Tongan Update, 21 November 2007, Point of View
Death and survival are common events that happen daily here. It’s difficult for city-slickers like us to watch, but just another “who cares” experience for most Tongans. For example, last Sunday was my first time teaching Primary.
I walked into my classroom to see eight smiling faces and one three inch spider which was climbing up the wall. My immediate response was to gasp. One of the boys calmly took off his flip-flop and wacked the spider four or five times. We left its carcass on the floor while I taught the lesson about the Apostle Paul and his missionary work. I tried to ignore the dead little guy as I proceeded forward. (Ugh!)
Another example: I was out in our courtyard of the Mission Office Complex playing “Go Fish” with three neighboring children when one of our Office Elders ( Elder Lauaki and Elder Jones) came over and interrupted our hot game. He explained he had just accidently run over a puppy and needed a bag so he could discard the dog’s body. The three kids ran out to see the blood and gore, then came back to finish the game. (Needless to say, I waited for them in the courtyard.) As we continued on, one of the kids nonchalantly mentions, “Oh, the dead dog is ours.” Well OK! No emotion—nope, nothing. I tried to explain about our dogs in America…like people bring dinner over to us to console us when our beloved pets die. The kids looked at me like I was crazy.
On P-Day the senior missionaries (Embleys, Stimpsons, McLauglens, Kinikini) took a twenty minute boat ride to a tiny island north of Tongatapu called Atata.
It has a small resort there where you can kayak, swim, snorkel, etc.
We decided to take a walk to a fishing village not far from the resort.
A playful dog (probably about eight months old) decided to escort us. He took the lead. As we walked through “the bush” into an open field, the dog (named Snoopy) decided to terrorize the chickens which were scratching for delicacies to eat.
Snoopy raced around, all the chickens scattered except for one feisty little gal. She had four chicks and didn’t want Snoopy anywhere near them. When she didn’t flee like the rest of the chickens, Snoopy thought she wanted to play. The valiant chicken flew herself at the dog twice. The dog kept coming after her until she finally fled living her four babies behind. Hey, Snoopy had had his fun, and he trotted off up the hill. But to our amazement, a huge papa pig came rampaging out of the bush.
He scoffed up those four baby chicks in quick gulps and then rumbled back into the bush.
We had felt helpless. We had tried to stop the dumb dog and that didn’t work. Then that monster pig came from nowhere. We didn’t even have time to react and help those defenseless little chicks—But the dog had fun, and the pig had a nice snack…so life goes on.
Ooooo…no more sad stories! Did I say, “sad?” I guess it’s from whose point of view!
From my point of view the funniest thing that happened on Atata was the kayaking. Now Elder Thompson and Elder Embley might have different opinions. The three of us decided to take the kayaks out into the bay. Because they were only one-man kayaks (like Eskimo kayaks), we each took our own. I slipped contently into mine and started paddling.
The kayaks were a bit small for the gentlemen. They pushed and shoved and squeezed until they finally got into them. The Elders both paddled about fifteen feet before the kayaks flipped upside down and the men had to swim to the surface of the water.
Now is that not funny? What’s your point of view?
The men did eventually round up some extra-wide windsail boards to float on, and we set sail (actually, they were given wind sail boards, you know about 24"x96:). I went in my usual circles, and the Elders did stay afloat.
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