A Taste of Tonga

I couldn’t take it. I went home to see how Mr. Manisela and his crew did on the patio.

There is a bit of a language barrier. His English is okay, but when I tell him “a gas line runs through here” and “notice the electrical line—I hope that’s not a problem” I can’t be sure he gets it. And considering the abandon with which they were smashing the patio this morning, I worried that they’d mangle the house where it was connected.

But I got home and was pretty pleased with what I saw. Patio is gone, the house isn’t mangled, the gas and electric lines are intact, and suddenly that area seems much more inviting. With a rotting, seven-foot cover over it the patio just never seemed like a good place to hang out.

So I’ll replace some rotted trim, do some touch-up painting and be good to go. There’s actually not as much rotted trim as I anticipated.

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Had Chik-Fil-A (how in the HELL is that spelled??) for lunch. I requested honey mustard with my sandwich, and they also threw in (ready?) a packet of POLYNESIAN sauce. I’m sure it was an omen, but for what I do not know.

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Polynesian sauce from that place (I’m done trying to spell it) tastes like… barbecue sauce and duck sauce with a little citrus zip thrown in. Not bad I guess. Mr. Manisela was no longer around, so I couldn’t give him a taste of home, unfortunately. I’m sure THAT PLACE is huge in Tonga.

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Looked up Tonga on the world map, btw, right after Kevin showed me God’s home, Brazil. To find Tonga, go to Hawaii and turn south. Far as I can tell Tongans are physiologically the same as Samoans, but Samoa looks like it’s pretty far north of Tonga. Hard to imagine that at some point in the way-distant past people went from one set of islands to the other, traversing the ocean in whatever sort of sailing vessels they had.

I’ve had a splinter in my finger for a couple weeks, and it sucks. But you know… I’ve never had to set out across the ocean in a boat made of reeds or coconuts or the skulls of my enemies.

My life is pretty sweet in comparison I suppose.

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Have a good weekend.