Where in the world can you get a handwritten personalised boarding pass? Join me today for a three-day business trip to EUA, flying ‘Real Tonga’ airlines, on their eight-seater plane. The flight takes 7 minutes!
My personalised boarding pass
Month: August 2019
Vesitapolo ma’a Tonga
Vegetables for Tonga. This week, my work team had organised home visits of a different kind. It was an initiative, together with a local garden centre, funded by the Ministry of Agriculture: Community group meetings with our clients in order to teach and encourage them to grow their own vegetables for the family. The seedlings were brought along on a truck to put words into action straight away. I had the privilege of being part of these meetings, always as the only Palangi, but very much accepted and included.
Continue reading “Vesitapolo ma’a Tonga”Lofi’s Daily Grind
What does a day as a volunteering ‘Business Mentor’ in Tonga’ look like? Well, it is first and foremost about people – people in business doing business with other people.
Continue reading “Lofi’s Daily Grind”Work is Where the Heart is
This week, I spent a couple of days in both ‘my’ jobs, and I really, really connected with the people and the type of work of the one working with children and families in the poverty areas. It has become clear to me that this is where I want to be. The needs are so deep and wide and desperate – my time and passion are theirs. I can’t split myself between two jobs.
Continue reading “Work is Where the Heart is”Not One, but Two Jobs
Job interviews for educated Palangi volunteers in Tonga are very short. They go like this: “We want you, when can you start?”-
Having been here for a few weeks, you are known by the locals. Don’t be fooled: Just like they just know where everyone lives without a street address, so they will know all about you within a short time. (When I went for an interview with the principal at the Tertiary Institute this morning, and I said I was the wife of a volunteer from NZ. The principal exclaimed ‘Oh, is that Rolf? I know him!’) –
Continue reading “Not One, but Two Jobs”Wrong Day for a Business Trip
Remember the rule for the Tongan language? Every word ends in a vowel, and you cannot have two consonants next to each other. However, you can have two vowels next to each other. Or three. Or four. – So, one of the outer islands of Tonga goes by the name of Eua. Just EUA. Nothing to do with the European Union. I think.
Well, today, Rolf / Lofi (and his colleague) took off on his first business trip, to Eua for four days. Due to his very full schedule of visiting and meeting with businesses, we decided I would stay home.
The flight to Eua took off at 3pm, and arrived at 3:07pm. #oneofthosetenseatertoyplaneswhichscaremetodeath# With two whale sightings on the way, fresh fish at the other end, and a beautiful sunset. Pictures compliments of Whatsapp. Wrong day for a business trip. It’s our wedding anniversary today.
Leisure Times
Last Saturday, Rolf’s boss from work invited Rolf and me and another volunteer on a ‘tiki tour’ (by car) of the western side of Tongatapu. It was a grey, cloudy, cool day. We drove to the western end of the island and worked our way ‘backwards’, starting with the sighting of Abel Tasman’s first landing point in 1643. Tasman, “with great European sensibility,” named Tongatapu ‘Amsterdam’. He described the people as friendly, giving him and the crew fresh water in return for nails, and mentioned that “the women of this island are built quite as robust and muscular as the men.”
Continue reading “Leisure Times”