Tonga Mission Trip: July 3-5

Ok, so here it is. The long awaited Tongan posts. Please note that this is only part of it and I will be posting the rest later. There are too many pictures to sort out right now, so be patient and I will get some up later! Malo! Also, I will be out of the country once again tomorrow but the chances of me having internet is much higher than when I was in Tonga. Lol. Stay tuned!

July 3, 2012

I’M IN TONGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I can’t believe it. It’s so surreal.

So let’s start from the beginning and hopefully I won’t fall asleep from exhaustion before I finish. I’ve been traveling for two straight days and I’m beat!! I know some of us have traveled for much longer and I can’t imagine how exhausted they are. I will say this though: Skipping Mondays is the best thing ever.

Ok, so let’s start from home.

After packing like mad on Saturday night and getting little sleep (as in like…20 mins b/c I was so wired and worried I would forget something), got up at 4am to shower and get ready. Left the house a little after 5am with daddy, watched the big ball of fire rise from the horizon, and got to the airport a little after 6am. Don’t underestimate the amount of ppl there will be at 6am on a Sunday morning at the airport. Delta made the ppl in our flight cut a bunch of lines in order for us to make our flight. I literally had time to pee and walk to my gate to board (not that you needed to know that…but get used to it, b/c I always tell everyone when I have to pee). The flight to Salt Lake City was uneventful, although it was my first time sitting in an exit seat, which was nice to have the extra leg space. We landed early in SLC and transited to my flight to LAX. Sat in the front with lots of leg space once again, but there was a cute baby that had a powerful fling and managed to spit on my face. Lol.

Landed in LAX, walked all over the place trying to find the international terminal and found out that Air Pacific’s counter didn’t open till much later. Read my book while I waited for Ryan and Sharien to pick me up and rescue me from my 10 hr layover. I’m eternally grateful for them for doing so.  We went to Guppy Tea House to eat since we were all starving and then hopped over to 85° Bakery across the way to get snacks for the rest of my trip. Drove over to Westfield Center and walked around. They have a really nice food court. Sigh, I wish my mall had such a nice food court. Haha. Found Zara, Fresh, Bloomingdales, and other loverly stores. Not that you want to know that….Hah.

Anyway, moving on. Dropped me off at the airport where I checked in, got a bite to eat, and then charged my phone and hid behind a pillar of sorts reading on my kindle. For some reason I didn’t want to meet up with the group just yet so I didn’t put my QH (Quiet Hour) shirt on just yet. I’m such a loner sometimes. I blame my father’s genes. Anyway, it finally came time to go to the gate so I changed into my QH shirt and I reached it just as they were taking a group picture, so I jumped in and flashed a smile when Ms. Betty called out to me to join them. Ok, saying I flashed a smile would be an overstatement. I hadn’t realized how exhausted and sleep deprived I was until I had to hold that smile for what seemed like an eternity. It’s pretty bad when it’s a complete struggle to smile; your muscles are giving out in your face which makes your smile waver. Not a good sign. That is not the time to be exhausted. So I met everyone in our group – there was about 15 or so of us at the time – and exchanged pleasantries, got to know each other a bit until it was time for us to take the shuttle to our plane. It was one of those huge planes, so there were tons of people on the flight. Guess who sat in the very very back? We did. Made a phone call to a close friend and all the meanwhile was hoping and praying that no one would sit by me…and thank the Lord, no one did. So guess who got to lie out and get some much needed sleep? I did!! PTL!! Knocked out for 6 straight hours and then dozed the rest of the time. It was amazing. After not getting a good night’s rest for 36 hrs, the feeling is very similar to Asian Night weekend – for those of you who know what I’m talking about – it’s like a sleep deprived zombie feeling of “I’m awake but if I blink for too long I might topple over” and “I know I’m awake but I haven’t the slightest clue where I am or why I’m here” feeling.

Anyway, we reached our transit stop which happened to be Fiji! So what do you do when you have a 6 hr layover in Fiji? You go into town!! The majority of us decided to go and we took a bus to town. Mind you, it was super early in the morning so when we boarded the already full bus we realized that the majority of the people on the bus were school kids. I don’t think there are many actual designated school buses there. They all just take public transportation. So we all crowded into the super small aisle and just at that moment I felt a tap on my shoulder. I looked back and saw a young boy, probably no more than 12, get out of his seat and motioned me to take his place. I still have faith in humanity. Well, at least over here I do. But more about that later. It was so good to be back in Fiji! Just riding on the bus, seeing everything, I couldn’t help but smile to myself the whole time.

