24 June
Time has certainly gotten away from me here. After a great weekend on the mainland and one more day of business on Monday we headed to Ha’apai on Tuesday. The flight took us up to Vava’u first then back down to Lifuka. Notes on the flight: I didn’t really want to write a section on the flight, thinking it was trite to try and conjure it up as some bonka plane ride. In fact, there were some moments that just capture the local flavor too well to pass. Just as everyone boarded the lone flight attendant began here safety speech in tongan from the front. Without hesitating a young tongan man stood up, with his flight safety card in hand and a gangsta rap approved “ L.A.” necklace and began following along and pointing out the safety features of our craft. Everyone erupted in laughter. We had some great views of the Vava’u island group with yachts nestled up in each remote bay of each remote island, happily swinging on the hook and reminding me that someone, somewhere is always having a better time than I am. As we begin our decent I look forward from my aisle seat and realize the curtain to the cockpit is wide open and I can see out the front window. This was absolutely amazing to see. It really shouldn’t have been, and you likely won’t understand just by reading this. You would feel the plane ever so slightly change incline or attitude and the corresponding view in front would change drastically, ground, sky, treeline, runway, and back to sky. The whole time the pilot smoothly and subtley worked the controls. I poked all the team around me to watch and we all oohed and ahhed like children.
We arrived safely to the airport on Lifuka and our host from the Matafonua lodge was waiting. The only sign hanging discusses life on Ha’apai and what they expect of you while visiting. It talks about conservation and community, modesty and politeness. No rules, about leaving baggage unattended or smoking restrictions. The trip up to the lodge on the northern tip of Foa by van crossed an eroded causeway between Lifuka and Foa islands that washes over at full tide. When we arrived at the lodge it literally took my breath away. The view of the ocean is 270 degrees from the lodge which, as I mentioned sits at the tip of Foa and boasts sunsets and sunrises on the water. I was snapping photos and noticed my heart rate was elevated. I’m not sure if the physical response was my body in fear of exploding from awesome or whether my brain simply feared for my bank account which will surely have to absorb a heavy deduction to come back with Nicole. I knew instantly, I would have to bring her here or I wouldn’t be able to speak nor take any photos here. The accommodations are modest. We share a three bed bungalow that stands on stilts a few feet off the ground and rests a few feet from the water. The showers and bathrooms are communal in the center of the lodge. Once the evening socializing was complete I returned to my bungalow. The sound of the surf on the windward side pounded gently all night outside my window as I stared out at the milky way from my bed. I slept the sleep of the dead.
Up early with the sun I was off for a run into town. While I had a general impression of the Tongans from the mainland over the last few days, the people here are even more friendly and social. I ran from the lodge back into the next village near Faleloa school. (This is one of the schools we will be repairing). All the children out waiting for school to start greeted me, All of them, every single one! I was out of breath from the hill that climbs into the village so I had to slow and tell them good morning and some wanted me to stop and tell them my name. At the edge of the village was a small LDS church with a bunch of children from Ha’apai middle school so I stopped to chat with them before turning back. In the village the street is lined with modest houses in green open fields with pigs and dogs trotting the property. You can see the leeward beach from the road and where there are no houses or buildings the jungle of reclaims it’s tight weave on the land, coconut trees break the dense line of vegetation and reach out like sails toward the lee side of the island. As I head back to the lodge, the road narrows and the jungle shoulders in. As a military man, you can’t help but think of WWII and the fighting they did in jungles like this across the south Pacific. I peer through and at best can see about 10 to 20 feet in. I can’t even imagine fighting in contact at those ranges, often for days and weeks on end, against an enemy that had been there before me and knew the terrain. Back at the lodge I quickly change into my swim gear and grab fins and mask. I survey the windward side, but the surf is heavy and the tide is flooding to full. There is a channel about 300 yards wide between the tip of Foa and another tiny island. The current is flowing like a river through the channel and I decide against swimming across. On the lee the conditions are better so I head in for a quick swim. The water is cool, but refreshing after my run and I swim for only a short while. Time is running out, I’ve got to shower and have breakfast before the Tongan Defense Force representative LT Hola picks us up at 0900.
