"Malo e Lelei" (Welcome): Travels in Tonga

JM: Got up Friday at 5:00 a.m. to catch a shuttle to the airport at 6:15. We arrived at the airport a little after 7:00 and checked in for our flight to Tonga. Check-in was a hassle. Shirley gave the travel agency my full name but didn't include the Roman numeral "II" at the end. Since my passport includes the "II", the names didn't match and it took us 45 minutes to check in. We were still at the gate plenty early, though.

Air New Zealand is a great airline. The plane was really comfortable and the flight was uneventful. I'm not sure why so many foreign airlines are better than U.S. airlines, but they seem to be.

We arrived at Nuku'alofa "International" airport at 12:04 p.m. There was a stark contrast between deplaning a nice new Boeing 787 jet from a set of roll away stairs in front of an old, somewhat dilapidated airport. That is the difference between Tonga and New Zealand, first world and third world.

We checked into the Tanoa International Dateline Hotel  and later that day met with Ana Ve'ehala, the National Director of Public Affairs for Tonga, to meet and get to know her. She is very nice.

Our hotel is one of the best in town but it has no drawers and only two hangars, The people here are so friendly and the service is excellent.

Tanoa International Dateline Hotel

View across from the hotel

Saturday we went and checked out the market and then drove around the island for about four hours. We drove to the temple (which had closed for the day) and drove around the grounds of the Liahona High School. We continued out to the west end of the island where Jensen Tasman landed in 1643. It is shown on the map as "Christianity Landing". We went to a neat place on the north coast of the island. It's called "Blow Holes" and it's where the waves of the Pacific Ocean crash into natural channels in the coral and shoot up like a geyser. Really cool.

Cassava and Bananas at the market

Tonga Temple

Liahona High School

Tasman Landing

Blow Holes

Saturday night we went to dinner with Ana's public affairs coordinating council at a restaurant named Little Italy. They made really good pizza! We met Tai, Sione and his wife, Lua, and Filimone Tuikolovatu, all members of Ana's council. It was a delightful evening with some wonderful people. I think I should get a flower for my hair.  I see women wearing them a lot.

SM and Ana Ve'ehala, our Tonga Public Affairs Director

Sunday we went to church with Tai and  Filimone Tuikolovatu. Tai is Filimone's daughter-in-law. They have been meeting for 10 years in Filimone's "garage" while the Fangoloto Branch has grown large enough to be made a ward. Now a new building is under construction for three wards, including the Fangaloto Ward. We will be writing a story about this ward before, as we experienced it today, and the after, when the ward moves into the new building.

SM:  Well, what can I say about Church! Such faithful members that have been meeting in a very unusual setting.  We had the Young Women join Relief Society for the opening exercises, just like at home.  It was a moving sight to see them recite their YW theme, first in Tongan then in English.  It was fast Sunday and fortunately for us the Bishop asks members to bear their testimonies in English each fast meeting.  Most did so, and quite well.  We mentioned to our kids that we had church outside and a reply was:  "Church outside? Lucky!" It was quite nice, actually.

Sacrament Meeting in garage - overflow under the carport.

Sunday School

Adult Sunday School

Priesthood opening exercises

Priesthood quorum

Primary and nursery

Young Women class

Fun after Church

Relief Society

Relief Society - note the tablecloth and centerpiece

Fangoloto Chapel under construction

Tai, the Relief Society Pres., is on the national public affairs committee and has become a sweet friend.  She gave me a lovely Tongan Dress to take back with me. Very generous!

After a public affairs meeting Sunday night she brought lots of refreshments, many she was able to get at the American store (very costly).  There were doughnuts, red velvet cake, pound cake, chicken nuggets, and fruit.  She brought a cob of corn for me to eat because she knew I was eating healthy.  The whole committee has set aside their own schedules just to meet with us and show us around.

This morning Jim and I were driven around by Filimone and the Ha'akame Stake President to see the building project going on in his stake. The Church recently acquired two sawmills to rebuild homes in Vanuatu following a storm. When that work was finished the Ha'akame Stake requested a sawmill for use in Makeke. Although the stake president says that most members live in good housing, we observed that many of the members live in very difficult circumstances. The sawmill was requested so the Church could use the lumber from 200 coconut trees that were being cut down to make way for a youth camp. It will allow the stake to provide wood to help those in greatest need to build frames for tin roofs and walls on 20 - 30 houses, six of which are now under construction. Large families are living in cramped quarters and the project will change their lives greatly.  We saw three dwellings and what is being done to help them.

