Summer Bliss: Tonga

What kind of mother would I be if I didn't let my son touch the Pacific Ocean?!

I knew I wanted to blog about Tonga but I knew there were so many things I could write about that this blog post was going to be unusually lengthy and no one would really be that THAT interested to read EVERYTHING that we did. So, this is my attempt to be brief.

Here are some fun facts about Tonga.

+They have one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
+They are at the same latitude as Rio de Janeiro
+They are besties with China (China seems to give them LOTS of money. LOTS.)
+They are a christian nation

You can't talk about Tonga history without talking about Queen Salote. It's suprising how often this comes up in conversation.

So.... in 1952 at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II it was raining. All the dignitaries and politically important people world wide were there to witness the event. In short, as someone rushed to give Queen Salote an umbrella or something or other to cover her head from the rain she refused it in order to show respect to the Queen of England by not having her head covered.

I'm not kidding you that people in Tonga are still talking about this more than 60 years later.

Anyways here are some photos to maybe explain our travels a little more.

The whole reason my mom even went to Tonga was to attend her High school reunion, which is cool. Here's another fun fact, they have one EVERY YEAR. My mom's been going to Tonga for the past 3 years as soon as she knew they were doing this. This is her and her friend Tai from high school. It says "50th Anniversary of '62." .....

Yeah those are totally from last year.

Anyways to kick off the "reunion" they have this huge parade where we march in the streets waving flags and waving at people. It's kind of a big deal.

There were, I think, only 6 of them representing the class of '62

I feel like the whole island came to our little parade, seriously, the WHOLE ISLAND.

Most people were just holding banners and waving. My mom thought she'd go the next step and bring a horn. Just so that people would notice the Class of 1962. Baby C and I just smiled and waved. 

Where all the kings are buried. I couldn't get closer to take a better photo.

My sister complained last year that there is no McDonald's or fast food chains in Tonga. But.... I found a Mr. Chicken!

Our "cruise liner". Yup... riding in style. Baby C's first cruise ship. ;)

Let me explain why I included these next set of photos. (My mom took these.) When you enter Highschool you get put into a "house", just like at Hogwarts. I dont even know what the houses are called here but when you enter high school they just throw you in one of these, randomly selected, and when you play sports and do other stuff you play for your house. Each house has their own color. In this school the colors that I saw were red, yellow, blue, and green. My mom belonged to the red house. 

ANYWAYS.... they were having some type of celebration too and these were their floats. Yup... made from the back of a truck. I thought how economical and practical that would be! Can you imagine the Macy Day Parade with trucks?? People would save SO MUCH MONEY!!

Well at this reunion they have a ball where everyone dresses up really fancy. I think this is my Mom's favorite part. She made sure I brought a dress too but I was so tired I decided not to go but as soon as I saw my mom's dress I threw mine on just to take a picture.

This year this ball happened to be a masquerade and everyone needed to bring their own mask. My Mom bought a black one before she came but while in Tonga she found a blue mask that, no joke, went perfectly with her dress.

  

Notice the conservative colors of the dresses of her friends. ;)

To wrap things up...

1. There was a HUGE FEAST where the families of the current students at Tonga prepared food for the visitors for the last day. It was the BIGGEST Feast I have ever been to. I have never seen so much food.

2. The bread in Tonga is the best. So soft and tasty.

3. Everyone in Tonga speaks English pretty good, although they all speak Tongan to each other.

4. Calvin is a ladies man.

 

I dont know any of these people. They aren't related to me and maybe my mom knew who they were. I took more but I am having a hard time loading them. Calvin loved strangers. Women would flock to him and pick him up and Calvin would smile and be cute and I thought I'd take a picture for the future. If he's having self-esteem issues in the future I'll just throw these out.

I'm sure my son could move in with strangers and he wouldn't even care. All he would want is to be fed.