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Coronation Week
Part 2 (Continued from below)

Thursday, July 31

After resting all morning at the Peace Corps office I hopped in a cab and moved all of my stuff to my friend Joey's house where I would spend the rest of the week. Also staying were Miles, Grant from Ha'apai, and Sarah who flew down from Vava'u before we got there. We spent the afternoon catching up.

After having dinner we decided to head to Billfish Bar & Grill to meet up with some others. We stayed for a few beers and then went home, still being exhausted from the previous day's trip.

Friday, August 1

Friday was coronation day and we made our way down to the king's church where the coronation was to be held. The streets the king was to drive in on were covered in fine tapa mats and lined with girls from Tonga's different schools. The king's procession drove past and to the church where they went inside for the ceremony. We were not close enough to see anything inside the church but could hear singing and music coming from within. A short time later canons began firing and the church bells rang signaling the king had been crowned.

This all lasted an hour or two. The king then came out and got back into his open top mini limousine and the procession drove off down another street. After this all of the guests began pouring out of the church and walked down the street we were sitting on heading I'm not sure where. This was probably the most entertaining part of the morning as dignitaries from all over the world walked by. There were Englishmen wearing top hats, a Japanese princess, Tongans wearing colonial garb, a US Marine marching band, etc.








After seeing all of this we walked a little ways closer to the middle of town where the parade was starting. Marching bands from the different schools in Tongatapu marched through the streets followed by their students. There were also military bands from Australia and New Zealand.




After the morning's festivities we went back to Joey's house to rest and devise a plan for the evening. About this time we got word that Peace Corps staff and volunteers had been invited aboard the USS John McCain for the evening. Sweet.

Everyone met at the wharf at around 5:30pm where we were taxied out to the ship. This thing was HUGE. When we got close enough we could see the ship's flag flying above that read "BIG BAD JOHN". This was one of the MANY moments since joining the Peace Corps where I thought to myself "what have I gotten myself into this time".





After making it to the McCain we made our way to the helipad at the back which had been transformed into a reception area. There was tons of food and a bar with free American beer (along with Red Stripe). The food was the best I have had in the ten months since leaving the states and my favorite were the bacon wrapped scallops. They were incredible. We were also taken on tours all over the ship and learned about its weapons systems, all of the different jobs necessary to run the ship, etc. This trip was definitely the highlight of my week.




We were taken back to the wharf around midnight and then decided to head to Billfish. We hung around for a couple of hours and then decided to call it a night.

Coronation Week

Last week I travelled to Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, to check out all of the festivities surrounding the coronation of King George Tupou V. I had a wonderful time and I will try and go over everything that happened, starting with the trip down.

Tuesday, July 29

I spent Tuesday morning packing and running around town buying my boat ticket and food for the boat trip. I decided to take the Olovaha, one of Tonga’s inter-island ferries/cargo ships, to save money. I was able to get a “Coronation Special” round trip ticket for 81 pa’anga (about $45 US). To fly round trip it would have cost me more than 300 pa’anga. Unfortunately it takes the Olovaha 22+ hours to make the trip while it takes the plane about an hour.

The boat is to leave at 5:30pm. I have all of my stuff packed and ready by 2:30pm and head to the Peace Corps office to meet another volunteer, Shannon, who will also be making the trip. About this time I get a call from my Peace Corps supervisor that the boat has not yet arrived and should make it to Vava’u around 8:30pm. It will take at least three hours to unload cargo from its previous stops and load new cargo that will go to Nuku’alofa so we are looking at an 11:30pm departure.

We sit at the office reading books until about 7pm when we decide to head down to the waterfront for dinner and to wait for the boat. I have a Hawaiian pizza and three Ikales. We sit and wait for the Olovaha.

Around 8:45pm I see lights coming into the harbor. It’s the Olovaha, even more beautiful than I remembered. I can’t wait to spend 22 hours rocking back and forth on such a wonderful ship. We wait another 30 minutes then head down to the wharf to get ready to leave.

The wharf is BUSY. There are people everywhere, some trying to get stuff off of the boat, others trying to make sure theirs gets on. There is more cargo than usual to put on the boat as people are sending stuff for the coronation. There are huge quantities of root crops as well as a lot of pigs. We meet up with Miles, another friend who will be making the trip and decide to go ahead and board the boat so we can find a good spot. This is about 11pm. We claim a few benches, get “comfortable”, and go to sleep.

Wednesday, July 30

I wake to the sound of the Olovaha’s diesel engine. I check my watch, it’s 3:30am. I peek out the window expecting to see nothing but ocean but instead see the same thing I saw four and a half hours earlier: the wharf. Everyone else is asleep and quite a few more people have crowded onto the boat. We finally set sail a few minutes later. I go back to sleep.

I get up around 10am and head to the top of the boat. I can see a few small islands in the distance. We are now entering the Ha’apai island group where we will be making our first stop. I look down and see dozens of Styrofoam instant noodle cups flying off the boat into the ocean. These are sold downstairs in the small falekaloa (store) that blared top 40 music all night. I see two humpback whales jumping around about 200 yards from the boat.

We pull into Pangai, Ha’apai’s largest town, around 11:30am. We should be here at least two or three hours so we decide to take turns watching our bags and getting off of the boat to stretch our legs.

