| Wednesday, October 1, 2003, 1:30 p.m. LATITUDE: 16-28.98S LONGITUDE: 173-48.75W On passage between Niuatoputapu and Vavau (All photos by J. Kosyna & C. Neunteufel) |
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 Sub-treasury, customs and post office, all in one building. |
Dear friends and family: We really enjoyed our stay in Niuatoputapu. We arrived there on Monday morning, having missed Sunday altogether because of the international date line. Craig went ashore to find the customs/immigration people, and walked the 5 km. into the "capitol" of Hihifo, where he changed some money at the "sub-treasury." Craig described it as being like a bank in the wild west. No computers, money in a box in the nineteenth century safe, and a hand-written journal to record the transaction. Right next to the sub-treasury was the telecommunications office -- giant satellite dish, giant solar panels, and a phone booth out front. This was the only phone booth we saw on the entire island, and it didn't have a phone. I guess it's just a symbol of things to come. There's no electricity on this island, unless the individual household has a generator or solar panels. |
| After being gone several hours, Craig came back with two of the
officials, and two more showed up over the next hour. They all needed a
dinghy ride out to the boat, and the several new boats in the harbor
dinghied them from boat to boat. The officials were very pleasant, and as
usual had lots of paperwork to fill out. They came into the boat and
searched through lot of our lockers, looked over the medical kit, and
decided we didn't have enough pain killers to be trafficking in them.
The health inspector also worked at the island's clinic, and she seemed
envious of our medical kit. She asked if we had any English language
magazines to spare, because she wanted to improve her English. I gave
her a National Geographic and several dog-eared novels, which seemed like
just the thing. I spent the rest of the morning cleaning up all the cushions that had been soaked with salt water on passage the previous night, and then did laundry and hung it out to dry in the hot, hot sun. Later in the afternoon, Jens, Cori and I tried to find Hihifo by dinghy. Unfortunately the lagoon got so shallow that it eventually became beach, so we obviously chose the wrong route. |
| Heading back to the boat, we were hailed by a pretty
teenager, who wanted a ride to the Swiss boat in the anchorage. We were
happy to oblige, and we made the acquaintance of Fayheea (that's almost
certainly not the spelling of her name). There was some misunderstanding
between her and the Swiss people, though, and they didn't want to have her
on the boat. She thought they had invited her. Her English was minimal, so
it's not surprising that there was a misunderstanding. We decided to take
her to the wharf nearby, and then we walked along the road with her toward
Hihifo. She knew everyone we passed, and their conversation always had
the word "palangi" in it. (Palangi means "white people.")
Hordes of little kids (ages 4-10 perhaps) came up and pestered us "What's your name?" or "Where are you going?" We met David and John and several others with less familiar names, and that seemed to be the entire extent of their English. Jens and Cori had brought along some stickers and pens, which were gladly received by the children. Fayheea left us when we reached her house (she introduced us to her mother and we learned "Mahlay" for "hello" and "Allooah" for "goodbye.") |
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Everyone was very friendly to us, always with a big smile and "what's your name?" We had the impression that we were the ones on display, and everyone was very curious about us in a friendly sort of way. We understand from the customs officials that they are visited by about 80 yachts each year, and that's most of their contact with the non-Tongan world. We did, however, see two Mormon missionaries walking along the road in the opposite direction, big smiles on their faces. We saw no Mormon church, so they must be fairly early in their mission process. (In Samoa, there was a Mormon church every few miles -- we must have seen 15 or 20 in our day trip around half of the island.) We did see a Catholic church and at least two Protestant churches on Niuatoputapu. |
| The Tongans have dedicated graveyards, rather than the tombs in front of each house that we saw in Maupiti and Samoa. Most of the graves are mounds of coral gravel several feet high, with a few actual concrete slabs here and there. In addition to artificial flowers, there were racks of glittery cloth (perhaps clothing of the deceased?), and a few applique quilts in the style we have always thought of as Hawaiian. |
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One of the things we have least enjoyed about the islands we have visited so far is the omnipresence of the weed whacker. Every island seems to have government employees who go out and make lawns everywhere. So we were prepared to see the same here, especially when we saw that there was no tall grass anywhere. But there were no weed whackers. Instead, there are hundreds, if not thousands of pigs running free, chomping at the grass, and quite a few horses as well. The main industry on the island seems to be the growing and processing of pandanus leaves, for making into mats and baskets. We saw only one woman actually making mats, so we assume that the rest is being shipped elsewhere for manufacture. Part of the process is taking the pandanus leaves out into the lagoon, where they are soaked in salt water before being hung out to dry. We saw horses carrying giant loads of pandanus leaves out across the reef in ankle deep water. |
 We heard the gorgeous singing for which Tonga is famous. Walking through Hihifo last night, we heard a woman with a beautiful voice practicing her part inside her home. Then, later, walking past a school, we saw a choir of teenagers singing and performing set arm motions as they sang. Several of the less attentive singers broke stance and waved at us as we walked past. It was already approaching dark, or it would have been wonderful to stop and watch. This morning at 7 a.m., as we were pulling up anchor, we heard singing again. I'm sure if we had been able to stay through Sunday, we would have had many more opportunities to hear singing. |
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| One of the buildings we noticed in Hihifo was obviously an
English school. Through the open louvered windows we could see the slogans
painted large on the walls: "English is the key to success..." "With English
you can do anything..." and "English is the source of everything..." I hope
the teacher isn't pushing this as hard as it seems. The last motto seems to
take value away from being Tongan, and I would hate to see these people feel
in any way negative about their culture. We were sorry to leave Nuiatoputapu so soon. But we're having a good passage to Vavau, and looking forward to arriving there tomorrow morning. Best wishes to all our friends and family! Craig & Barbara Johnston S/V Sequoia |
Check out this essay by a Niuatoputapu student about her home island. |