More to follow soon.
Sitting on schoolchildren’s chairs in the back of an open truck, we headed down the road to Pangai. At the courthouse all the Ha’apai officials, elders and school principals were gathered for a meeting with our team. My boss made the introductions and presented the revised plans with our TDS liason translating, to a warm reception. After a few questions we broke off into groups and I met with the school principals. Akapei is the principal of Tongoleleka, a solid brick schoolhouse built at some point by the Japanese as a gift. Outside was 50 gallon steel drum filled to the brim with water that immediately tripped the mosquito radar on our preventative medicine tech. Akapei said that it was an empty trash can before the weekend rainstorm and she hadn’t had any students empty it (they are on break for the next two weeks). Not sure how many inches of rainfall it takes to fill a 50 gallon drum, but I’m sure it’s a lot. In front of each classroom each class tends a garden and they compete for first place. So we started pailing water out and tending the gardens, I told the principal that I would judge the beauty contest (meaning the garden) but I guess it didn’t translate, because she giggled and told me they have nice single teachers.
01 JUL
When you are walking in sandals with wet feet, slower longer strides work better than short swift shuffling. Stretch the leg and reach further, more deliberately with each step.
New month, new resolve.
I’m up in the dark of the morning reading a murakami novel in the shelter of my fale and netted bed. The narrator (unnamed as usual) is in the last minutes of his conscious life and eating a well described meal while listening to Bob Dylan. By the time the sky outside my Fale begins to turn salmon colored the novel has ended and I decide to walk down to the water. One of the beautiful features here at the northern tip of Foa is the sunsets and sunrises on the water, only at sea and on small islands do you get this. I have enjoyed many of these at sea over the years and am quite picky about the portion of the sunrise that I enjoy most. The first portion of sunrise, called nautical twilight, occurs when the center of the sun’s disk lies 12 degrees below the horizon. The southern sky overhead still dark and speckled with foreign stars offers the best of night, the solitude and wonder, while the color of morning just begins to trace the sea clouds draped on the horizon. The red is more intense, darker and more complex, then later during the rise. Overhead bats chase the last of the night time bugs before retiring for the day to the uninhabited island of Nukunamo which lies across a small channel to the north of the lodge. These bats are unlike anything I have ever encountered, they swoop with and glide with the wingspan of hawks and their bodies are the size of a medium sized house cat. They don’t flitter about like the smaller ones I’ve seen before, they hunt like raptors every change in altitude and attitude deft and decisive. I decide to head to the bathhouse for an early shower, this will seal the memory of the sunrise and prevent the later light from diluting the memory.
In the week that has passed since my last entry we have accomplished a lot here in Tonga. The schools have been on break for the past two weeks, so the Tongan Defense Force suggested they send some people up to start the roofing on the school projects. This would minimize disruption to the classes and free up the tight schedule our Seabees will be under when they arrive. The team met the ferry down at Pangai harbor and we immediately realized why they were preparing to scuttle it as a dive site in the very near future. She listed heavily to starboard and the port bow was a patchwork of dents and repairs. The supplies and the TDS troops rolled off and we hefted the 2x6 lumber from the dock to the small Velatu naval compound. Once all the material was at the sites the next morning, we walked up to Faleloa which is the closest village to our lodging at Matafonua. Outside the school the TDS had setup camp and organized the supplies, immediately realizing the supplies were incomplete- only 24 roofing sheets were available. After a quick look through the bill of materials we realize that almost all of the figures for roofing sheets are suspect. One came in low at 24, the other 3 identical at 106, despite varying building sizes. Our engineer had to spend the next 4 days re-estimating the projects and submitting the additional requirements. Despite being disappointed that the figures weren’t checked more precisely, I was thankful that we made this discovery five weeks before the ship arrived instead of one week prior. All thanks to the Tongan’s willingness to come up and start working early.
