On the ground in Tonga

Well the airport was a bit larger than Suva, this one had two hangers: one for the headquarters of the local airline Peau Vava'u Limited and one for the “Air Force” which is housed in a small one story building. I was surely scammed for the 3 dollar cab ride to the Peau Vava’u Office that was a mile away (driver didn’t mind being paid in Fijian dollars). So expecting to buy a ticket for the morning or even today I was a bit disappointed. Today’s afternoon flight was canceled due to low attendance. I found this out after waiting an hour (my patience feels almost unlimited at this point as I have no appointments at all) and somehow both flights are booked tomorrow. So now I’m on standby tomorrow. So the same slightly scam artist taxi driver took me to the local accommodation where I have my own room for T$ 30 per night. The place is clean and quite nice. The structure appears to be a store, 3 rooms, and a house – out of which I’m the only guest. My room is really just a room off of the owners house (hoping to enjoy some Tongan family life tonight) and upon trying to charge my laptop I was informed that the village power is off from noon until 5 pm, to which I smile to myself thinking I might be getting off the beaten path. After all, the Peau Vava’u guy, upon questioning, told me proudly that the airport I was going to was not only paved – but had lights also… that’s right it has lights. The large pig grazing around in front of me as I type on my iBook makes me realize I’m getting pretty far from home. So I’ll sit back, watch the lack of traffic, read my Economist, and wait for Susanna’s nephew to drive into town to pick up her granddaughter and so that I can see what Nuku'alofa looks like.

Once evening rolled around...

Spent the afternoon putting around until the van overheated. Just like back home, all the guys strut around the vehicle trying to diagnose it (myself included). Picked up a hitchhiker, but this is far from an unusual way to get around for anyone here and cruised back home.

Spent the evening watching “Garden State”, which every time I see this movie I’m more convinced it is one of my favorites. Yet, sitting here on a porch of a local family in the Kingdom of Tonga I’m struck by two themes that really hit home for me in that movie: sense of home and being present and courageous with ones’ own life. During a pool scene, there’s a great dialogue about how part of coming of age is the lose of the sense of home as you go out into the world to create your own home. (A great line being, ‘Maybe that’s all a family is, a group of people that miss the same imaginary place’) Thoughts of home, putting down roots, and coming into my own definitely pass through my head as I travel, now for 3 months and looking at another 21 ahead. I feel a need to dissect my own desire to lay down roots, even as I look at working in New Zealand – I have to be sure that I don’t lay any roots out of insecurity. I hold an expectation for myself to not settle somewhere just so that I’ll have less fear of some unknown - of what could happen tomorrow. I think the desire to seek security and predictability leads people to fall short of living their life fully. When someone feels comfortable enough with their life that they no longer have to pay attention, they begin let it slide by unconscious of it’s marrow. So to ensure I don’t do that; I’ve left a very comfortable life to challenge myself with ever changing environments. I just have to stay on top of myself and make sure I don’t let myself slide back into comfortable numbness, because I want to take full advantage of every second of this life I so lucky to lead… it would be a waste to just follow it instead.