Sorry it has taken me so long to get the next part up! It's been a crazy week. Like. SUPER crazy. I'll have a post about my latest adventures pretty soon. Jetlag is a beast. But guess what, I went diving today!! WOOT!!! Ahem. Sorry. I'm trying to contain my excitement.
Anyway, hope this will keep you busy for a bit. =)
July 6, 2012
Woke up super early again to the
crowing roosters. Yes, plural. They’re all over this small compound! Lol. After
breakfast and our morning worship we all loaded up in our vans/buses to go to
our sites. Ms. Judy had a crash course for some of the ones in the Canadian
group so that they could help us with the eye clinic that day after breakfast
so we doubled our group. They shadowed the ones of us that had already done it
the day before and pick it up pretty quickly. It was, once again, a mad house –
a slow one albeit – if that’s even possible. We gave away a lot of sunglasses,
which is good, b/c the people here have a condition where their sclera gets
discolored or part of it starts growing over their iris and it clouds their
vision (I’m not sure what it’s called) and it’s due to being in a hot, humid,
tropical place that has a lot of sun (or something like that). I just wish we
had a lot more sunglasses to give out b/c once all the nonprescription
sunglasses were given out we still kept on getting requests for them. It really
never gets old seeing people’s faces light up when they can see clearly. We
always get told that they just want to be able to read their Bible, which is so
great to hear. This country is actually
mostly Christian, which is really astounding. I don’t think I’ve really ever
been to a country where more than 90% of the population is Christian even
though it really IS a small island. After we had to wrap up the eye clinic for
the day, Pastor Pepe, one of the local pastors here, once again thanked us and
prayed. Then he explained to us that the people are so grateful b/c here in
Tonga an eye exam alone can cost up to $300 (in Pa’anga which is roughly $200
USD) and a pair of glasses can cost easily $200 (which is usually what we have
to pay). Not only is that expensive in general, but most of the people here do
NOT make a lot of money and most live off of their land. That could easily take
up a whole month’s wages for them, so for us to give them a quick eye exam and
glasses saves them so much money.
We once again headed back, washed
up, ate dinner, and were all carted off to VBS – more tired than the day before.
There were a lot more kids that night and they were definitely energetic! The
Chetwyn kids did a great job with their skits and mime act. After we were all
done we gave out stickers and book marks. Did I mention they love stickers? B/c
they do. They were scrambling to see how many they could get, hiding one hand
that already had a sticker on it to get another one. One little girl even
pinched Joseph super hard when he ran out of stickers! Lol. The kids here are a
bit violent, which I find kind of amusing for some odd (maybe distorted)
reason.
We got back to the compound and
had another one of our debriefing and worship sessions where we were reminded
by Pastor Joedy that in the end, everything goes back in the box. Shoot, no
wait, we had a bonfire. (I’m totally writing this like a few days later b/c
I’ve been so busy…and partially lazy. Forgive me.) We shared some poignant
thoughts with each other as well as experiences we had already had there.
Have I mentioned before that
Betty is hilarious and awesome? She’s had to present flowers to the Queen of
England on occasion when she was young, so she was trying to teach Netanya how
to curtsy and present flowers. It was extremely hilarious to say the least.
July 7, 2012
Today we had a more relaxing day,
but it’s super weird b/c it’s Saturday…and we’re not at church. It has to deal
with that whole International Dateline thing I was talking about earlier. After
breakfast and morning worship we actually had some time to go to town. Well,
it’s more like Bryan and Arody asked me to go to town with them and then
everyone joined in, which makes it a PARTAAY!! It’s about a 15 min walk to
Nufu’alofa, the capitol city. Ok, let explain that before you get a picture of
a bustling metropolis. It’s a very very tiny town with like…four blocks of
shops. The boys wanted to get a tupenu, which is a long skirt that guys wear
over here and is very traditional and respectable to wear. I went with some of
the Chetwyn kids to change money since I was an “adult.” Don’t laugh…they’re
all in high school and they’re required to have an adult with them when they go
out, so I was next best thing since the rest of the older ones went to find
their tupenus.
Once we got back from town a
preselected group squeezed into a van to head to the airport. No, we weren’t leaving
the country. We were merely bringing the eye clinic to the airport personnel
and customs agents since they were about to give the Melashenkos a hard time
bringing in so much money and supplies but then it dissipated when they found
out they were willing to bring the eye clinic to them. We set up in the customs
area which is also where you pick up the luggage…yeah, it’s a pretty tiny
airport. We saw about 50 people, which was surprising b/c we thought we’d only
see about 20 or so. Because we were only seeing airport personnel and the
customs agents, we had some down time in between their shifts (b/c there aren’t
that many planes that come and go since the country is so tiny) and we were
goofing off and getting to know each other better since it was a smaller group.
We found out some of us need glasses but will refuse to do so until the end of
time…ahem…Bryan.
We left early afternoon after the
last person was helped…which actually was when we were loading the bus.
Curbside service! Lol. Ate lunch when we got back to the compound and then we
all had some time to get ready for Sabbath and such. I was summoned a little
bit before worship by Arody to go do an interview. So I complied. I don’t mind
doing interviews b/c I’ve done so many for TV, radio, magazines, and
newspapers, but you’d think that I’d be a pro at it by now…but I’m not. I’m
still really horrible. Haha. Thank goodness Bryan and Arody were super patient
with me, plus I was basically their guinea pig. Sigh, being used again. Tsk,
tsk. Lol. The sun was setting pretty fast so I had to think really fast and
they were scrambling the whole time which was really amusing. Seeing Arody
scramble is something to see…bahahah. I looove you, Arody!! =) Once the sun
set, I got back just in time for the tail end of the worship and then we ate.
