Valentine’s Day in Tonga

First – we live next door to the Mission Nurse, Sister Becky Kapp, and her husband Kenny. They had a full tank of gas in their car, but were only able to get out on the roads today. They blew through half a tank visiting the elders and sisters all over the island, taking them M&Ms and water. They have reported all of the missionaries are well. Many of them spent Tuesday and today helping clean up their neighborhoods as best they can. The palangi missionaries got sunburned!! It was very hot and humid today, so they worked in the early morning hours and again in the evening hours. Many members have lost their homes and are staying with friends or relatives, or in church buildings.

When the Kapps use all of their gas, they will probably not be able to visit the missionaries. There were lines a mile long at the one gas station that was open today. When it ran out of gas, everyone went to another station (that also had a generator). Fuel is going to be a real problem, very shortly.

Speaking of fuel – Liahona Campus has diesel fuel for its emergency generator, but the supply will last no longer than three weeks. No-one knows what is going to happen then, and I have not heard of any contingency plan. But when the generator stops, our lights go out, our water system stops working, (the clinic stops working, as well), and our refrigerators and stoves stop working. We will remain optimistic, but I hope we get the power grid up soon, or else the entire island will be in trouble.

The Facilities Manger at Liahona is overwhelmed with the magnitude of the work that needs to be done here. There was widespread destruction of campus buildings, as well as home #5.  Five of the Seven computer labs at the school were destroyed, the music room with at least 20 keyboards, as well as band instruments, was devastated, and so school has been indefinitely suspended. The good news is that the dental clinic is functional, and the live-in students (when they are not working on the cleanup) have begun coming in for treatment. We were supposed to work until noon today, but we saw patients until 4:30 p.m. – students from Ha’apai, Eua, Vava’u, and Papua New Guinea. Most had never been to the dentist before – so we are treating them by quadrant, and we placed nearly a hundred restorations. We will continue to do that every day, until they go back to class.

The Kapps have reported that nearly every power line on the island is either down, or at some crazy angle, and there are lines down everywhere. A dangerous situation.

There are probably hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of coconuts on the ground. We talked with Timote Kau (returned missionary) who said it is a “windfall.” (My word, not his). But the way the Tongans look at it, “after the storm, flowers bloom,” and their coconut bonanza is a blessing.

Tongans that we have talked to who have lost their homes are taking it very philosophically. I hope that foreign governments provide assistance to re-build. If that happens, their new homes will probably be much better than their old ones. We saw this on Ha’apai – the cyclone in 2015 resulted in 500 new dwellings on the main island of Lofuka.

We have hard that Eua got hit pretty hard, but President Ma’u and his family are okay. he may be the recipient of a new Hyundai hatchback (with only 29,000 km on the odometer). We left our car with him when we flew back to Tongatapu on Monday, and I have no idea when/if it will be sent here via ferry. I told him, before we left, that he is welcome to use it for however long he needs it. It had a full tank of gas, and since the island is so small, that might last him a few weeks.

We don’t know anything about our mission assignment in the future. It all depends upon the power grid getting up and running. Without power, we cannot operate the clinic. We will just have to wait and see and it is no use speculating at this point.

What has happened in Tonga validates my feeling about this country. It flies beneath the radar – we have friends in the U.S. who were unaware there had even been a cyclone in the South Pacific. I think in the U.S. in particular, we live in a bubble. I always thought that the U.S. was the center of the universe, and that everything revolved around it, and not the poles of the earth. But here in Tonga, we have experienced the real world that 7 billion people deal with every day of their lives. Maybe that is why the Tongan people seem to be taking this disaster in stride, even casually. Life happens, and what is important is how you deal with it. And life generally throws you a curve, so you’d better not expect it to be a bed or roses. The sun will rise tomorrow, and the banana tree will bear fruit in a week or two. The papaya will continue to provide. (And there are always pigs and chickens, although we have seen some chickens who had their feathers plucked from their bodies by the wind!). I suspect that, in a couple of weeks, when we gather for Fast and Testimony meeting, the people will generally express their love of the Savior and their thanks for His generous blessings. The Tongans are a very faithful people.

I have heard that the temple may re-open tomorrow. It was relatively untouched. If I know the Tongan people well enough, the sessions will be full. Endowed members of the church typically go to the temple every week. There is a 5:15 a.m. session every day that is packed.

Really, what more does one need? I have my pillow (actually not MY pillow, but the one that was in our house when we arrived, that had obviously gotten a LOT of use. We have a container coming in a week or so (if the ship didn’t sink in the storm) that has a couple of new pillows in it. I have my blanket, and my Igloo ice chest with a yoghurt and chocolate bar). I didn’t really worry during the storm, about our possessions in our home across the street from the Service Center. When the wind got really intense, and things were banging around quite a bit, I thought about the Nephites who endured hours of destruction after the crucifixion of the Savior. I think I gained an appreciation of what they went through. We didn’t really know how things were going to turn out. We didn;t really fear for our safety, but we didn’t know if our house would be there when we ventured outside at first daylight. We didn’t have much in the way of personal effects in the house – we only brought a suitcase with us on our mission. During the storm, we were able to focus on the things that are really important. In that way, it was a positive experience. And who gets to say they lived through a Category 4/5 Cyclone, with 165 mph winds aimed directly at them, and that seems to have had a personal vendetta for them?

So……..this Valentine’s Day, we are not giving each other boxes of chocolate or bouquets of roses. Everyone rolled up their sleeves this morning and got to work. The Senior Missionaries were out in the community providing helping hands, and the Coombs (at 80 / 82 years of age) were in the clinic all day, tending to the needs of the students. They go home each evening, and fall into bed. The Fishers were the last ones to finish with patients this afternoon. We thought we were all done, but there was one girl who had been waiting all day, and so they saw her as their final patient. They are volunteers, which means they can come and go as they please, really, but they were sent here just two weeks before the Cyclone, and they have embraced the work. When they leave Tonga after 12 weeks, they are going to the clinic in Samoa for another 8 weeks. (If they have any energy left.)