Those who read my blog from my first trip to Tonga know that it is illegal to do any work in the entire Kingdom on Sunday. The day is reserved for worship and spending time with family. Like most people in Tonga, we started with our worship service, the Divine Liturgy officiated by Fr. Demetrios and Fr. Bartholomew in the tiny Chapel of Sts. Peter and Paul. One of the local families came, including four little girls who are all related but not necessarily sisters. They are as cute as can be, and I had fun showing them pictures of my three little girls and their little brother at home in Alaska. Children that age don’t often speak English yet. It’s something most Tongan children learn in school when they are a little older. But regardless of the language barrier we became good friends.
After liturgy we had a bite to eat, plenty of Greek coffee (supplied by David and much appreciated by the Greek fellows) and piled everybody into our large, rented van. Fortunately, we rented a vehicle large enough for all of us – the five Americans, Fr. Bartholomew, Elias, Niko and Romeos from Greece and a woman named Elli, who works next door to the church and was with us at liturgy that morning. (She might be the mother of one or more of those little girls I mentioned above but I couldn’t tell for sure).
With Elias as our guide we bombed around Tonga, stopping at some tourist sites including the famous Pupu’a blowholes and a secluded beach that had a coral reef barrier a couple hundred meters offshore, resulting in a huge, shallow pool that was great for wading and looking for sea creatures. I spent a while on the shore there getting to know Fr. Bartholomew, who explained to me some of the similarities and differences of Tongan and Fijian culture. Like most of our group, he had never been to Tonga before this trip.
The last stop was at a huge coral boulder – HUGE – that, according to Tongan lore was thrown nearly ¼ mile inland by one of the ancient Tongan deities. Geologists suspect it may have been a tidal wave that brought it up, but nobody was actually around to watch, so you’ll have to decide for yourself.
We headed back to the Church and served vespers in the chapel before going to dinner with our Greek friends. It was Cheesefare Sunday, and we wanted to enjoy a nice meal together but needed something meatless, so the “Emerald” Chinese restaurant was the perfect spot. I ordered a “Sweet & Sour Whole Fish” not really knowing what I was getting into. Turns out, as the name makes clear, it was an entire, massive fish – head, tail and bones included – deep fried, covered with diced veggies and drowned in sweet & sour sauce. I didn’t have any idea what I was getting into. However, despite my initial fears it was quite delicious. We all shared from our various selections, so I was able to pawn some of my whole fish on the other guys and gobbled up the rest. It is the type of experience we expect when travelling to new places, right?
Tomorrow we will get together with Elias and figure out exactly where to start focusing our efforts.