Wharf

Where we live in Nuku'alofa, there aren't any real beaches close by. But we do live right near the wharf. When we want to go to the beach we hop on the bus for 30 minutes and ride to the west side of the island. To Ha'atafu beach. That's also the only good surf spot on this island as well.

We do go to the wharf to swim when its hot. (Which is pretty much everyday)

Here are some pictures of Michael jumping on the pier.




And here's one of us looking back at Nuku'alofa.

Raining cats and dogs

Monday night it started raining and rained the entire night. And this wasn't ordinary rain either. It was like monsoon rain. We woke up to our driveway being completely flooded. The city doesn't have any drainage system so all the water just pools until entire roads are covered. I guess this is why a lot of people built their houses on stilts. Because otherwise lots of them would have water coming in their front doors.

I took this picture this morning. This isn't even half as bad as it was yesterday. (Don't know who lives in this house)



After it rains, the next day is unbearably hot. With the sun blazing and all the water evaporating from the ground, you start sweating the second you walk outside. But I'll take that over snow in May (sorry Utah friends)

To'pai

The first week we were here our neighbors invited us over, to teach us how to make a traditional Tongan dish. It's called To'pai.

First you have to open some coconuts which you open with a huge machete.

Then you have to scape out all the meat from 2 coconuts. They use these little benches, with a kind of serrated spoon on the end of it. It takes a few tries to get the motion down.

Then you take all the meat from one of the coconuts and put it inside the husk of one of the coconuts. Then you twist and squeeze to get all the milk out.

Next you take the coconut meat and mix it with flour and water, until its a lumpy batter.

Then you place spoonfuls of the batter in boiling water. Once the dumpling like balls are cooked you drain the water and put the coconut milk in with a cup of sugar. After you let it boil for a little while you end up with a delicious bowl full of these sweet coconut dough balls, floating in coconut syrup. Its sooooooo good.

Since then, we've made it 4 times on our own. Michael is the designated coconut scraper. He's getting pretty good. And now we just buy canned coconut milk instead of trying to squeeze it out. (We never mastered that step) Its Michael's favorite dessert.



Here's both of us taking turns scraping the coconut.




Naki and his son, watching the pot


The final product. Its so delicious. I can't wait to make it for everyone when we get home.

Laundry

Doing laundry in Tongan has been a new experience for us. The facilitator of our program (Joe) told us to expect doing our laundry in tubs. Luckily for us though, our neighbor has a washing machine she lets us use. I now have a new appreciation for washing machines, dryers, and good detergent.

Here is our laundry hanging to dry at our neighbors.






In 2 weeks we leave for Va'vau. We are going to wash everything we can before we leave. I don't think anyone there will have a washing machine, but maybe we'll be surprised :)

Maketi Talamahu

Everyday we walk from our house to the market to buy food for the day. Its about a 10 minutes walk. This is the biggest
market in Nuku'alofa. Some of our usual buys include: apples, pears, bananas, watermelon, onions, cabbage, and samosa. Samosa is one of my favorite things to buy at the market. Its a little fried pouch, filled with curry seasoned bread fruit (like potatoes) and chicken. Its delicious!

We bought some lettuce for the first time yesterday and it was really bitter. So that wasn't the best buy, although it was only $2 TOP ($1 american dollar). So not a big waste. We'll try getting spinach next time. The food looks beautiful. Almost everything is locally grown although some things, like the apples, are imported from New Zealand.

We don't barter. Luckily most of the prices are written on little cardboard signs next to the food. So at least we know we are paying as much as the Tongans.

Home far away from home

So here is my post on our house. We our renting a house from a lady who is in New Zealand for the summer. We are living with another couple from our field study, Dallin and Abby. They are great, and living with them is fun! The house is right in the center of Nuku'alofa so we are only a short walk away from the market, shops, and church. The house is a million times better than what we expected.

We have running water and a toilet (on the other islands we will likely be using an outhouse). We have a microwave, fridge, and stove. No air conditioning of course but lots of fans. The worst part is no hot water. The shower is freezing cold! My showers used to last 30+ minutes and now they last about 2 minutes. Also while taking my first cold shower here I also had the pleasure of killing 2 spiders while showering. The bugs are probably the only thing I don't like about Tonga.

Our neighbors are great. They are letting us use their washing machine (so happy we don't have to wash our clothes in a tub). And they are also always feeding us and checking up on us. They are awesome.

Here's some pictures of our house.

To Tonga

We made it. Leaving LA at 11:15pm Tuesday night we arrived in Tonga at 8:30am Thursday morning with only one stop along the way.

Air New Zealand is our new favorite airline. We each had our own TV with lots of good movies to choose from. We were served dinner and breakfast which were both good. The flight attendants were really nice and walked around offering cups of water to people throughout the flight. AND all our luggage made it safely to our destination, and they didn't ding up the surf board (to Michael's relief).

Along the way we stopped in Samoa for about an hour. We took a few pictures as we figured we will likely never see Samoa again.