So finally we arrived to the “Friendly Islands” …. it was rainy and windy again, but this time the pilot (male, by the way) landed so smoothly that I did not even wake up! In the plane we met Siue, a young Tongan working in New Zealand, who arranged the airport transfer to town for us, so we did not have to take a taxi. At the same day we went to the wharf in the capital city (Nuku’alofa) to ask for the ferries to the Ha’apai Group, where we wanted to spend a week on a lonesome island. However, still due to the stormy weather, the sea was so rough that there was no ferry service that Wednesday. Hence, we returned the next morning and they announced that there would not be any passages until Monday. As also the flights were full (the only domestic airline had resigned the Sunday before and there was just some replacement service available) and we only have two weeks for Tonga, so going to that group was not worth it for us anymore because we would have spent just one night there. But luckily, finding some alternative program is not very difficult in Tonga.

We spent two days in Nukualofa (staying at Sela’s Guest House), visited the market and the King’s Palace and did a bike tour around the main island (Tongatapu) to the blow holes. What impressed us most was how green the landscape is, everything grows here in abundance: mangos, bananas, melons, sweet potatoes, the people’s bellies and most important, coconuts. We were taught how to drink the milk and afterwards how to open and peel them, and we cook a lot with them (together with curry). The taste of a fresh coconut which has fallen from a tree 10 minutes before is simply awesome! From Friday on, we stayed in a simple but great Beach Resort (Heilala Holiday Lodge), so we have a more or less comparable beach experience as we wanted to have in Ha’apai. And since yesterday the weather is also improving a lot.

Even though most people are searching for the south-sea paradise here, what fascinates us most are the people and their culture. You do not have to seek it, if you don’t retreat yourself, you will find it always all around. For example, if you go by bike through a village, everyone is greeting you, saying “malo e lelei” or waving hands, and it is expected to do the same, so you are pretty busy while cycling. But this is the one and only thing that causes a little bit of stress, because all the rest is really relaxed – consider what they call “fast food” here: if you order fast food chicken curry, they first will start cutting the onions and the veggies, and then cook you a fresh and delicious meal. So far we still do not know what a non-fast food is, but probably they will start with growing the plants ….

Tonga has 100,000 inhabitants so you expect visiting a country, but indeed you are visiting a town. There is not much to do, thus the people are rather slothful and have a quiet way of life. If you ask someone for something, you first have the impression that he feels uncomfortable changing his position. Even our taxi driver Robert “Big Ben” Benjamin is first annoyed when he has to drive us somewhere, but then he tells us a lot about his country. So, once you are in contact, they are super-friendly, helpful and open, but in a very calm manner. For instance, when on a bike ride it started raining and we had to take shelter at a gas station, we had a typical conversation with the young guy, Taan, working there. Most of it consisted in muting, after greeting he asked us maybe 3 questions during an hour: where we are from, how we like it here and where we stay. After that silent communication he invited us to the Kava-session of his village. We gladly accepted and at the same evening we appeared at the village’s community center where they held the ceremony.

It is quite relaxed, the persons (just males) drink Kava, eat fruits, watch rugby (the replay of the Blues vs. Crusaders match we were at) and talk together, all “sai pe”. Put simply: it is the Tongan version of the German “Stammtisch”. They gave us a warm welcome and looked like they were happy to have some strangers in their round. We were also told to come back and bring our girlfriends with us, such that they can stay at one guy’s private “hotel” (called the “Princess’ Palace”) while we are going to some other places But suddenly we realized that we were not on “Stammtisch”: completely unexpected for us they turned off the TV, stopped talking, hold a prayer and then had a very structured and peaceful discussion. What was going on was a community session to debate about the village’s topics. Everyone was allowed to participate, however the older ones had permission to speak much more than the younger ones. They had consumed a lot of Kava, which has a tranquillizing effect, that’s why we were surprised about their great way of discussing things. Each time there is only one person talking, sometimes there are longer breaks of silence and the participants think about what they will say next. We had the impression they were really respectful and we suggest drinking Kava before every debate in the Bundestag!

The next morning we met again many persons of the Kava-ceremony when we went to church. You will find at least 4 different churches in every village: Methodist, Baptists, Adventist, Anglicans, Mormons, Catholics (extremists in increasing order ). We chose the Methodists because we were recommended them while having Kava and because you are not asked for tips of 100 T-Dollar (about 45 €). People are up-dressed because Sundays are extremely important in Tonga (it is forbidden to work), wearing suits and bast-dresses but still walking with bare-naked feet. They were super-friendly again and came after service to tell us they were happy we joined them. And their singing was simply incredible – without giving the start tone the community spontaneously will sing in four voices and hit almost every note. It was probably the most beautiful way of praying we ever heard and people are enthusiastic about singing, with the exception of a few younger ones.

Therefore, even though we had bad luck with the weather, we are happy to be here and we would like to thank Vico and Ulla for the great recommendation to come to Tonga …. “‘alu a”!