A 66 year-old widow, three of her daughters and their husbands and children live in a shack that is only about 10' x 10'. Their toilet and kitchen facilities are outside. For five years this widow and her daughters have been saving to buy cinder blocks one at a time to build a more suitable house. In the meantime some of them have been living in a tent within the cinder block walls without a roof. With the sawmill the Church has been able to provide the lumber to frame the roof and members have donated excess tin for the roof. A concrete floor will be poured Wednesday and two bedrooms will be framed inside. 

Current home

New home

We saw two other houses that were far worse than the first. In one a husband, wife and their six children were living in a small, inadequate shack. In the other a couple and their nine children were living in a house that had been built for them on land that they had been allowed to use by the landlord. Surprisingly, the completed house still looked like it needed to be renovated. The people here don't expect much and are grateful for what they receive. I'm so grateful that they are being helped. We'll be writing a story on this for Mormon Newsroom Pacific.

At 4:30 Jim and I went and met with Bishop Kamesese and the Nuku'olofa 6th Ward members as they gathered to clean up the waterfront, as they do every Monday afternoon.  We were excited to meet with them and take  pictures for a story highlighting their service.  They have been doing this cleanup for 6 years now.  Sometimes the prime minister comes and joins them to show his appreciation for what they are doing.  The Bishop and his ward members are very respected by the government for the work they do in Nuku'alofa. In fact, because of the work the ward has been doing on the waterfront, the government has recently given all employees time off on Friday afternoon to undertake cleanup projects throughout Tonga.  Jim left early to go back to the hotel because he wasn't feeling well.  Probably the water.

After cleaning up the waterfront area they went across the street to the home of the Royal Princess's home and spent a long while cleaning up her yard.  While I was there the Royal Princess came out and was expressing gratitude for their work and invited me to have a photo taken with her. I had failed to brush up on Princess protocol and didn't know if touching is allowed so I decided to play it safe and keep my hands in front of me. I wasn't aware that we'd be meeting with the HRH Princess.  I had been advised in our Public Affairs training to find out what the proper traditions and protocol are when meeting with VIP's from other  cultures. (Thanks, Jeff and Karen for your wise counsel)

HRH Princess Pilolevu Tuita

On Tuesday we had lunch and dinner with members of the media. Independent newspapers and a radio station were represented by reporters and an editor at lunch and the government-owned TV and radio station were represented at dinner. Members of the Tonga public affairs coordinating council set up and attended the meetings, which went very well.

Lunch with leading Tongan newspaper editors and reporters

Dinner with local newspaper reporters  (in blue)

JM: Between lunch and dinner on Tuesday we snuck away to attend the temple. We only had about an hour so we were limited in our choices of ordinances in which we could participate. We found that we could do sealings at 4:20 pm. That would leave us just enough time to get back for our dinner appointment! We had 45 minutes until 4:20 so we decided to go to the Blow Holes again and got back just in time. We had prepared some names from our reserved list and the temple printed them for us. We completed the ordinances and got back just in time to freshen up for 15 minutes at the hotel before going to Cafe Escape for dinner.

Wednesday morning we slept in a bit, had breakfast at the hotel, packed our suitcases and went down to the lobby at 10:30 to meet with Sione and Ametisi. They came bearing gifts! We chatted for 30 minutes, Sione took our picture for the newspaper and we were off for the airport. We are so impressed with the Tongan people. They are so kind and so generous. I think a part of our heart will always remain in Tonga.

Sione Langi saying farewell

Ametisi and Sione brought farewell gifts from the Public Affairs team

On our way to the airport we drove by the place where Captain Cook landed in 1773 and drove around the west part of the island. It seemed to us to be less occupied than the east part of the island and there were some areas that were very lush.

We arrived at the airport at 12:30 pm and checked our luggage. The man checking us in for our flight addressed us as Elder and Sister and we learned that he was a return missionary. The flight home was uneventful and we appreciated having a shuttle ride from the airport to our flat. What an amazing week we've had.  But it's always nice to come back to our home sweet home away from home!