Dad said to me once, "You kind of have to have some boy scout in you to live in Ha'afeva." So I guess it proves to you all that I would have made a fantastic boy scout. Here are some pretty cool things about my mission. (Ok, yes, some are sarcastic, but to be honest, I really enjoyed every experience, even if sometimes it was purely for a new found claim to fame.Oh, and ps, they're not in any order, just as they come to mind)
1. Learning to do laundry by hand, and hoping that P day is sunny so it will all dry in time
2. Eating really awesome food! The Tongans have got this thing down! (I'll go into more details in another blog...)
3. Turning 18!!! (And officially feeling like I had the right to teach the YW I had been teaching)
3. Seeing my family on my birthday (Go Zone Conferences!)
4. Eating SHARK on my BIRTHDAY!!!
5. Wearing a black tupenu and a long sleeve dress every day
6. Braiding my hair everyday
7. Hanging out with the missionaries
8. Of course, learning Tongan. I've really, really improved.
9. Having a camera and now batteries for about 7 or the 12 weeks. (Yeah, if you couldn't tell, that was a major bummer)
10. Living next door to the most adorable two year old, and teaching him songs, some Tongan, and some English.
11. Walking around the entire island one P day
12. Falling in love with the dog that lived at the church--not my dog officially, but he comes to me before anyone else!
13. The Children--That would be my number one without question. Ha'afeva should go down in history for cranking out the most beautiful and sweetest children on earth. (And if you ever have like two hours I'd be happy to go into more detail about all that)
14. Writing my letters to the mission president and my dad on the same sheet of paper (aka, it's cool to have your mission pres. be your dad)
15. Having electricity only after 7:00 ( it changed to 6:30 after it started getting darker earlier) and only until 12 or 2 in the morning
16. Taking cold showers (Believe it or not, this actually was a blessing because it's really, really hot!!)
17. Being able to see the ocean from the church (our house was in back, so the church blocked our view)
18. Teaching the YW, 2 recent converts and 2 less active
19. Seeing billions of stars at night
20. Receiving compliments like, "You're already Tongan", and "Will you marry to Ha'afeva?" (Lets face it, they love me........jk)
21. Having two awesome comps.
22. growing TONS spiritually
23. learning how to teach the missionary lessons, and other missionary tricks that now give me a head start to my next mission
24. Learning what makes a missionary a good missionary
25. Riding the boat for 8ish hours up and back
26. Often walking in te'epuaka(pig dung) and bubble gum--seems to be my lot in life
27. Being able to chat with every citizen (?) in one day and still have time left over
28. Having 3 cars and one tractor, which probably makes it an even 3:1 ratio of goats to cars
29. Getting fed all the time
30. Having one main road. (The rest were small roads weaving in and out between each man's bush and the wharf)
40. Going to the bush and getting oranges, sugar cane and such
41. Learning to play marbles really well (Those kids have major skills...)
42. Drinking rain water
43. Sitting cross legged all the time
44. And of course, I'm running out of ideas and you're probably running out of interest.
45. If you want to know more, please email me at : epe.lhs07 at gmail. That's where the good stuff is.
46. Yep, I think that's it
47. Sisita Makamaile :)
47. 'Ofa lahi atu!
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4 comments:
Wups, I just remembered four more:
1. Teaching the primary singing time (the translations are lousy)
2. Learning what flea bites feel like
3. sleeping on a fala (woven mat)...only for 3 nights
4. learning a lot about the intricate art of weaving and fishing (mostly weaving, I only heard about fishing), activities which are very particular to Ha'apai and Lulunga
Ok, here are some more:
1. I enjoyed picking ants out of my tootbrush....yikes!
2. I never slept with any sheets, although a few nights I slept unter my small lavalava
3. (This is one of my favorites): Using small rubber lizzards and dead cockroaches to scare my companion and others on April Fool's day (Man, Tongans are SOOO scared of the little lizzards here! It's fun to scare them any day!)
Yay! I get to post first ... that's because I'm one of your biggest fans. April, I'd be so scared to do all the things you did. Thanks for sharing with us. I love starlit nights away from the city; who knew the sky could hold so many sparkles? I love you! And happy birthday (belated).
What an exciting mission you had! I'm so proud of you. I wish I could pop into that little world you had there, but you did a good job of describing it.
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