Long live the...King?

The coronation celebration became two-fold this week, when the Prince undertook a massive and unplanned step towards democracy. He surrendered much of his absolute power, including his role in day-to-day government affairs, to the Prime Minister.

Tonga is unique because it is the only Pacific monarchy that survived colonization. When the British arrived, they found Tonga to already be heavily Christian, and with a constitution to boot (thanks to missionary Shirley Baker, a key figure in Tongan history). The would-be colonizers chose to leave the friendly King in place, and only make the island a protectorate in the British Empire. Thus Tonga became the only country in the Pacific never to have been formally colonized (which I think explains why, unlike the islands of Samoa and Fiji, Tonga has no McDonald's downtown).

As democracy eventually took root in American and British pacific colonies that gained independence, Tonga remained an absolute monarchy throughout her history. In recent times, criticism of the monarchy has been on the rise (the royal villa is one of the largest houses I've ever seen but I can't get a decent picture because the driveway is miles long, yet something like 40% of Tongans live below the poverty line). Parliament, where the King appointed the majority of the MPs and chose the ministers, was just a rubber stamp for his decisions. When King Tupou IV died 11 Sep 2006, it looked very much like the Crown Prince had no real plans to move Tonga towards democracy. When it looked like the parliament would adjourn for the year without any steps towards democracy, riots broke out in November 2006 with government offices and assets of the King initially targeted. I say initially, because more than 60% of the downtown area was destroyed, including Tonga's only theater and bookstore, much to my chagrin.

As a result, the Prince's coronation was delayed all the way until now. A "state of emergency" of declared, giving the Prince powers like the ability to randomly close streets for no apparent reason when I'm biking downtown. Also, as many as six New Zealand police officers swarmed the country to help keep the peace.

So, everyone have been looking towards Friday's coronation celebration with a bit of trepidation as to what might happen. The Prince earlier agreed to sell off his controlling stake in Tongan assets including the power company, a telecommunications company, and even the brewery. But it still came as a pretty big shock when the Prince announced earlier this week, days before his coronation, that he would immediately relinquish almost all his political power to the Prime Minister.

The majority of the seats in Parliament will be decided by vote in 2010's election. The King will still attend Parliament, but won't have a say in the government's affairs. Essentially, he chose to go the British route instead of the French route (off with his head!). Tonga's pro-democracy leader was one of the first to respond to the announcement. "I think his majesty has made history," he said. "Monarchies in Europe always found it difficult to relinquish their power but in our case our monarchy did something which was different. He was willing to surrender his power to the people and remain only as a ceremonial monarchy from now on." Plus, he got over $30 million selling off his assets. Not too shabby for a week's work, I say.

So, the monarchists are happy, the pro-democracy people are happy, the hundreds of palangi amassed in the streets who will still get to see a coronation are happy. And what better way to jump start the celebration then to give the gift of fire to thousands of Tongan children! Yesterday was the start of the three-day coronation festivities, and last night Tonga's schools were given the task of lighting palm-front torches around the islands of Tonga. Not the best idea to give ten foot flaming torches to young children? Well it can't be much better then arming them with machetes, which we do every Wednesday to tackle to dense brush around the school.

Loading up our torches. Not only were the kids told to each carry a torch to the beach, this truck made four trips. And that was just our school!

Flares were launched from Tongan Defense Force ships around the island telling us when to light the torches.


Which was right about...now. Thank you Prometheus!


Just like Narnia, Tonga does have a street lamp. But in this picture, those points of light are torches on part of the stretch of island 'Api Fo'ou was responsible for.

Band Together

Backing up my claim of Tonga's love of marching bands, I stumbled across this excerpt from an article about the coronation preparations.
-----
The New Zealand Army’s director of Music, Captain Leanne Smith, says rehearsals for the coronation have been taking place with other defence force bands.

“We’re actually forming a massed band of all the visiting bands here. Ther’s the Tonga Defence Service Band plus the Royal Australian Navy Band. The US Marine Band from Hawaii and ourselves from New Zealand. It is going to be fantastic. We have started rehearsals already and its going to sound really mighty.”