After many stops we finally reached town, Nadi, and started walking around. Paula wanted to find a grocery store, so we stopped in one, ran into Tuks, one of the guys who helped our group 3 yrs ago, who recognized the logo on our QH shirts, and then later on we stopped in a souvenir store, b/c they were all feeling touristy. Lol. There happened to be a café in the back so we took our breakfast there…except we all got something off the lunch menu. Yummy food. Or maybe we were all just really hungry. Lol.

We took the bus back to the airport, this time on a nicer bus with no children (since they were all in school), but were all still pretty crammed in there. It’s amazing how many people go to and fro from each stop.

We reached the airport, checked back in and waited some more. We all boarded the plane to Tonga and made the short flight over. No, seriously. It was less than an hour. Thank goodness b/c I had to pee really bad again. Lol. Got through customs just fine and realized all our bags were just sitting in front of the carousel. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. The first person I saw when I walked through the doors to exit the airport was Pastor Joedy! He goes, “Well aren’t you a sight for sore eyes!” Hahahaha. It was so good to reunite with him and Mrs. Judy again! We waited for the others to come out and watched the reunion between brother and sister who hadn’t seen each other for 18 years or so (or at least I think they hadn’t seen each other for that long…I know he hadn’t been back to Tonga, his homeland, for that long, but not sure how long it’s been since they had seen each other).

Boarded the bus and made our way to one of the local churches where we were told we would have our dinner which was prepared by the Tongan ladies of the church. We were so surprised to find two LONG tables filled to capacity with homemade food!! We were so overwhelmed! The only way I can describe it is potluck on steroids. There was so much food! I couldn’t believe it. They literally welcomed us with open arms. These people have so little but have SO much to give. It’s really humbling. The members were so warm and welcoming and kept on insisting for us to eat even more than we had. I think we were all stuffed to capacity. In true Tongan fashion there were lots and lots of speeches by various leaders and such. Some of what we could understand, and others not so much. After much merriment, oh and they sang a beautiful welcoming song to us beforehand, we boarded the bus once again and made our way to the mission compound where we had a mini powwow and got our room assignments. There are three houses here. One is the Conference President’s house, one is the Conference Secretary’s house, and the other doubles as the Conference Treasurer’s house and a transition house for missionaries and such…or is one of them the Youth Director’s house? I can’t remember. These people that live in these houses were so kind enough to let all of us use and stay in their houses. They gave up all their rooms and living spaces for us to stay in and are staying in a super small room or in their garage (or both). Talk about giving! So the living quarters are quite nice…better than staying in tents, which we were supposed to be doing originally. The only drawback is that there are only a few bathrooms for all of us…so Paster Joedy requested that we all take only 2 mins…yeah…not happening. The water pressure is almost nonexistent and there’s no hot water…which I guess could make it go faster. Haha. Anyone up for using the solar shower bags?

July 4, 2012

It’s 6am and it was NOT a good night. It would’ve been great if the mosquitoes (or mosquito) would’ve left me alone. But no. They just LOVE me. I’m like a great feast to them. Mosquitoes flock to me like the droves. I woke up every two hours with them buzzing in my ears. I applied my repellant like 5 times during the night. I even went under the covers to get away from them, but it was stifling hot under there and I had to come out for fresh air frequently. So when we all finally woke up this morning I counted the damage. Five on my face, including my upper lip and right eyelid (which are very swollen atm), 9 on my arms, 3 on my kneecaps, 3 or 4 on my lower back, and one on my Achilles.  Go me. I wouldn’t be so annoyed if my face weren’t so swollen. But it is. And as if my eyes weren’t already small, the one that got bit is swollen and I can barely see out of it. Sigh. You can laugh all you want.

Ok. It’s 3pm and the swelling has finally gone down on my face. I even got my contacts in. Whoohoo!!
So this morning we helped out with preparing breakfast, had breakfast, had worship, had a mini orientation, and then we were let loose – as in we were given free time since the Canadian team are just now arriving. So a bunch of us decided to cross the street, check out the ocean, and walk around the area. It got pretty humid so we headed back and helped out with lunch. Well, Sophie and I made up rice and cracker sacks to give out to those that need it the most in the community later this weekend.

