Kindergarten dancers

The sisters were training some kindergarten children how to hula for their graduation program in Nakolo and we were able to stop in just in time to catch them practicing.  It was fun to watch them (as it is with most young kids) as they do their best to mimic the instructor.  That is such a fun age as they are starting to come alive with personality.

We were able to catch a short video of their number as they practiced.  We were a little bit worried that we would be too distracting to them but they seemed to stay focused and did their best to learn the steps they were being taught.

These youngsters seemed to get a kick out of teaching two old
Palangi's Tongan.  We enjoyed ourselves and hope to be able to
remember some of the things we are learning.  If nothing else,
we can at least be entertainment.

We also started taking a Tongan class again from some of the locals here.  We have an adult instructor and there are several children who volunteered to teach us as well.  They help as talking partners when we role play.  We relearned some of the things we thought we already knew and started in on some new vocabulary words as well.  They seemed to get a kick out of our attempts to say some of the phrases especially when we substituted the word nifo (teeth) with nofo (live or dwell) ... something like, "where are your teeth" instead of "where do you live".

We're not sure we'll ever be able to speak much but we are getting better at understanding and can get around shopping quite well now.  Numbers and some of the more common phrases related to shopping are much easier for us now ... we can even understand how much something costs when they answer us in Tongan which seems to surprise them.

As I mentioned last week pineapple season is upon us and we see pineapples everywhere now.  It's hard to describe how delicious they are as they still have the same pineapple flavor but it is much richer without the acidic after-taste and they are so tender it just melts in your mouth.  I'm sure that will be something we crave when we leave here.  We are making pineapple, banana, orange smoothies (or other pineapple blends) and they are so delicious.

We spent last night and this morning waiting for our internet provider to come swap out our old modem.  When our internet was originally installed they were out of aDSL modems and so we had to find an old one it has worked pretty well for the most part.  Recently it has started dropping the signal quite frequently which has made it difficult to use the internet.  It would go along just fine for a couple of minutes then drop off for 5-10 minutes.  The tech did call late last night to let us know he wouldn't make it but assured us he would be here this morning (Saturday) by 9:30 AM.  Once we reached 11:00 AM we decided we had other things that needed to be done.  It's a good thing we didn't wait as we haven't heard from him all day.  Monday is a holiday so it may be several more days that we have to deal with the spotty connection.

Dinner at Roby Ann's with the Hudsons.

It finally happened ... yes!  I found a good STEAK!  We have been to a restaurant called Roby Ann's but it was clear back in February and I had a hamburger and fries.   When we went this time I noticed that the steak on the menu was listed as New Zealand beef so I thought I'd give it a try  ... SHAZAM!!  This was such a pleasant surprise as all of the steaks I have had to date were tougher and not as flavorful as I am used to in the U.S.  Not very many places even have steak as a menu item in the first place.

Our waitress from Fiji. She's
been in Tonga for one week.

We had to go back the next night  (just to make sure I wasn't dreaming) and try the other steak on the menu.  This one was smothered in mushrooms and a garlic sauce.  We also brought our Heinz 57 (something we found at Costlo several weeks ago and had the foresight to purchase) so everything was just perfect.  I'm sure this will be come a regular dinner hangout (at least every week or two).   Oh, and the company was marvelous as well!


Now for a few random photos from the week.

Elder Tukuhaukava

We took Elder Tukuhaukava to physical therapy at the hospital and caught him posing in front of the full length mirror when he thought no one was watching.  We were able to convince him to give us a pose or two to capture the moment.  He is a native Tongan and finishes his mission in January of 2018.  I call him Elder Malomi (dimples).

I was able to get a good vantage point to take a photo of the indoor market.  The photo on the left is the clothing and souvenirs above the market.  The one on the right is the produce market where we buy most of our fruits and veggies.

This was our welcoming committee at one of the missionary quarters.  I think
they must have beat out the dogs for the missionary left-overs as they started
congregating as we drove in and they didn't scatter as we left.

Random photos from Graduation Day at Liahona (photos courtesy of the Hudsons)

184 Students in this year's graduating class