Captain Smith says they’ll play well known marches, and new works that have been composed specially for the coronation of King George Tupou the fifth.
(http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=41102)
-----
this time, I'll get some pictures.

Block Party

I should probably get a move on all my Ha'apai entries. I'm betting there's going to be a lot of other things to write about, with all the coronation stuff going on. One village recently killed about a thousand pigs, but it was the day I came back from Ha'apai so I wasn't there to take a picture. An Aussie friend told me all the pigs were roasted and lined up with their hearts removed and placed on their chests (yum). The King nodded in approval. Then everyone in Tonga had free bacon at breakfast for a week.

Last night I went to a "Block Party" which was as cool as Dave Chappelle made me think it would be. It was a celebration of the various cultures represented in Tonga, with the hopes that we'd all come together to recognize the new King. I got downtown and started to lock up my bike to a fence, when a Tongan told me the parade had passed this area. That was all the interaction we needed to become friends. He serves in the Tongan Defense Force, so we talked about that and my Dad being in the Air Force (he was confused that my Dad was in the Canadian Air Force, but wasn't an American, a concept that I battle on some level every time I mention Canada). He told me where the parade was going (though there's one street downtown, so I would have figured it out), talked me into leaving my bike at Police HQ, and then said something like, "I'm just waiting for my wife, then I'll find you there." Tonga is fantastic because the Tongans are so insanely friendly like that. I just hung out with his family as if we were old friends, until I found the other teachers I was meeting.

First there was the awesome parade. Every Tongan parade is awesome, because every Tongan parade includes at least one marching band (as usual, I didn't being my camera, so use your imagination. Or go watch Drumline). Yes, it is like that movie. I didn't see it personally, but at a rugby match our school band was doing the marching playing thing, then dropped their instruments and did this choreographed dance, then picked them up and launched into a performance of Eye of the Tiger.

Then there were booths set up for the represented cultures. In Tonga, that's: China, India, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and, I kid you not, Germany. Germans had a booth where they cooked up sausage and sauerkraut. At China's booth, they did that dance with the giant dragon that is, I think, the most frightening dance invented by humanity. Japan's booth was my favourite, because they were serving sushi (regularly available at only one restaurant in Tonga).

No Canadian booth though, probably because 50% of Tonga's Canadian population is presently overseas (the other teacher is traveling for the break). Probably for the best, since our display snow would have been freezer frost, and I don't know where we'd have found doughnuts or a decent cup of coffee.


P.S. - Here's another good article about the situation in Tonga

Message in a Bottle

While in Ha'apai, I spent a lot of my time there exploring the beaches that extended seemingly endlessly to the left and right of my "resort." Only once did I see another person on the beach (and that's counting the other guests, who spent most of their time at the expat drinking hole). On my last day in Ha’apai, the tides lined up well for a walk on the beach past a few places that had stopped me at high tide. I didn't get much further, though, before I found a message in a bottle! There were always liquor bottles on the beach, but this one was corked with a note inside. I was soon deep in thought about the likelihood of finding a treasure map, or a beautiful castaway who needed rescuing.

The cork came out easily enough (credit the Swiss Army), but getting the note out was a pain. I thought of just smashing the bottle, but I want to be part of the solution to broken glass on the beach, not the problem! I finally got it out with homemade driftwood chopsticks, though it was a little worst for wear. The note was in French, and read (as I could make out):

"Hello from the ocean, 3 July 07 from French Polynesia. My name is Paul, I am 7 years old, I was born in [not sure], and I think throwing garbage in the ocean is bad. If you agree then phone me [some massive pacific number] or even if you don't agree. Talk to you soon, Paul."

I put away my eye patch, and the hopes that the note would prove to be my "in" with the Pacific pirate community as some kind of anonymous pirate-y letter of recommendation. But still, pretty neat, I thought. Although using an empty liquor bottle thrown in the ocean as your method of explaining your anti-littering stance is kinda like using a loudspeaker to tell your neighbours you want noise control laws.

