Finding Nemo

What a beautiful day! The temperature is consistently warm now and the wind has died down.

Today we taking a group of the young people to a nearby tropical island for a day away. 

After devotions, we worked quickly to prepare food for our time on Pangaimotu. With little time to spare, we got on our way to the boat launch site... and got stuck in the only traffic jam that we've had in Nuku'alofa! With a bit of creative driving, Max had us past it and on the beach road. We arrived at the harbour right on time, and there waiting were a good dozen of the young adults. 

The boat was smaller than I was expecting, and I wasn't sure how many people it could take (or how many life jackets) - but we split into two groups and all safely got over in two trips. 

We met Earl "Pangai" when we landed and he directed us to the best place to swim. And he was right - It was amazing!!

Quickly into togs with goggles and snorkels, and the sea life swam all around us. Following recent cyclones and the tsunami, there were a number of over and undersea boat wrecks, and they had created some incredible artificial reefs for the coral. I was astounded by the abundance of sea life - schools of fish of many different species, size, shape and colour. I just enjoyed floating and watching, gently flippering with my hands. 

Occasionally, I would duck-dive to get a closer look at the iridescent blues, and on one such indent, I did a stroke which resulted in my forearm brushing a sharp coral growth on the exterior of the boat wreck. It was instantly painful, and started bleeding, so thought that it might be time to get out. 

A game of beach volleyball ensued and I walked around the entire island; then lunch was enjoyed, conversation between everyone was engaged in, and it was time to get back in the water. A big group of us went straight for the ship wreck and we swam around looking at the incredible sealife. I was very proud of Joe for overcoming his deep water fear, and putting on his own snorkel and swimming out to the wreck to check out all the fish. Jonty also did very well, and both were very pleased to have done it. Also, there were many of the Tongan youth who had never snorkelled or seen the sea life in their ocean before. It felt good to be able to enable this. 

Once we had packed up and half the group had left, I sat and talked with Pangai, who had owned and lived on the island for 51 years.  During the tsunami, his family had run inland and climbed a banyan tree, where they slept for the night. There they were safe, until the waters receded. The buildings and other improvements on his island had been destroyed many times over the years, but they had remained, sending their boat to the mainland for supplies a couple of times a week. 

As we talked, the young women (tafine) were singing, when suddenly the glass seat one of them was sitting on gave way and her arm was badly cut near the wrist. Unfortunately, the main first aid kit had gone back with the first group, but we found another small kit and cobbled together some other bits and had her arm bandaged and up in a sling reasonably quickly. 

After getting back to Nuku'alofa, she was zipped off to the hospital by a group of her friends, and we returned to Halaleva.

While I was resting and writing after the big day, all of the youth and a number of the elders arrived for dinner. They brought a feast, and there was lots of chatter and laughing. It was good to see the young woman with the injured wrist arrive towards the end of dinner too - all medically treated and looking happy.

 Following dinner Max interviewed Ben and Vili, and both shared how their faith had shaped their lives and their employment. This was really good for all of the youth to hear. 

Everyone packed up and went home, and then I went straight to bed. It had been a big day in the sun!