Shannon and I go first and head to Pangai’s only restaurant, Mariner’s Café, where we run into Grant, a fellow volunteer from our group. Grant teaches English on one of Ha’apai’s outer islands and we haven’t seen him since our last trip to the capital in April. We have lunch and Grant tells us he will be flying down to Nuku’alofa later in the afternoon. He will beat us by at least 12 hours.

We head back to the boat so Miles can take his turn. We leave Pangai around 3pm loaded with even more people, pigs, and root crops. I decide to head up top on the deck where it’s cooler.

A couple of hours later we make our second stop at Ha’afeva. I had previously never heard of Ha’afeva until learning that we would be stopping there on our way to the capital. Ha’afeva is part of the Ha’apai island group but is even more isolated than the rest. I hear that a volunteer or two may be sent here from the new group arriving in October.

After spending an hour or so in Ha’afeva we depart. I chat with a Tongan guy who works for TCC, one of the local telephone companies. He just finished working in Ha’afeva working on their telephone services there. He tells me he enjoyed his visit but is ready to get back to Nuku’alofa where he can go out and drink beer.

After watching a beautiful sunset I head back downstairs and go back to sleep. This is at around 8pm. Not much else happens until around 2am when everyone starts shuffling around getting their things together. I look out the window and can see a few distant lights coming from Nuku’alofa. We’re almost there.

We are finally able to get off of the boat at 3:30am. We take a cab to the Peace Corps office where we immediately go back to sleep. It’s been nearly 30 hours since we first stepped onto the Olovaha.

Well it's been three weeks since my last post. I'll try and run through some of the things I've done in that time.

For the 4th of July a group of us decided to head to a deserted island that used to be occupied by the Tongan military. There is an old watchtower that we deemed safe enough to climb and hoist the American flag. The view from the top was pretty amazing. Steve has a good writeup of the trip on his blog here. If you watch the video you can see me enjoying my first "American" Miller Lite since leaving Arkansas in October. Miller was bought by South African Breweries in 2002 but you get the point. Usually the only American beer we can find in Vava'u is Milwaukee's Best and Pabst Blue Ribbon. Later in the evening after a few more Miller Lites James and I treated ourselves to a wonderful light show. Unfortunately, everyone else had already gone to bed. We did some swimming and snorkeling the next day before the boat came to take us back to Neiafu.








The next day Steve and I were lucky enough to join fellow volunteer Joe and his father in law on a deep sea fishing trip. Joe is a volunteer on the main island of Tongatapu but was in Vava'u with family for vacation. The seas were rough and we only caught five fish but it is always nice to get out on the water. We were able to see some whales jumping around in the distance but not close enough to take any pictures of them.

After a two week break we decided to go camping again. This time we sailed with our friend Steve Gates on his boat Manu-o-ku out and around some of Vava'u's outer islands and wound up stopping and setting up camp at Port Maurelle.



The next morning I was eager to try out the new snorkel and mask my parents just sent me (THANK YOU!) and the speargun fellow volunteer Joey left behind (he has finished his time in Vava'u). The weather has gotten much cooler the past month or so with the evenings even requiring a blanket. The water definitely reflected this. I was absolutely freezing. The snorkel and mask worked great and there were plenty of decent sized fish swimming around. I got off ten to fifteen shots with the spear gun without hitting anything but sand before I was freezing and completely exhausted from chasing fish and fighting to get the spear gun cocked and ready to fire. I went back to the beach with no fish but will not be giving up.

Things haven't been going very well at the VYC this week.

I got in Wednesday morning to find the money jar for the computer lab missing. Normally we only keep 30 to 50 Tongan Pa'anga (about 15 to 25 USD) in the lab overnight. Well we didn't make our normal bank run last week so our total got up to about 220 before it was taken. About 3 weeks worth. No sign of break in. No telling how many keys are out there. Oh well. I definitely wont be leaving that kind of money here again.

Today was a clean up day at the VYC. Everything was going well until I heard a commotion outside. I went outside and saw that the lawnmower was going up in flames. Everyone sat around and watched as it quickly got out of control. I'm not sure what happened but at least the lawn was almost completely finished before it went up. I kept waiting for it to explode but it never happened. The lawn mower cost almost 2,000 pa'anga so we probably wont be mowing the yard again any time soon.

I don't have much to write about so I figured I would share some pictures. Enjoy.

My neighbors - Sione, Sivi, and their son Kasete




Kasete's dog "Baby"
One of the biggest/best looking dogs I've seen in Tonga

Other neighbors house - Viko, Kalina, Siale

Viko's dogs - he says the one on the right is 12 years old. I believe him. Has to be the oldest dog in Tonga.




Bull that ran over my fence

Washing machine that came with my house - has to be the best thing in my house - most volunteers have to use a bucket. Also my stove.

Kitchen table, boxers drying in the background




My bed with mosquito net




Shower - I had no idea it looked this bad until I took a picture of it.

Kids in the computer lab

Humpback whales will be arriving in Tonga soon as part of their yearly migrations and whale watching operators here in Vava'u are gearing up for the season. This morning I attended a training/seminar for these operators put on by IFAW and Whales Alive. They rented the VYC projector and I wound up hanging around for the whole thing. The presentation focused on best practices for responsible whale watching as well as some background on whales. Walking away I feel like I learned quite a bit about whales and what is going on internationally to protect them. For example, humpback populations are just now recovering from heavy whaling earlier this century. It is estimated that the humpback population reached as low as 1,500 worldwide before international efforts to stop whaling. They have since rebounded to 18,000 - 20,000.