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