The medical folks have been working diligently and have us set to work out of the hospital here instead of a field, which is a great stride forward. That reinforces the local hospital and sends the right message to the locals. We are also set to visit three to four of the smaller islands with an outreach team of 8 folks. Buster spent all day yesterday on a boat chartered from the mormons visiting the islands and letting them know when the teams would arrive.
I have been planning the school visits and taking photos of them for the helo crew. My plan is to have a 4 hour event at each gov’t school on Foa and Lifuka. Our 7 piece Navy band will come and play, a team of volunteers will do classroom interaction and a soccer match, the helo will fly in and drop off the donated school supplies and books then land in the field. Not only will this mission bring the most palangis (foreigners) ever to Ha’apai- these school visits should prove to be the most exciting thing to happen in the villages for a long time. I can’t help but put a bit of showmanship into the volunteer work. I still recall when the local news helicopter visited my elementary school. The roar of the rotor wash, the orange and black paint gleaming under a clear Arizona sky. My teacher knew I was fascinated with aircraft (hey mom, remember when I was going to be an aeronautical engineer? Ha!) and took me down to meet the pilot. He handed me a small photo of the helo before climbing back into the cockpit to prepare for take-off. I hope to leave the same lingering memories in the children here.
Dive log
Monday the heavy current and wind finally subsided. Normally the wind blows easterly and the surf crashes over the reef into the bay outside my fale. Just outside of the bay the tongan trench plunges to thousands of fathoms and all that open ocean energy vents on the reef and pushes as much water as possible into the bay and through the channel between Foa and Nukunamo. Taking the carpe diem approach to diving I immediately cancelled all my morning work plans and went to the dive shop. The crew at Happy Ha’apai divers were already familiar, since they come up to the lodge each evening to have a drink, socialize and scare up business. I was the only diver, so Jen the trainer and two divemaster trainees made up the rest of the dive crew. 3 workers for one diver, that is a good ratio. I mentioned to Jen the night before that I had been waiting to see sharks, but didn’t want to do a “shark dive” like the Bahamas, where they feed them and it’s kind of hokey. Like seeing a lion in the zoo versus on the serengetti plain. So she planned to take us to Akateu, which was a huge seamount with a deep blue drop off on the back side and they chance to see some white tips. The visibility was amazing, the fish life abundant and the dive went very smooth. We went to 90 ft initially on the drop off looking for some sharks, but only found cod and tuna, then came up to 60 ft for the rest of the dive and ran into a large group of great barracuda that stood their ground against Jen. After the first dive, we headed north to Ha’ano island for what was being hyped as the best dive site in Ha’apai. Then just as we tied up to the mooring buoy Jen yells “whale flukes!” and points off the port beam to a splash of water. We were all hyped up. This is the whale season here in Tonga. Last year a week ago they started appearing in mass, but this year there have only been a couple brief sightings. We waited another half hour and saw some more splashing further off, but no breaching, no flukes. Into the water we went.
Ha’ano tunnels is an advanced dive, it is a huge lava flow area that is now covered in coral and sponges of every hue. There are huge swimthroughs, caverns that you can barely squeeze through and the capstone at the end is a 150 ft cavern that has breaks in the ceiling every 25 ft that spill pure blue light into the otherwise dark cavern. It was unbelievable. I felt like Captain Nemo in 20,000 leagues under the sea. The terrain was so alien and fantastical it seemed like another world altogether. I saw a rock oyster the size of a casket that was arrayed in complex patterns of blue and green. There were lobsters and banded shrimp in the caverns as well as reef fish resting in the nooks. I have seen slightly better visibility, and a few more fish on my best dives, but I have never dove a more amazing site. The terrain was truly otherworldly and is the reason I still love to dive (Astronaut is too exclusive). I’m missing the great dialogue in this recounting, the crew was very personable and we hit it off well. But I’m writing under the guise that I will capture the meat and potatoes and then go back and do scene and dialogue later. If your reading this, I apologize for not doing it.
