TONGAN FEAST

We took it a little easy this week after our adventure last week to the Bay of Islands.  Friday morning I substitute taught the same seminary class as I taught before.  We studied from John 16, fine young students in the class. 

Friday evening we had YSA ward activity at the church house.  It was a quiz night/trivia game.  A lot of the questions were centered around New Zealand so that made it a little more difficult for us to answer.  Luckily Alisa and I were at the smart table, and our team won, not because of the 2 of us that’s for sure, but rather due to the others, but I did have a few answers they didn’t.  It lasted a couple of hours, probably the best activity we’ve had with them.

Saturday morning the 2 of us went to the church house to play pickleball with 2 other couples.  Then mom and I attended another YSA activity, this time in Milford park, which is right on the beach.  We played touch rugby for about an hour.  I definitely have lost my speed and agility I learned!  I did score one try, but forgot to touch the ground after crossing the goal line, but they let our team keep the score anyway!  Then we went by the Wearhouse, which is in a mall in Milford.  The store is like a small version of Home Depot.  I found a small bbq which I purchased and assembled for our balcony once the weather turns nice.  We are still having storms and clouds, but things are definitely warming up.  Spent the afternoon napping and prepping for my NZ Education week presentation in two weeks. In the late afternoon we went with the McMurrays to a Tongan ward in south Auckland.  The ward was having a missionary weekend, with food on Saturday and a fireside on Sunday.  They had over 100 guests/non-members attend the event in their cultural hall, their neighbors from others churches.  They had banquet tables set up and literally covered in food.  They had over 30 roasted pigs, distributed around the room on the tables.  Then they had trays of taro and numerous food items, each food in a little container piled up by each plate, along with fruits and grapes.  There was hardly any room on the tables for the cups and plates!  The Tongans are definitely a big people, and it is considered a sign of beauty for the women to be very large apparently!  Some of the men were huge around the girth.  The women were decked out in traditional dress and danced during the meal.  The youth also did some dances for us.  There were speeches (all in Tongan) and visiting.  I sat next to  Bishop Kaufusi.  He said that each pig cost over $200, I’m amazed at the amount of money that was spent on this feast, well in excess of $6,000 just for the roasted pigs, from which just a few slices were cut. That’s as much as our annual budget used to be for our ward when I was bishop.  After the party was done, the leftover food disappeared quickly as the families took the leftovers home. According to the bishop, a lot of Tongans migrate to the Auckland NZ area looking for jobs.  They hope to send money home to their families in the islands.  There are only about 100,000 people living in Tonga, and not a lot of room for growth or good employment opportunities there.