Had lunch, some decided to go into town but we decided to swim out in the ocean. Except we didn’t realize it was low tide. But nevertheless we jumped in. Ok, maybe jumped in is an overstatement. It was a bit chilly but Sophie, the Alaskan, went in like it was nothing. =.= After we all finally managed to dunk ourselves, it wasn’t too bad. Sophie, Avery and I decided to walk out to the reef since the tide was so low. It was hilarious taking Avery out there b/c he…well let’s just say Sophie and I get out in nature a lot more than he does…or so it seemed. Haha. We found these sea creatures that almost looked like sea snakes at first, but after careful examination, we discovered that it was definitely NOT a sea snake but was some sort of sea creature that was siphoning the water through its tentacles. Walked through a lot of sea weed and found lots and lots of coral towards the end. It was hilarious teaching and showing Avery all the things we saw so much so that we decided we needed to make a reality TV show called “Avery in the Wild” or “Avery and Wildlife.” I think it’d be a great hit. Avery: “Psh, I use my charm…*steps on something squishy*...AHHHHHH!!!!” As we got closer to where it was deeper (where the reef ended) we realized that we unfortunately could not make it out there b/c there was too much coral blocking our way. Sad face. Oh, and here in Tonga, it is required by law that the girls wear pants or skirts that are longer than knee length and shirts that have sleeves on at all times, and then guys can’t go bare-chested either.

Walked back and then took a nice cold shower. We’ve been chilling in our room since then just chatting it up with Betty, who is hilarious as all get out!

And hours later Betty, who we have lovingly dubbed our house mom, is still cracking us up.

The Canadian group finally arrived and after we settled them in all the rooms we had a grand meeting in the front yard where Pastor Joedy once again told us the important message of, “You’ve made the trip, but it’s up to you to make the journey.”

After another grand feast of local food that the ladies made, we gathered, with our stomachs bursting, once again. We finished our orientation with an addition to a special guest, Pastor Ron, who explained to us how Tongan SDA’s worship on the same day as everyone else b/c of problems with the International Date Line. Go look it up, it’s super complicated.

Right now we’re trying to tell the new girls all the rules and regulations of this place. I think they’re overwhelmed. Lol. Poor things, I think most of them haven’t been out of the country before. In their defense, they’re learning everything at once that we learned in two days.

Oh good, Betty put a mosquito coil next to my feet. Let’s hope this works tonight!!

July 5, 2012

The mosquito coil worked!! PTL!! Haha.

Woke up super early once again, helped prepare breakfast, and after morning worship we all loaded up to go to our sites. I loaded up with the eye clinic since I helped out last time with it. The other group headed out to a construction site finishing up a church.

After we got to the big green high-ceilinged auditorium we realized they loaded up the glasses in the wrong van. Headed into the building to scout out the area and see where we’d set things up. Ok, that place is huge. No lie. They had a bunch of chairs facing the beautifully decorated stage that was filled with fresh flowers from the members’ yard. The Beulah College (which is really a high school) band was already there and scared us half to death when they played their first notes with a crash. They play exceptionally well, btw.

When the three suitcases of glasses finally arrived, we quickly set everything up: laid out the glasses ranging from +0.75 to +4.00 and -0.75 to -5.25, the eye meters, the eye distance charts, and reading material. We waited around for a bit listening to the band perform and then the opening ceremony started with three speeches, including one from the Tongan Director of Health (or that’s what I think his title is…) and two from our local pastors. After a rousing rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus played by the band we started the eye clinic.

I started out doing the reading testing with the eye meters. Basically what the routine was after they had gone through the distance checking, where they stood 20 ft away from the eye chart where someone would point at letters from top to bottom (big to small), while someone next to them would tell them to cover first the right eye, then the left eye. Since there were two eye meters we then tested to see what strength would help them for distance. Then they would send them to me, where I would sit them down, have them hold a piece of reading material that had three sizes of font, like a Tongan newspaper, or literature from the church, and then asked which was clear or blurry. Once I found out which one was blurry, I used the other eye meter to see which reading glasses they would need. After that, oh and we were writing down all this information on a slip of paper, they would get fitted for glasses in the front, which I will explain in more detail in a second.

We realized fast that it was taking a bit longer for the distance testing so we started another line, which took away my eye meter that I was using. Therefore we eliminated the step I was doing. So I went to help fit glasses.

Now friends, let me just tell you. This step is obviously the most rewarding step in the process, but I will tell you that it can be extremely frustrating at times when it takes more than 5 pairs of glasses to find the right one. Let me explain.

