Introduction

Hi. My name is Hayden.

This is the first blog I have ever done, and it is themed on a 3 month adventure at Tonga. But before I start, I'll tell you a little about myself.

Name: Hayden
Favorite thing to do: Play electronic puzzle game
Favorite flavor ice cream: Chocolate chip cookie dough
Favorite color: Orange

And I'm a Mormon : )

So, now that you know me a little bit, let's get started.

Logistics

My dad sold his dental business, and my parents decided for the family to stay in tonga for 3 months. My siblings and I will be doing homeschool (which we have been doing for 3 years now) while my dad does charitable dental work. Now, you might be asking yourself, "where in the world is tonga?!" Most people don't, so you're not the only one.  ; )

Location

We are staying at a campus that has a dental clinic, a middle school, and near by a temple, all owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

Click HERE for the main island of tonga and HERE for the High School Campus we are staying at. (Google Maps)

So it's kind of in between Australia and the United States (closer to Australia). We are excited! but the downside is that I will be somewhere where I are the only white guy there, and I will not be seeing anybody I have known for 3 months.  : (  But this blog is one of the ways I stay in contact with the people I know + the rest of the world ; )

The time zone here is the one of the earliest time zone in the world! Where I live is one day (not 24 hrs, about 12 hrs) behind where I am currently staying!

When you fly over, Tonga, coconut trees cover what looks like almost all of the land! Not that they really harvest the coconuts, although the coconuts here used to be very popular. Tonga made a law here to have them planted a certain distance between each other to prevent erosion, and the farmers plant crops in between.

this is where we are staying...                                                                                   Video of living quarters

                                                                               

<--- Building we're staying in




So in the video, I said that we don't have a dryer. Well, I forgot to tell you, we don't have dishwashers either, but I guess that's part of the experience here in tonga.

Sometimes it's hard to understand a native Tongan's english, so when they ask me a question that I don't understand, I say "I'm still thinking" or "Yes" and "No", not knowing if I unintentionally lied or not!

The local food here is GOOD! Like lettuce, bananas, pineapple, and peanuts (I have not tryed coconut milk or coconut water yet  ) :  They do look kind of bruised, but they're not, and they taste really good. Half the size, double the taste!

I will catch you up from previous days because we didn't have wifi for 5 days and haven't found a lot of time to do this blog.
And we still have fans instead of air conditioning. And yes it is expected to have air conditioning even here in tonga. All of the other housing has it but this one doesn't because this one is the only one that has not been refurbished yet.  : (  Anyways....

Animals

Apparently there are supposed to be a whole bunch of pigs roaming around the streets in some areas, but I haven't seen any yet. There are also fruit bats here in tonga that have a wingspan of 2 to 3 feet (0.6 to 1.0 meters). You see them swooping and gliding near sunset. There are also a lot of dogs roaming the streets. They come back to their owner every night. Also, after the dogs are grown up, their owners EAT them!  : |

My brother Stewart chases the wild chickens whenever they are roaming around. Once he was chasing some, and this is what happened to one of them (imagine the car is not there)...

Narrated in words, the chicken ran into our neighbor's garage, bounced off into a tree, struggled to get out of the tree while squawking frantically, got out of the tree and scampered along the side of the house clucking as it went.

There is a bird that will not stop chirping and it drives us crazy. but it's song is cool. here is a video recording of its song...



In the place we are staying has Gecos that chirp every once and awhile, and we have been told that we shouldn't kill them because they eat the cockroaches. ( Not that we would if we didn't know, but some people do kill them, even when they do know.) Every morning, you find 1 or 2 live but dying cockroaches lying stuck on their backs.

My Birthday

My birthday kind of came one day earlier because of the flight to tonga. I was wondering what I would get for my birthday. My mom had let slip a while ago that I would get a phone for my 14th birthday. I was thinking though, they wouldn't have bought a new phone and bring it to tonga for me to open, would they? I have asked them though, if they got me a phone, if she would give me an old iPhone 4s that I set up into my account and use as an iPod. It was my Grandma's phone, and didn't have any cracks on it. I have dropped it flat on the ground without a case countless times, and it doesn't have a scratch, which surprises me. I wanted it because it has 64 GB, and I knew that my mom and dad wouldn't get me a new phone with that much memory. (the iPhone 4s is the oldest mobil Apple product that still gets updates to my knowledge.) The morning of my birthday (1 day after after we arrived), my mom gave me a Cheerios box, which kind of perplexed me. I opened the box and found Cheerios inside it. When I gave my mom a confused look, she said "look closer." I looked in between the cereal bag and the cardboard box, and the iPhone 4s was there. My mom said they would get service on it in America because the service here is hard to set up and expensive.

Since I had my birthday here, I will have my Ordination for the ___ priesthood here too (part of my church). It's kind of weird because I at the most hardly know the people who will help me with that.

Tonga Agricultural Fair

We went to the Agricultural Fair in Tonga. What it is is all of the farmers set up stands to display their products. Everybody looks at the items, but are not allowed to buy them until the king arrives and buys whatever he wants first. this is some of what we saw:

As you can tell, LOTS of fish were there. There was some weaving and wood carving too. I got a carved turtle, a fish hook necklace made with bone, and a tie made from tapa cloth (wood bark beat super thin).

Ocean

Blowholes

On one of the first days we were here, we went to the blowholes. They are basically geysers except they work differently, they are at the edge of the ocean, and the water is not super hot. couldn't get any decent pics. look it up.

 We also went snorkeling. Here is some of what we saw...

Change of Events

So, the first monday we were here, Adaline and stewart were climbing a tree, and Adaline fell and broke her femur. She had to fly to new zealand the next morning. here is her break...

My mom and sister were over at new zealand for 11 days, and got my sister's leg fixed. they put some type of pins in her bone to connect them, so she dosent have to wear a cast. she will not be able to get off her crutches the whole time we are here, which kind of stinks because this island is a polynesian culture. Me and stewart stayed and helped at the dental clinic. We came over to new zealand to join my mom and sister, and we were there touring for another week. we are back, and adaline is doing better every day.

Island day trip

One saturday we went to a nearby island for a day. we walked on the beach all the way around the island and found some cool shells. we had lunch, and then went snorkeling near a shipwreck. here is some of what we saw...

Here are some pictures that I did not put in the video:

It's been about a month now. Catching up takes up a lot of time because while you are doing it more things happen! the only reason I am done with this HUGE post is because things started to slow down and one day's events repeat the next day. I'll try to post every week. Next saturday we are supposed to move into a new house and go whale watching!