Sacred Sunday

On Sunday morning we woke up to the roosters and the little bit of sun that could manage to break through the rain clouds. It was still a bit stormy, but nothing like last night. However, I guess the power lines decided it was stormy enough because just after our host Siu had finished toasting us spaghetti sandwiches for breakfast in the sandwich press, the power went out. Along with the power goes the water too because the pump won't work, so I was offered a bucket of clean water to use if I needed. I brush my teeth first thing in the morning and shower at night, so didn't feel a particular need for this bucket, but wasn't sure what the etiquette on showering was here. I seemed to remember my cousin Erin writing something about needing to shower 3 times a day in Mozambique, and I had certainly gotten a bit sweaty overnight in the heat so a cold shower wouldn't have been last on my list. However, I could remember what to do with a bucket of water- I'd never had to use one before. I need bucket bath instructions- Erin help! :) For those who are curious about how to take a bucket bath, here's Erin's blog.

Ancient calendar

Luckily the power came back on before we had to leave for church, so P was even able to brush his teeth and bucket bath crisis was averted. We were headed to church on the other side of the island because James and his brother-in-law help lead church there for a small group of 6 families in a tiny little church. On our way to the church, we stopped to see some of the island, including a spot where one of the explorers landed and this rock whose significance was not really known until someone hypothesized that it was used as a calendar of sorts. Apparently it has some notches that line up on the equinox during solstice.

We arrived to church right on time, but none of the six families were there. Just us, James and his brother-in-law. James said the families might still have some things to clean up from the storm last night and that could be why they didn't come. Or they might have thought that James and his brother-in-law wouldn't make the long trip in the potentially stormy weather. But they did! The only people who showed up for church were the people who had the farthest to travel. In any case, church was cancelled, so we set off to see more of the island and to return to Siu's for our traditional Tongan lunch (we went shopping last night for it, remember).

traditional Tongan Sunday roast

Siu had been baking the foil wrapped delicacies all morning while we were all at church. (Siu had gone to his church which is right next door, and as his church wasn't cancelled and he has to drive some people, he took longer than we did driving all the way to the other side of the island to our cancelled church!) When Siu got back from dropping people off, we sat down to eat the corned beef and lamb with taro leaves and bread fruit. I was excited for the bread fruit because the bread fruit fries I had had the day before were delicious, but the baked breadfruit looked a bit scary. We said grace and then everyone dug in to eat. It was actually quite tasty. The breadfruit didn't have much flavor, but tasted good with the gravy from the meats. I watched Siu and James and discovered that I could eat all of the breadfruit, so stopped picking around the outer edges which looked like they would be harder than the rest. Then again, I had seen James eat the hard center of a pineapple earlier in the week. 

church in the center of town

During lunch James got a call that his church in the afternoon was cancelled. The second church to be cancelled in one day! We were meant to help him with the sermon by acting as the new people to introduce to the church so that he could explain how it's important to introduce people properly, not just with their names. A reference to how Jesus was introduced in the bible.

blow holes in waiting

Since we didn't have church and the weather was holding out as somewhat nice, we decided to continue our island tour with James straight away and head for the blow hole. Along the way we passed more churches than I think there are people in Tonga! Surely that's an exaggeration, but there are a lot of churches.  

The blow hole erupts

It was a stormy day and the sea was rough, so the blow hole was performing nicely for us. These photos don't do much justice as it was cloudy, but it really was a beautiful site. I didn't even realize when it started raining again because I thought it was just the blow hole splashing water on me!

Not quite beach weather

After the blow hole, we stopped at a beach resort to have a drink, but it was closed! We walked along the beach instead, but it wasn't really beach weather, so we got back in the van and continued our tour. It was a really pretty spot though.

The King's Palace

We went back home to have a rest. Siu was at church, so P and I decided to walk to town. We got lost coming back home, so it took us 3 hours altogether. A great way to see the island! That's when we got a close up of the King's Palace. We also got waves from lots of kids, they seemed very fascinated to have foreigners walking around their neighborhood. 

Also, there may be more churches than people, but there are definitely not more churches than pigs. It's not spring, but it's still piglet season and it was fun to see all the cute little piglets wandering around with their moms.

piglets and their mamma