the end of black

Yesterday, marked the end of the official mourning period. This morning, for the first time in over a month, I chose an outfit to wear to work that wasn't black. It is a nice change, but the simplicity of black did make life easy. It also suited the dustiness of Nuku'alofa.

The last two weekends have been quite good. Last week, the Fitzroy Reds visited Tonga and took on the national team in a game of Australian Rules. This week, I attended the 21st birthday party of our landlord's niece, Etina.

I did my absolute best to avoid celebrating my 21st birthday party, so a Tongan family pulling out all stops was always going to impress me. The celebrations took place on Sunday, starting with church and then following on with a feast for the village and a few other guests.

As we left the church, the number of "bye"s my housemate and I were greeted with, made me think we might upstage the girl of the moment. This fear was further heightened when we were sat at the head table, as if we were guests of some note. Fortunately, the family of the moment emerged from the church dressed in white (everybody else was in black) wrapped in large tapa mats and equally impressive ta'ovala. They looked liked people-sized presents. Several teary speeches, took any remaining attention away from us.

Tongans serve far too much food at any event, and this was no exception. My housemate and I were squeezed on a bench between several Tongan women who kept trying to feed us more and more. At the end, we were forced to take even more food home with us. I now know why Tongans sleep so much on Sundays, after all that food it is all you can manage, or want, to do.

The aim of the AYAD Program to strengthen mutual understanding between Australia and the countries of the Asia Pacific and make a positive contribution to development in the areas of health, governance, infrastructure, education, etc. Arguably, a single game of Australian football has done more to achieve this aim then my entire year in Tonga. The prospect of playing for a national team was enough of a prize for a group of thirty or so Tongans to train hard three times a weeks for just over three months. They are certainly fitter and have a better understanding of this Australian sport. The Reds, who ran coaching clinics at the local schools in the week leading up to the match, certainly enjoyed one of the more eye opening end of season football trips taken this year or any other. With the spirit the match was played in, the enjoyment the Tongans gained from playing (even though they lost on the scoreboard and the haka and singing before and after the game, it will also go down as one of my highlights of the year.