 1 or 2 car lengths the could be ahead if they crowded up to the car in front of them.  That's something we could definitely learn from the Tongans.  I plan to continue the practice of being a more courteous driver when I get home.  It does take some of the stress out of driving.

The down side of driving is that all of the roads are narrow and usually filled with potholes.

Celebrations and holidays

 

Parades and impromptu parades
complete with floats & costumes

Food, food and more food!

Anytime, anywhere,
any reason ...
parades, parties
and tons of food
at the mere mention
need I say more?

Healthcare

Mission Pharmacy is one of our favorites.

Healthcare is an interesting topic.  Healthcare is free to all Tongans but we probably need to dive deeper into the Tongan definition of healthcare.  It seems to be mostly a wait and see mode where little is done initially ...  kind of a wait-it-out mentality (let's see if it gets worse).

One of the things that Tongan healthcare organizations seem to tout here is that they know the location of every diabetic in Tonga.  That may be true but there is NO dialysis, insulin doses are set quarterly from the results of one glucose test and there are very few fridges in any home to store insulin.  The Tongan Ministry of Health is working closely with other countries to improve education and promote a healthier life style (king of like the U.S.)

Sister Kapp with her supply of meds
for the missionaries.

Dental care is just like pulling teeth.  The clinic on-site at Liahona that is run by volunteer missionary dentists is the best in Tonga.  They could run 24x7 with 7 dentists and not fill the need (pun intended).  They try to educate on the benefits of good dental hygiene and they are making good progress but it could still take quite a while to change old habits.  They seem to be quite happy when they leave the clinic with their new and improved smile.

Religion

Dino, proud to be a Mormon (and a Tongan)

Tonga is a very religious and Christian nation.  The LDS church shows 63,000+ members in Tonga (total population near 110,000).  Wikipedia shows the LDS population at 18% so something doesn't jive but in any case the LDS population seems to be everywhere and every town has it's own LDS meetinghouse.  There are now 14 LDS stakes on the main island and 7 on the other islands combined for a total of 21  LDS stakes (including the 2 new stakes that were just created in the last few months). Unlike some other countries, church meetings here start and end on time.  We have been told that is because Tongans say it is the Lord's time.

The other main religions are Free Weslyan, Catholic, Free Church of Tonga and Seventh Day Adventist.  There is also a very small percentage of Bahá'i, Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim (about 3,000 total).  In any case, Tonga is a very religious nation.  Sunday's are really special here as everything shuts down and God and Family take center stage in all activities.  We really enjoy the peace we feel on Sunday and we are much better at keeping the Sabbath day holy.  This is one lesson we hope to carry with us throughout the rest of our lives.

Technology - TV - Radio

Technology is definitely underutilized in Tonga.  I think mostly due to the expensive internet access.  ADSL and 4G hotspots are the 2 main connection offered by the 2 local ISPs, Tonga Communications Company and DigiCell.

We originally signed up for TCC utilizing an aDSL wired modem as we were told that was the best by far but we have recently switched to DigiCell and their 4G hotspot which is much faster and more reliable.  It is also quite a bit cheaper.  Our original data plan cost us about $150. USD for 75 Gb with free use from midnight unto 6:00 a.m.  The 75 Gb was tight and it became quite expensive if you went over so I tried to do all of our uploads, downloads and system updates in the middle of the night during free time.

We switched to DigiCell a couple of months ago and their 100 Gb plan is about $90. USD.  That gives us about 3.3G per day which is not much compared to what we are used to in the USA.  It seems to be enough if we don't do any video streaming.

We haven't watched T.V. since we got here and actually gave our T.V. to some other Liahona School employees.  We have tried a time or two to listen to the radio to see if that would help us learn Tongan but they speak so rapidly that we got very little out of it so we don't do that.  I think there are 2 radio stations but it may be an A.M and F.M version of the same station.  Most of the Señor missionaries do watch T.V. but we just weren't interested.  We seem to have plenty of other things to keep us busy.

Weather

The weather during the summer months (Dec - Mar) can be really hot.  It is also the rainy season so it is very humid as well.  That coincides with the cyclone season but from what I understand the nearby Tongan Trench (a very deep part of the ocean) keeps us safe.  I think it must have something to do with keeping the ocean water cooler but that is just an assumption on my part.

We have found May - November to be quite pleasant temperature wise most of the time.  It can still get hot and humid but it didn't seem that bad.  What is interesting is that when the temperatures dip into the 60s out come the heavy coats, hats and gloves.  It still seems like t-shirt weather to us but they all start to bundle up.

I hope this wasn't too much boring reading for the week but these past 2 weeks blogs are something I have been working on over time and I did want to get them posted.