THINGS I LOVE ABOUT TONGA

I love the color of the skin of the children, and the way they call out to me when I go for walks on our campus. I love the singing of just about every sector of society. When vehicles go by on the road, they usually are vans or trucks full of people, all of whom are singing at the top of their lungs. I love how people don’t seem to need a radio or ipod—a guitar and a friend for harmony anywhere anytime will do.
I love how the people all drive slowly here. No one is in a hurry to get anywhere or to accomplish loads of things. I love how the people aren’t obsessed with looking good, and how being thin doesn’t seem to be on anyone’s mind. I love the bakeries that bake fresh bread every day. We buy it every three days or so, and slice it up for lunch or breakfast. I love the way our vegetable garden (planted prior to our getting here by a German woman) grew to harvest stage in six weeks. I am regularly harvesting the fruit of her labors. I love how it is windy here all the time. Though people have to burn their own garbage and there often lingers a smoky smell, it is not stifling like the Philippines as the smoke is whisked away quickly by that wind. I love how the culture has kept many of its traditions, including women keeping themselves covered in a skirt or lava lava. It’s amazing how holidays are centered for everyone around church rather than a party or a bottle. Though the churches aren’t perfect, everyone goes and hears and participates.
I love how the queen of Tonga hasn’t just given lip-service to wanting to “adopt” the people in the handicapped home; she has made each one of them her children. She brings them personal gifts, pays all the bills, and invites the residents to be her VIP’s when she has to make an appearance at something. I love our home in Tonga, with the leveler windows with screens, the Tongan wood cabinets, and the much space and rooms! I love the yard that God picked out for me here: complete with everything that was in my Hawaiian garden back home as well as things that almost seemed transplanted from my yard: three rose bushes and a honeysuckle. I never even saw a rose bush in Hawaii, having been to three different islands in that state. Yet here, 21 hours ahead of the Portland area, this former City of Roses gardener has pink flora bunda on the front corners of her lanai!
I love the men and their strong dances they do, the chants and “items” everyone does at schools at any event, and the women’s tapa cloths. I like snorkeling here, with coral unlike any I have seen, and tiny cobalt blue fish! I love the unassuming way the people have here, and their laid-backness coupled with effusive humor.
I love the beauty of this land, and how every morning when you awake it is clear and sunny. I like how I can go for a run in the early morning or for a walk at dusk with my boys, always in a t-shirt and shorts or a skirt and we’re warm enough! Though the land is fairly flat, the big sky is so beautiful. The clouds tend to be stacked cumulus ones that are rosy-tipped with sun rays stretching out past them. It’s like God is smiling down on us here in Tonga.