From Tonga
21.4.86
Dear Alan,
So
you have become a father. Congratulations. I’m not a very good Auntie but I
will try to be, but I don’t even know the girl’s birthdays and ages. And is it
true you are coming back to Australia at the end of the year? I will be a
better Auntie then, I promise (this is a Tongan end to a sentence along with
‘I’m sure’ or ‘true’).
I will
never marry and have children, and I’d like to take some interest in the next
generation and not just be the crazy auntie but someone who has kept pace with
the times. One of the girls at school calls me her mother but I’m not old
enough (she is fifteen) but is very disobedient to her mother (Tongan girls are
very obedient to their parents, if they are not they get bashed). She has lightening
raids on my fridge for apples and chocolate. She also likes peanut butter on
toast with lots of butter, (they are expensive and not commonly grown on the
home ‘apai), cordial with rain water (tap water is foul, full of calcium),
sweet biscuits, dried biscuits and nuts. She was my worst pupil last year!
The
school girls are lovely, they are very silly and immature, many years ‘older’
than Australian girls. They are not taught to question but to obey and learn by
memory not understanding. They lie continuously, but have a wonderful sense of humour,
very slapstick. The little ones are so cute you cannot tell them off, even when
they are naughty (and they are often very naughty). Outside school they will do
anything for you always waving and yelling ‘Pam e’. There’s a lot of them
(960), relatively bright (QSC is a selective school) and going places. I cannot
speak Tongan so they run rings around me in class, though their English is
quite good.
Tonga
is a vowel language, phonetic and very precise in terms of pronunciation. No two constantans cab be together and every
word must end in a vowel. There are also only 17 letters in the alphabet. It is
also only a ‘greetings’ language and very repetitious. Translations are many
times longer in English than Tongan.
They are not bi-lingual because they never use English in preference to
Tongan. Their written English is not very good and they only have to get 30% in
New Zealand University Entrance to pass,
even with a special South Pacific paper.
I’m
here to help their English and it does seem to be improving. They certainly are
wonderful library users and my small collection is overused. The young ones
love fairy tales and then within a couple of years read the same trash children
in Australia read. And I provide it. And it’s all coming to an end very
quickly, my two years is up at the end of June and I go home the first Saturday
in July. It been hard work and there’s a limit to what I can do both because of
my own limited capabilities and work limits. I’m also very conscious of being
and outsider and wanting to go home to Australia. To live on a tropical island
forever would drive me crazy. I like a bit more action both mentally and physically.
It’s certainly a desert mentally. Tongans only read the Bible or if you are one
of the young; Mills and Boon. The bookstore, really into magazines and toys and
stationary is hopeless, having a small selection of ‘airport’ novels and a
large selection of religious books (it’s run by the Free Wesleyan Church of
Tonga who also runs QSC). There is no public library, though the catholic
church runs a small subscription one under its
Basilica which I used a lot the
first year until I’d read all I wanted to read.
The
University of the South Pacific has an Extension Centre here and also a small
library, which I belong to, but it’s also terrible. I survive on bits and pieces from everywhere
but I am now almost at the end of the road, bookwise so it’s certainly as good
a reason as any for leaving. I’ve also discovered that any book you put outside
to read on a ‘desert island’ you really don’t want to read, ever. I haven’t
kept up with much of the new literature, Australian or otherwise over the last
two years so I have a lot of catching up on when I get home.
26.4.86
I’ve just returned from staying two nights at a village about 16 kms west of
Nuku’alofa (21 kms is about as far as you can go in that direction, 35 kms the furtherest
east because you have to take the long way around, but Tongatapu is roughly 40
kms wide and 20 kms deep at the longest part) called Kolovai where the flying
foxes (fruit bats) hang out. On Thursday night (24th) there was a
solar eclipse so after midnight, best between 1:00 am and 2:00 am I stood on
some open ground with two fellow staff members watching the comet. The sky was
magnificent, trillions of stars many shooting stars and we got sore necks. The
circling bats added to occasion. Also for a backdrop was the sound of the movie
complete with yelling translator. For some reason Anzac day is also a holiday
here so we had yesterday off. We just ate and slept (and I read) Lupe as
writing a sermon! Finan was being a ‘good’ sister and washing her brother’s
clothes. Typically her parents are in America staying with a daughter who
married a peace corp. The father is a minister and has six months leave, which
is quite common. All public servants get three months after three years plus
normal holidays , plus an amazing amount of sick leave and special leave days
(funerals take ten days and you go even if you have never met the person but is
your 4th cousin). Finan’s other sister is doing a course at USP in Suva. I, of
course got the bed, Finan and Lupe sleeping on tapas and mats on the floor.
For a palangi I mix quite a lot
with Tongans, but still don’t understand what makes them tick. I’ve tried to
fit in, although this is impossible given our totally different backgrounds.
Making an effort is important though. I certainly look at things differently
than a fly-by-night tourist, though I’m also in ‘transition’. I’ve met some
wonderful Tongans, my principle is one, some awful Tongans, some wonderful
palangis, my closest soul mate left last Saturday (oddly she spent a year in
Soweto, at the main hospital) and some awful palangis. There is a small expat
community here, but fortunately Tongans run the place.
Unfortunately I live on the school
compound, which is quite apart even from the Tongans in Nuku’alofa, though I am
right in the center. It has forced me to get out and about. It is a boarding
school so for six days there are 250 girls and 15 teachers around about. I had
my own house for 19 months but since the end of January have had to share with
a young missionary! I am afraid m views
on Christianity have hardened in such a Christian country, not lessened. It’s
just such a load of rubbish, yet I’m cynical enough to go to church to get the
feast afterwards. But they know I am not a Christian yet don’t believe me, I’m
seen as a ‘good one’ so must be ‘bad ones’ are not. I had a close friend last
year who was a Christian but liked his beer, so therefore in Tongan eyes could
not be one. Religion has ruined many a person.
Yes it gets hot here too and I hate
it, but more humid than hot. And wet and everything goes moldy and stinks. But
it’s getting cooler and the cold showers colder and I’m truly looking forward
to a hot shower in July.
See
you soon Pam
