This is 'Ofa. 'Ofa means love in Tongan. We love her. She gives the best hugs, and is my favorite little voice to hear say "Ma'ake" (Mark's Tongan name).
Those plates with the white stuff in them? Breakfast last Sunday. Delicious coconut milk and sugar rice (The Tongan word for rice is lice. That's thrown me off a number of times). Try to eat a plateful of that and not nap during a 2 hour church service.
The living room in our house. We've never seen anyone in here. I've mentioned before that the garage acts as our kitchen/living room. We think there are two reasons for this : it is stinkin hoooooot in the house, and, Tongans love to be with people.
The first semester of my junior year, Elise and I decided that we would always leave the front door of our apartment open. We wanted to talk to everyone that passed, and wanted people to feel comfortable coming over/in whenever they wanted. We literally tied the door open every morning...and we made a ton of friends. Our house became home to a lot of people. That semester is one of my favorite times in life. (do notice that it lasted only a semester- people are hard!). Tonga is this. It is beautiful and challenging, and the reason why stuffy living rooms like the one pictured above are hilarious.
I have no idea why not one, but two, of these beautiful sensual statues stand proudly in our living room.
I will have to be artistic here. These are drawings I made for a rhyming memory game I used while teaching a few weeks ago. Please notice the girls hand. (no, I did not draw the frog, obviously). Would someone like to send me a simple drawing book?!
- Alissa
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