Week 4 in Tonga; 29.9.-5.10.2014
Monday 29th
September
Today, I got the first songs from the students,
Form 1M (F1). F1 is the first year in high school and most of the songs/poems
were about mother and some were very funny. There was only one about father. I
guessed mothers are more appreciated J.
The students were asked to write
songs which I could use as lyrics for the Tongan Youth Hymn Book, “Ko e Tohi
Himi ma’ae To’utupu”. I also asked the teachers to participate. Both students
and teachers are quite busy this term, there are final exams plus the external
exams for the senior classes F5, F6 and F7.
Tuesday 30th September
There were more students came to see the
counsellor. One of them used one of the young teachers’ mobile phone to call
home... Mobile is not allowed in QSC. Possession a phone is a punishment crime
and using a “young male” teacher’s phone seemed to fall into that category also.
The friends happened to be in a wrong place in a wrong time and they were all
guilty.
One of the visitors was a young student (F2)
who wrote few colourful words in her exercise book. I think, she had a very good imaginary…
Unfortunately, her teacher did not have a sense of humor. Why sent her to the counsellor,
I wondered?
Wednesday 1st October
I went and bought a radio. I missed both the
local and the international news. I was checking the stations. After a while, I
realised that the power line already came off the wall but the radio was still on. It
was a magic radio, I thought. It stayed on for many hours without power source.
The Chinese shop should advertise this property of its radio; energy
efficiency, it charged for few minutes and working for hours...
Thursday 2nd October
After school, two students came to do some work
at my place. They washed the curtains and wiped the windows. They were doing
their punishment work for coming late last weekend. The boarding school
students left the QSC on Friday evening and came back on Saturday evening. If
you were late for whatever reasons, you were punished. There was no point
calling about coming late because it would not make any difference…
I cooked
some food for the girls. They had other duties and they left to do them and
came back later when the food was ready. When they came back, they were 4 of
them. They walked in as if I invited them also. I forgot Tongans always shared
their food. My Tonganisation process continued J.
Friday 3rd October
I had to take the school band group photo for
the school magazine before we went for the teachers’ parade. Today we marked
the “World Teachers Day”. All the teachers in Tongatapu were supposed to be at
the cerebration which started with a march from the seafront to the National Stadium,
Teufaiva. There were thousands of teachers from government schools and from
church schools; from primary schools, from high schools and from higher
education institutes. Bands and floats accompanied the teachers and hundreds of
people lined up the street to watch the march. At Teufaiva, programmes continued with more performances. Amazing day! I met more old friends at the
event and it was the same as last time we departed. Promised to see again but I
was sure some of them I would never see again...
Most of the
teachers came out wearing pink in support of the Pink October, the Breast Cancer Awareness month campaign.
Saturday 4th October
Toni and Nia came by and they gave me a lift to
the market to get some water melon, coconut, pawpaw and banana. I like my bike
but there is a limit to what it can carry.
I went to watch the main game of
rugby between Toloa’s ex-boys and the Army at the stadium, Teufaiva. It was
lively and good to see the Tongan supporters of both teams giving it their all.
Unfortunately for the Toloa’s fans, the Army won.
It was the main
game and I figured the referee could be one of the best among the Tongans but he
was terrible. There were hundreds of scrums and penalties. I wonder how we could
improve the game with this quality of refereeing.
The fan!
Sunday 5th October
Samuela & Kava preparing the Sunday Umu!
I returned to Kapeta’s church for the morning
service. I saw Judge Peauafi Pifeleti. I met Peau in Falefai when my parents
worked there and it was Christmas holiday 1992. Last time I talked to him it
was by phone, he was in NZ at the time and it was many years ago. I was invited for lunch.
There was lot of food coming. Toni and Nia came
around with food when I got home from the church. The neighbour brought some and Mele came also with more food. I am sure it would be enough until next Sunday...
My 4th week in Tonga was over!
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