After dinner about half of us went across the street to the ocean front and
contemplated the stars. Ok, so it was more like I was contemplating the stars since there were so many of them. It
was amazing. We sang songs and then Pastor Joedy went down the line asking each
of us the questions: What were you NOT expecting on this trip (something that
surprised you), and if you lived here for 10 years what would you want to learn
from here (or teach to them). Having been in Fiji before, I kind of knew what
to expect and most of what we’ve seen hasn’t really surprised me. But, I will
say that they have been feeding us NON-STOP (I’m going to look like a Tongan by
the time we’re done) since apparently making us food is their way of saying
thank you. They are so giving, loving, and caring over here. They give without
asking, which is a huge deal to me living in a society that has the mentality
that if you give, you will receive back. One of the group was saying how she
told one of the local ladies that she liked her dress and the local was about
to give her the dress and she had to explain profusely she was just giving her
a compliment. That has happened many times already. Even Hope was saying that
they kids learn it while they’re young. The group had given the kids stickers
and even though they were all scrambling to get more than one, they also were
trying to share with her and she had to tell them that the stickers were just
for them! It’s amazing the mentality
here. I wish more of us over in North America thought like that.
Also, while we were walking back
to the compound which was only a hop, skip, and a jump away, a three legged dog
chased Avery down the street. Bahahaha. It was absolutely hilarious!!
July 8, 2012
Sabbath morning (which was really
Sunday morning) we woke up, got all dressed up for church, ate breakfast, had
worship, admired all the guys in their new tupenus and tuvalas (Bryan and Arody
really shouldn’t be wearing them…they don’t know how to sit properly or how to
be decent in one…smh), and then we were off to the Papua Church which was
basically in the slums. Ok, so it wasn’t like Slumdog Millionaire, but it was
definitely squatters area. They have a makeshift kind of church of sorts with
only three sides closed, the fourth is opened. It’s small, but it’s rich in
God’s blessings. I’ve come to find out that the small churches are really the
friendliest and most caring. Fohe presented the Sabbath School lesson and then
we launched into the service with the church’s youth choir. Let me tell you, they
are amazing. They’re the ones that were singing at the other church that blew
us away. Pastor Mark spoke about being in God’s original family for the sermon
and Fohe translated in Tongan. After the service was done they started
transforming the outer part of the church that didn’t have a closed wall into
the food area. They put up like 4 tables first…and then by the end they had
like 6 or 7 tables out b/c there were so much food!! Why are these people, who
are probably poorer than the rest, particularly preparing and bringing so much
food for us when it’s expensive to make and they don’t have a lot of money?
It’s their way of saying thank you to us. It’s not just because we’ve done
construction for one of the churches, not just because we have helped hundreds
of people get glasses for free, not just because we’ve been helping out with
the evangelistic series and leading out in VBS, but also because the Papua
church has been wanting to build a new church, a permanent church, down the
road. It’s still in the squatters area, but they’ve been cleared to build
there. But in order to do that, they need to fill it with dirt b/c the
squatters area here is all swamp land. They had been able to get a few loads of
dirt down there, but because they didn’t have the equipment and don’t have
enough money to hire a front loader, the spread all of the dirt by hand. They
themselves came with shovels and rakes to spread it all out. The day before
Sabbath, Pastor Joedy had them dump 24 loads of dirt and hired a front loader
to spread it all out for them, so now the area where the church will be built
is higher off the swamp lands. Even though that’s really impressive, they still
need it about two feet higher so that the tides won’t bother the foundation.
They started talking about how we could fundraise back at home for this project
as well as possibly bringing the youth choir to tour in North America to raise
money. It’s incredible. That’s all I’m going to say.
After we looked at the property
we all (and by all I mean our group and the youth in the choir) broke up into
three groups to go hand out the rice and cracker bags that Sophie and I had put
together the other day for the people in the neighborhood. I went with the last
group where Isa, Moana, and Mu (I don’t know how to spell her real name) came
with us to translate. We went to about 5 or 6 houses where there were pigs
running around freely and were treated better than the dogs (apparently they
name the pigs and they call them by name and the pigs actually come), the
houses are no better than a shack (well some of them looked better than
shacks), and they have close to nothing. We were able to take pictures with
some of the kids…there are a lot of them in some of those houses – like up to 9
kids. We also went to a family that was Pentecostal who sang to us…a really
long song. Haha. We also saw pigs fishing in the ocean!! Lolol. After passing
out the food bags we headed to the Nuku’Alofa church to do their AY program
with them. So we alternated with the Papua Choir singing songs, then the
Chetwyn group did their mime and improv skits. When we were leading out in song
service with Pastor Paul we sang
Hallelu-hallelu-hallelu-hallelujah-praise-ye-the-Lord. So you’re supposed to
divide into two groups to sing it, right? One to sing the Hallelujah’s and the
others to sing the Praise Ye the Lord’s. Well there were three sections in the
church, so he designated one section to be the “Jah’s” at the end of the
Hallelu’s. It was hilarious. If anyone of you sing that song, you need to try
having people do that. Lolol.
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