In November 2009, my last month in Tonga, I called Paul.  His Mom answered the phone and didn't speak a word of English. With my awkward French, I explained why I was asking if her now 9 year old son was home, and put her mind at ease.

Just as she began to get very very excited about the message, the credit on my phone ran out. I biked furiously to the nearest Chinese shop, bought 20 pa'anga worth of credit, and called again.

I finished my story and we exchanged e-mail addresses, though I haven't heard from them again and the e-mail I wrote down didn't work (I blame my poor recall of the French alphabet). Who would have thought that it's about $3 a minute to call French Polynesia.  Obviously, I haven't phoned again. Still, now Paul knows someone found his letter and called, even if we never had time to discuss my own stance on ocean littering.

Ha'apai - Part 2

For the week I was at Billy's Place, my life consisted basically of exploring the interior of Lifuka and Foa islands (connected by a sweet causeway, pictured). The place had free use of "mountain bikes." They were one speed granny bikes, good for the flat environment, like the one I used in Holland (the kind you had as a kid where you have to pedal backwards to stop, which was a lot of fun to remember when I suddenly needed brakes).

Biking around Lifuka was about the same as biking around Tongatapu, with one big exception - no crazy dogs. There were oodles of dogs, and I tensed with the anticipation of the chase whenever I passed one, but they were all pretty much asleep. I think maybe, because there were so many more Tongans using bikes than cars in Ha'apai, the dogs were used to the novelty.

The whole island was in general a lot more rural; not just fewer cars and more bikes, but also a lot of locals on horseback. The only place I had seen horse in Tongatapu was at the butcher shop, so this was a surprise. Score one for colonialism (or British protectoratism) because I'm sure horses would have never found there way to these islands without it.

I had heard that there was a museum in Pangai, the capital. And there are few things better in an obscure town then checking out the local museum and its random artifacts. I hear that at a museum in Fiji, for example, there is a collection of wooden forks left over from use when the first few missionaries arrived "just in time" for some great feasts.

I stopped at the Tourism Office to ask where exactly the museum was. The people looked at each other, and then handed me a key. Misunderstanding, I'm sure...maybe they thought I asked about the bathroom. I swear every time I ask for peanut butter at a roadside shop, they think I'm asking for beer, so it could happen! I asked again, and they told me the museum was down the street across from the Governor's Residence, and to lock up when I was done. "Ok...this is a new one," I thought (and think often in Tonga). I biked to the museum, unlocked the door, and found myself among a whole bunch of Ha'apai history artifacts. Of course, having grown up in a city that hires people to make sure you can't touch all the cool looking dinosaur bones at the Civilization museum, I proceeded to touch absolutely everything. The exhibits were mostly natural history stuff - shells, fish bones, informative posters. I especially enjoyed one that had a story about how "rat" pooped on "octopus" when octopus was helping him cross the ocean, explaining the passionate blood feud between these two species. There were a lot of humpback whale bones, including an inner ear. There was even a huge turtle shell on a shelf that I was considering taking down and using like a shield before a couple NZ tourists showed up and spoiled my plans.

All in all Ha'apai was pretty cool, though I explored it real fast. Next school break I'll head to Vava'u. And with any luck someday the remote Niuas (the Tongan tourism brochure reads in a contradicting way, "there are flights every week to the Niuas. At this time, the runway is closed down," making me wonder if I need skydiving lessons for the trip).

Ha'apai - Part 1

On July 5th, I took an early morning flight to the island of Lifuka in the Ha'apai group. I had been pretty excited about this trip since before I even arrived in Tonga, after reading in a National Geographic article (The Two Worlds of Tonga from Nov07) that I would be flying in a DC-3.

