Life the Tongan way

Hello Everyone,

This has been a good week. Actually the clinic has not been open much because they had Sports Day (which lasted 3 days), all the high schools from this Island and even some from other Tongan Islands came together and had track competition. We were able to go one day and it was fun to see them all in their different colored uniforms as they marched into the stadium. They do lots of chants and ritual things that are fun to watch (we took video of for when we come home) It is so hot that there were many of the students who would just pass out and fall on the track from heat exhaustion (my diagnosis)and the officials would just drag them to the side and stand there waiting for them to come around. I just about jumped up and went down and wanted to pour water on them to help get their body temp. down, but Dad said not to. They were laying all over the track. It was hard for me to watch. After the entire 3 days of competition was over, the Liahona (church English speaking school where we are staying and working) came out on top with the most gold metals. They were excited about that.

Even though the clinic was not open this week, we would go in and each day there were 10-11 people that would just stop by with pain and so we would work on them. It feels good to be of help when they are in pain. The sad thing continues to be the amount of decay each mouth has in it. Dad has been "inspired" that we should go to the top of the Public Medical Service Dept. and see if we can create a panel (with top Tongan leaders so this is their program and it will work after we go) that will address education to the people of the island on dental hygiene and even have a contest in the high schools to find something in nature that they can use as dental floss to improve their situation. Yes, they do have floss in the stores, but it is soooooooooo expensive that they would never buy it. We are thinking of things like fibers from a coconut husk, a vein in the coconut leaf or banana leaf, maybe a strand of their long black beautiful hair, a strand of tapa, etc. But Dick thinks it is something that they should come up with so it is their idea and program. Great idea.

Last Wed. night we were invited to visit with the Temple Pres. (Pres. Shumway), and while we were there he set us apart to be Ordinance Workers, and we started to serve the next day. Each Thurs. night the 7:00 session is in English and so he has asked us to officiate there each week. It was a wonderful experience. Dad asked for instructions on officiating and their comment was "Oh, it is just the same as any other temple, just go ahead and do it." And he did, of course there were a few differences in physical set up, but he was right, Dad did do just fine. Just like the Tongan way, JUST HAVE FAITH AND DO IT. So every Thur. we will serve at the temple from 4:30 till closing at 9:00 pm. The Tongan people are so reverent in the temple that we can hardly hear what they are saying, they whisper so quietly, it is really a different level of reverence than we see in our temples at home. We met one man who told Dad that for the last 2 1/2 years he has done 8 sessions every day. That means that he is there for the first at 5:oo AM (he must start walking at least an hour before that) and does the 7,9,11,1,3,5, and final session at 7:00 PM. (that is the only way you can do 8 sessions in one day) How is that for a standard. The Sis. that works in the office starts at 4:30 AM and stays till 6:00 PM (she is a payed employee for 8 hours and the rest is offered in service) We love these people and their love for the temple.

Friday night we took in a dinner and Tongan show at one of the local Beach Resorts and it was wonderful. The food was typical Tongan and very good, we did stay away from the fish, especially the raw fish (sorry to those of you who love sushi) because we have seen a couple of people who have gotten sick. There were probably 50-75 people there and they had roasted 4 big pigs plus all the other food. It was delicious and a great program. The dancers cover themselves with oil and we found out the reason is because it is tradition here that people from the audiance go up and stick money on them, with the oily skin it stays. It is so fun to watch.

Well, that is it for now. Love, hug and kisses to everyone. Thank you for all the good emails this week. It is fun for us to hear what is going on. And the pictures are wonderful.

Sidenote: We have had 11 inches of rain this week and there is no flooding or puddling, where does it go?