Vava'u, Tonga

Welcome to Tonga!

 Very long flights and long lay overs but we made it.

 This tree is a mango tree in the middle of the campus on Tonga.  We stayed the night in Tonga before we flew out to Vava'u.

 This tree is awesome. It reminded us of the Kings Tree in the Lord of the Rings.  This picture does not show it very well but it is a white tree and it gets these yellow flowers that bloom on only the tips.

 This is in Vava'u. There are wild pigs wondering everywhere. There are also little cemeteries everywhere. They can put these where ever they want.  They have beautiful quilts and flowers on the graves year around.

 The pigs made me nervous. I did not like getting to close to them.

 This is what the homes look like in the little villages. Only wealthy people have running water in their home. Most use these water barrels to catch the rain and then they use that water for everything.

 We just thought this was funny.

 This is Isralee. He lives next door to my parents.  I was giving him some toys of Keegan and Ethan's.  The boys had gone through their toys and sent me with a whole sack so I could give out toys to kids I saw. They do not really have very many toys.  We gave him little cars and dinosaurs. Isralee was a little unsure at first about taking them but quickly got very excited.

 Helping this family was one of the best parts of our trip.  This is Fetiela's family. He is the Dad in the middle of the picture.  He is a teacher at the school my parents are at. My parents helped him graduate from BYU Hawaii with his B.S. in Education so he is a certified teacher now.  These are all his kids and his wife is next to him. My siblings and I packed our suitcases full with clothes and a ton of other things for this family.  They do not have a lot. My parents drove us out to their home and they had no idea we were doing this for them.  We showed up with bags full of things for them. It was so neat to watch the kids get so excited about little item, such as crayons and skirts. This family is also trying to get to the Temple on Tonga. We we also helped fund some of that expense.  It was such a wonderful experience to get to serve this family.

 On the beach!

 It was so fun to find this starfish. After this one, I realized there was ton of them. Star fish are so cool.

 Love my Dad!

 My parents took us out on a tour in go carts.  This was so fun. It was raining so it was super mudding. My Mom was a great sport to do this with us.

 Scott is so pretty!

 Drop Off!

 This is the boat that took us out to some different islands and to go snorkeling.

 Sailboat races.

Saineha (the school my parents are at)

 The neighbors brought lunch over for us. All Tongan food, grown in their bush(garden) I ate some of it.

 Scott decided to skip the Tongan food and had a PB &J. I should have done that too. I was sick for the next 24 hours after I ate that lunch.

 Ene'io Beach. Most beautiful place in the world.

 Snorkeling

 This school of fish reminded me of the movie Nemo.

This is where the boat anchored so we could snorkel. There is a beautiful reef under there. So many cool looking fish and marine life.