Unfortunately, about two months ago, they stopped flying the DC-3. Probably a blessing in disguise; on my way to the airport, the taxi driver told me about a flight from Vava'u to Tongatapu where, in the air, the door on a DC-3 just ripped off and flew into the ocean! The plane dropped off the passengers in Ha'apai (about midway on the trip), continued to Tongatapu and got a new door installed, then came back for the passengers and finished the trip. But I was still a little disappointed. These planes were huge in the 1930s, so where else in the world could I ride in one instead of looking at it in a museum? Instead, I flew in some other prop plane. Which was still slightly disconcerting - after the bags are weighed, the passengers have to step on the scale, while the attendant does some math to make sure the weight on the plane is properly distributed. What if someone decides to switch seats?

The view to the left and right was pretty spectacular - endless blue ocean, with the occasional island (there are over 160 in Tonga, including one that disappears and reappears throughout Tongan history, a story for another entry).

The flight was about forty five minutes, though it seemed more like ten. Ha'apai's airport was surprisingly spectacular, paid for by one of the usual suspects - China, Japan, Australia, or New Zealand. I waited and chatted with a local who worked at the airport's weather station while the only taxi driver made trips back and forth with passengers.

I stayed at Billy's Place, in itself nothing fantastic - a central house where Billy (surprise) lives, and four cabin/fales for the guests. It's on the beach, and is about a five minute ride ("mountain" bikes provided) from the capital town of Pangai. Other guests came and went (typically Australian, New Zealand, and German), but I settled in for a week. More to come about Pangai, the beach, and a message in a bottle...

Guess I Adjusted

I just put on the Old Navy hoodie I brought to Tonga, because it feels pretty cold today. Then, I looked at the thermometer. It's 26 degrees C. And no, the thermometer is not in the sun. Thank you very much, human body, for adjusting to this tropical climate. Now, a Canadian winter will certainly kill me.

Tonga's "winter" right now feels more like a Canadian summer. Summer in Tonga is like winter was in Afghanistan. And I wasn't in Afghanistan in the summer, but I imagine it's pretty much like winter on the sun.

Bicycle Tour of Tonga (gratis)

With a bit of Daniel luck, I found a whole bunch of my common Tongan cycling sights together in one small stretch of road! Just missing a few fat sauntering pigs, and a rabid dog chasing me...

(The quality is not fantastic, but it took a crazy long time to upload this without errors, so I'm pretty happy about it).

Best Kept Secret? To Ha'apai!

The Kingdom of Tonga is divided into four regional groups, kind of like provinces except they don't complain as much. I've been living on Tongatapu island in the Tongatapu group, of which 'Eua and Pangaimotu, two other islands I've been to, are a part. Ha'apai is the next group "up" as they run north-south. Above Ha'api is Vava'u, then the Niuas. Vava'u is Tonga's main tourist destination, and I'm often told it's filled with other palangi ("so THAT'S where they're hiding").

Ha'apai is thus often described to me as "Tonga's best kept secret," or "untouched beauty" or something similar. It's supposed to have kilometers of those white sandy beaches with turquoise waters that everyone associates with the South Pacific. Which would be great, because the beaches on Tongatapu are nice but the real good ones are on the western side, a fair ways from my apartment.

When I first made plans to spend two or three weeks of my break in Ha'apai, a Japanese teacher I know tried to dissuade me. He had gone to Ha'apai for five days, and pleaded, "there's nothing to do!" In that exclamation, he summed up my number one reason for going. Of course my guidebook mentions hiking, caving, kayaking, and snorkeling in Ha'apai, all activities that my friend has no interest in, so I was confident that I would find"something" to do. But if none of these activities existed, I would be just as happy reclining in a promised hammock at my private beach falé with a good book. The Green Dictator can testify to the pleasure I take from doing, literally, nothing. It was what I did for months after Afghanistan, while he begrudgingly departed for work every day.

"I would get bored with all that free time," friends told me. At yet, it never happened to me in the entire six months. It's this attitude that makes "island living" so attractive to me, and this attitude that causes me to occasionally look ahead with concern to my eventual re-integration into Western society... I look forward to retirement, but in the meantime, I've been looking forward to a vacation within a vacation in Ha'apai.

I'll write about it and post some pictures in a few weeks when I get back. In the meantime, by popular demand (Leo's popular, right?), here is me sporting my Tongan haircut while I'm eating my breakfast: