“The Forgotten Island”

With little happening at the school (note: “Tonga Time”) resulting in me being given Friday off to “conserve my energy,” I decided to take a holiday from my holiday and visit the southern island of ‘Eua (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Eua, when I get back to Canada, ask me to tell you about that Soldier's Grave wiki mentions). I’d always been planning to go, but I didn’t think the opportunity would come so quickly.

‘Eua is an increasingly popular eco-tourism destination (so I was told), and this being the off-season I managed to visit it on the cheap. The island is rumoured to have some pretty spectacular caves, as well as Tonga’s greatest extent of dense rainforest including a few enormous banyan trees. Chiefly, though, I was looking forward to finally getting some swimming in, feeling that a week on a tropical island without swimming in the ocean was just inexcusable (note my excuse: the beaches are on the southern side of the island, about 10km from where I’m staying, and I haven’t gotten a bike yet).

I’d been told it was “rough,” but the ferry trip actually proved to be intense. About half of the two hour trip is protected by reefs, but then it gets pretty crazy. We pass over the Tonga Trench on the way, the second-deepest trench in the world, 10.8 km deep. I managed fine, but a kid sitting behind was crying…and then puking…and then crying because he was puking…for an hour.

I stayed at The Hideaway (http://www.kalianet.to/hideawayeua/index.html) which reminded me of the hostel I stayed at in Seattle – nothing extravagant, and really relaxed. Fortunately clean, too, another guy there told me about a stay at a Good Samaritan in the northern island where he found cockroaches, and then a giant spider, and THEN a huge (as in thick) millipede with pinchers. He didn’t make them fight, as was the practice in Afghanistan if anyone ever found more than one freaky thing. I went to the rainforest on Saturday, which was nice but not nearly as tree-full as I expected (i.e. not the Amazon). It rained hard all day Sunday, so I didn’t get to the really good caves. I’ll definitely go back; I’m thinking when the whales are in the area (note the activities section on Hideaway’s site). There are more self-guided tours, too (I took tour two). And I did take lots of pictures,

A sample of the rainforest we hiked through. Not all of it was this dense, though, this was probably the best part. The guy is Alex, a Czech I met at the Hideaway.

Here is the view from one of the lookouts, spectacular. The higest point on the island is about 300m, so you can hike down to the beaches below.

Me enjoying the view at the other lookout, and getting a little more tanned since the last picture :)

This is one of the massive banyan trees along the hike. Unfortunately you can't grasp the scale of it in theis picture, but just behind me the ground drops off and the tree is actually rooted about 5m below. It then extends very high above me. I thought about climbing it, but someone else who did reported that it was full of spiders, so I stayed on the ground.

Pine tree and palm tree. Impossible love? Perhaps not...

Finally, pictures

I'm at the school now, on the first day (of staff orientation). The morning was "getting to know each other" stuff, and now we have the afternoon off, so I thought I'd check out the computer lab and see if their internet connection is fast enough to upload some pictures. It's a little slower than I had hoped, so I added only a few...

A Tongan garbage can eating garbage. I'm sure that, once translated, this reads "it just makes sense!"

This is part of the school I teach at, 'Api Fo'ou College, after about three weeks of rain. This is essentially the courtyard, with classrooms around it and one massive tree. I'm standing on the second floor of the staff building taking this picture. The school is much bigger though, almost twenty other buildings for over 1000 students, with many more in construction over a five-year plan.

Lumberjack Dan, in all his glory.

Mmmm Canadian Sardines...

First off, I wanted to include pictures with this, but unfortunately the last cafe I was at was way too slow to upload them, and though I think it'll be fast enough at this other cafe, I forgot my USB key :( so I'll try next time. I'm off to 'Eua in a couple hours, and I'm sure they'll be good photo ops there.

No, I am not Australian. And no I am not (as seems to then be the default guess) part of the US Peace Corps! I’m from Canada, so I’ve been doing my part to uphold all of the stereotypes that my Tongan friends have heard of that place. Obviously it’s cold up there, especially right now. The Aussies here talk constantly of rugby, so I get in all I can about hockey (they call it ICE hockey). One Tongan I talked with was in Toronto in 1995 and asked me about the Toronto Maple Leafs. Boy was he disappointed :P

In a country where beef comes in a $20 tin from New Zealand (though the tin is as big as my head) and gasoline is incredibly expensive, I’ve amazed Tongans with the fact that we have an entire province dedicated to the production of beef and oil! Then I threw in that there’s another province that’s just one massive wheat field, and for good measure we’ve got a couple provinces working pretty hard on getting fish. In fact, there’s a brand of sardines here called simply “Canadian Sardines” that support my claim.

Aside from the cold and the size (oh yah, and Celine Dion, how is she so popular!) the only other thing that Tongans seem to know about Canada is trees and logging. I guess when your only tree has no branches and drops coconuts, that would be a big deal. Wearing a few plaid shirts with my bearded, hairy, lumberjack physique has contributed greatly to this stereotype. Ok, maybe I’m not lumberjack-esque in Canada…but in a country where over %90 of the population is obese, I am Paul Bunyan!

Dah-dun, dah-dun, dah-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun

I’ve been in Tonga a whole 24 hours now, and I’ve had enough experiences to warrant writing this in case whatever happens today overwhelms my memory (Dennis you must know what I mean). Upon arrival, all my concerns about getting a Visitor’s VISA were waved off. The people at the airport couldn’t stamp my passport fast enough as the lineup of passengers grew. Later in the day, the head of education (ah yes, it’s a small country indeed when you sit down to have a chat with the head of education while someone look to see if you can be housed in the Bishop’s guest quarters) would wave off my concerns over getting a Work VISA in the one month before my Visitor’s VISA expired by saying “it will be six months before they even realize you are still in the country.” Meeting my ride at the airport, I was told that (through a series of events) a place for me to live had not yet been found. In what appeared to be a nice tour of the island, my escort killed hours while his people searched. Eventually arriving downtown, I saw some nice beaches and asked where the best place to swim was. the Father who was driving me knew of some better beaches, but said that these were pretty good. Now those of you who know my deepest, darkest fear know that it is sharks. The ocean’s greatest predator, sharks had scared me silly in my childhood without me even having seen JAWS (thanks a lot, Discovery Channel). So sharks were on my mind now, as I gazed at the sandy shores. Father seemed to pick up my thoughts and added, “there is no danger of sharks here,” alleviating them for a moment before adding, “that is, until the odd one wanders in.” “In search of elusive white meat?” I suggested, causing him to laugh out loud for several minutes that ended in a “yes.” Fortunately the Bishop didn’t need all the rooms in his guesthouse, and I’m still there now. It lacks a proper kitchen and is fairly far from the school, but I don’t teach until the 28th of Jan and was assured they’d find me something good by the end of the week (I’m writing this on Thursday the 17th). In the meantime, I’ve learned a few things about Tonga. For instance, this is “hurricane season.” I assumed that meant that, occasionally, a hurricane would swing by. But instead, it seems Tonga is trapped in a perpetual “mini-hurricane,” as the weather changes no less that ten times a day from sunny to windy to cloudy to rainy and back to sunny. I hardly saw the sun for more that an hour in my first day here, so I didn’t bother with the nuances of sunscreen and sunglasses. Sure I’ve heard that “the sun still shines through the clouds,” but I knew of no Canadian who put on sunscreen to take a walk in our perpetual winter “greyness.” Many hours later, as my eyes began to burn, I looked at myself in the mirror only to find a beet with eyes staring back. I had also given myself a nice trucker’s tan hanging one arm out the window of Father's truck all day. This morning I was determined not to repeat the mistake. So if you’re looking for me in Tonga, you can probably find me as “the guy who gets laughed at for wearing sunglasses when it’s cloudy,” as was my fate when I ventured outside. Well that’s more that enough typing for day one,