Doc's Tonga Diary 1
29-Jul-2008
Malo e lelei,
Saturday 26th:
THE plane we caught to Nuku’alofa from Nadi on Saturday afternoon was packed. Not a seat to spare and wall-to-wall Tongans. And not a seat big enough for most of us. That’s not the fault of Air Pacific - their service, as always, was friendly and generous. But the designers of the world’s international aircraft must have had Asians in mind when they designed their seating. Perhaps Boeing and Airbus should have a few Tongans in their ergonomic departments!
Fua’amotu International Airport is pristine. Neatly manicured gardens, everything freshly painted and not a single bit of litter in sight. A small group of instrument-bearing Tongans sing disembarking passengers into the terminal where processing is efficient and slick. The baggage area is a tight squeeze, but everyone jostles with smiles and in the chaos patience makes things smooth. Signs of an imminent celebration modestly abound.
Sunday 27th:
We arrived too late to get our shopping organised on Saturday night and Sunday is absolutely no go as far as activity is concerned. No taxis or public transport and not a single shop is open. People get fined by police if they are caught swimming in public. Everything is quiet like a Puritan’s Sabbath. It could never work in Fiji - too multicultural. But Tonga is a Christian kingdom state and its sabbath observance is the most solemn sign of it.
In the home of our hosts, Taniela and his family, we dressed formally for church which is held in his lounge room. His lounge chairs are moved around and mats spread. At the front of the room a small wobbly podium is placed. On a low coffee-table to one side are the sacraments for our service. Just after ten o’clock the preacher arrives and melodious Tongan choruses sung by a dozen or so children waft through the house, beyond the curtain separating the kitchen from the proceedings, and out into the backyard where Taniela and his son prepare the umu for our post-church lunch.
The service was simple, the phrases spare, and the sacraments a sacred reminder that even here in a modest Nukualofa house-church far from the Palestinian soil that received the blood of a crucified Jesus Christ some two thousand years ago, we could still be moved by the awesome redemptive sacrifice of God’s Son on our behalf.Lunch that followed was - well, what can you say, Tongan. Generous, tasty, and pots deep enough to feed the Five Thousand as it were. Tongans live to eat it has to be said. And until one is their midst doing exactly that one cannot appreciate just how satisfying an ethic that really is.
Sunday (or Saturday if you are an SDA) passes very peacefully here in Tonga. The only thing that murmurs in our post-meal respite on mats and mattresses are the breezes that zephyr in from the west. I doze off to their gentle massaging of my bloated belly and by the time the setting sun turns the horizon to a peachy grey-red glow, I am a little wistful that our weekly holy day of rest has passed too quickly.
MONDAY 28TH:
On Monday morning we were up early and heading into town from our base a short distance away in Longolongo. Our objective was to get a head-start in our shopping. First to the ATM for those precious Tongan pa-anga (dollars). Precious because they disappear quicker than a Tongan feast. Things are very expensive here3 compared with our local shops in Vuci Road, Nausori. And that is saying something. In fact I’d say Tonga has European prices on everything.
How do they afford it? I suppose only a people who are co-existent and co-dependent on overseas dollars flowing in week-in and week-out could afford it. The UNDP Human Development Index recently put Tonga at 55 in its survey of 177 nations. Well ahead of Samoa at 77 and Fiji at 92. This advancement shows up in a number of human status indicators such as literacy, health and infant mortality etc. Tonga therefore has a lot to be proud of, but visitors - and not just for Coronation occasions - feel it most in their hip pockets.
At mid-day I joined a group of fifty or so local, regional and international media personnel at the Fa’onelua Convention Centre for our first briefing in relation to the Coronation. Introductions, and the ‘dos and don’ts’ for our coming week of rituals were spelled out. IDs were handed to those of us lucky enough to be here for the Royal occasion. I felt a buzz of excitement in the room. As I filed out an hour later, I realised I had better go out and buy a few white shirts, a neck-tie and a jacket or I may be barred from the action which starts Tuesday. And the buzz I felt in the hall was out there in the streets of Nukualofa. But more of that later.
Nofo a - MORE TOMORROW
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Dr Robert Wolfgramm |
