Peter walking with ladies in traditional dress after church
We spent the weekend in the main town so that we could take in the Saturday morning market and also to go to the catholic church. We had heard that it is an experience not to be missed, and we were certainly glad we went. The church was overflowing with over 3,000 people in the pews, sitting on the floor and standing wherever they could squeeze in. The singing was incredible, and fortunately it lasted for about 45 minutes of the entire one hour service.
Church overlooking the harbour
Traditional church dress for men
Sunday is considered a “holy day” and it is written in their laws that it will be “forever holy”. This means that a Tongan is not allowed to work, go fishing, go swimming, play sports or anything other than attend church services and visit with their family. There are the odd exceptions to this and that is for those few cafes and restaurants that stay open for the tourists.
Saturday Market
This Sunday, for Peter’s birthday we are going whale-watching in a friend’s sailboat (Scott and Cindy on Beachhouse). The nice thing about the Sunday rule is that there won’t be any commercial vessels out, so if we find the humpback whales and the calves we will be swimming with them all by ourselves. What a great way to spend a birthday!
Overlooking the mooring area downtown
Tonga is a Kingdom, and the King has divine rights. All the land is owned by the King. Private citizens lease the land from him. His word is law and it is illegal to say anything negative about the royal family, so it is hard to get a feel for what the locals really think, although there is a movement towards more of a democratic representation rather than appointments. This initiative is actually coming from the King, so it is likely to succeed within the next few years.
Signs throughout the town
The country is quite patriarchal and woman don’t have too many rights. A friend of ours from another sailboat has her PhD in Biology. She and her husband went to a local Kava ceremony and Elizabeth got relegated to serving all the men. I won’t bore you with my feminist rhetoric on this.
In the morning – the full moon still blazing away
On Monday we had a lovely sail to one of the out-anchorages where we spent three nights before coming back to town to take care of some business where we needed to use the internet. We met up with Scott and Cindy from Beachhouse and went for a dive with them. My dive wasn’t as good as normal as I had water pouring in to my mask, but I managed to last the whole dive, although I could hardly see out of my salt-soaked eyes. The colourful coral was the most vibrant since the Tuomotus.
Walking on the beach in one of the anchorages
We are heading to a Tongan feast tonight and then back out to the anchorages tomorrow. There are almost 30 anchorages, all without a few hours of each other so it is easy to rendezvous with friends and also find private anchorages for ourselves.
Peter and Scott getting ready for the dive…don’t tip over
Until next week…..Enjoy the last days of summer.
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