Once they are ready to be fitted for glasses what we do (or what I do) is we take their slip of paper which tells us a few things: the lowest they can read on the distance chart and what strength it took to help them see better. Next, we take a piece of reading material and pretty much do what I was doing before, just without the eye meter. You can get a pretty good feel for what strength of reading glasses to start them on just by what size font they can or can’t see. Usually, if they can’t see the biggest font, we start them off with a +3.00 or higher. If they can’t see the middle font, you start out with around a +2.50, and if they only can’t see the small print we start them out with around a +1.50 or so depending on how blurry it is for them.

Once you figure out the ballpark range we get a pair (or two or three, a diopter up and/or below) and start trying them out. If they say it’s still blurry but it’s helping, we go up in diopter (which go by 0.25) until it’s clear for them. If they say it’s too strong we obviously go down in diopter until we get the right one. Now, if they say it’s not getting better, we’ve got problems. We basically have to try the whole range of glasses at times until we find the right one. Sometimes we have to try a totally different pair of the same diopter and sometimes we have to do something crazy, like go to the other spectrum of glasses.  Occasionally their reading glasses will double as distance glasses which is great for us b/c distance glasses are actually really hard to fit since they almost always are not the same prescription in either eye plus they almost have an astigmatism correction and spherical something or another. The only way I can describe how hard it is to find distance glasses is trying to find a needle in a haystack and not even knowing if the needle is there.

Around 200+ people showed up and registered which was very overwhelming b/c the process took some time so in the end were able to see about 90 people or so in about 5 hours which was actually pretty good considering we only had about 8 people. The best ones are the ones that you can find the right pair on the first try. We like those. Lol. The most frustrating ones are the ones that you can’t find the exact one that fits after trying pair after pair, but if you ask anyone in our crew we will tell you that the greatest feeling is when you see the smile on their faces when you finally find the right ones they can see clearly!

One of the churches provided lunch for us while they had an afternoon meeting at the same building. Now, remember when I said they prepared a ton of food for us when both groups arrived? Yeah, they brought a ton of food for us once again because they thought the whole group was going to be there. We really tried to eat all of it, but we failed miserably. Thankfully a lot of people came after the meeting to eat it even though they weren’t supposed to. Haha.

So I thought that everyone here knew English fluently but apparently not all of them do. Only the ones that are of a certain denomination know it well. So there were more people that didn’t know English than we anticipated. Therefore we needed a few translators. We had Fohe, who is Tongan but now lives in the US that came with our group, and then we had his cousin-in-law (or something like that,) Finau, whom I had the pleasure to work with and is now my favorite Tongan, and then we had a few other church ladies that were able to take time off and help us out. If it weren’t them, it would be extremely hard to have functioned.

We had to stop the eye clinic a little after 4pm and headed back to the compound. Once we finished dinner we were off to start VBS at one of the local churches. Let me tell you, there is no rest for the weary. Lol. Our feet hurt so much b/c we had been standing so long at the eye clinic and then had to be active during VBS. But hey, it’s all for the glory of God!

During VBS they had evangelistic series going on at the same time so I was asked by Pastor Paul (he spoke at Southern once for inTents and Sid and I had an argument whether or not he was Tongan…I lost) to play my violin at the end. While we were waiting for VBS to start downstairs a few of us went upstairs to listen to the youth sing. Ok, let me just say again that the people here sing AMAZING. They just have a totally different sound and it’s so great to hear not only the adults sing, but also the youth and children. All too often back in the States kids don’t want to sing b/c it’s not cool or something…but here, it’s an innate part of them, which I think is totally awesome, being a music person (or trying to be at least). Anyway, we started VBS downstairs with some rousing songs – kids always love songs that have hand motions – and plus we had not only my violin to accompany them, but we had two guitars and a bass plugged in. Lol. A lot different than the accapella stuff I’m used to having to do. After songs there were some puppet shows (go Avery for playing the part of a girl! Lol), and the Canadian Chetwyn group did the Bible story and a few other things that I had to miss b/c I had to run upstairs and play my violin. Oh, and I had to figure out another song to play b/c while I was upstairs listening to the youth group sing, they sang the song I was going to play. Go figure, right? Lol, so I quickly had to change to another one.

Once we got back to the compound, we had a debriefing session and a short worship with everyone to close the day where Pastor Joedy reminded us that everything on this earth that we accumulate is just STUFF.