2015 Agriculture Fair for Tongatapu

This was quite the event here in Tonga.  They have one of these on each island at different times.  The one on Tongatapu was August 21-22, 2015.  We went to it on the 21st as everyone said that is the time to go.  On the 22nd most everyone is packing up and going home.  This fair is like a big County Fair that we have, but there is a lot of fish that has been caught on display to be judged and inspected by the King.  There are also, cows, horses,pigs, chickens, and fresh produce, as well as crafts of all kinds that will be for sale once the King has inspected them.  It was amazing what was there.  Following are some pictures of the day, we hope that you enjoy them as much as we had taking them.

There were some amazing fish at this fair.  We thought Tyson, Jason and Mason would be interested in these pictures!  How would you like to catch something like this?

Or how about one of these?

We thought the Grand daughters would like this little seahorse!

They had this fellow in a make shift pond, but we are sure someone will have turtle soup after the judging!

Like we said there were a lot of fish on display!

Here are some octopus.  Don't they look appetising?

Here we go, some yummy lobster!

How about this one, Mason, would you like to latch on to this?

Here are just a few of the thousands of hand woven mattes and other items.  They were so beautiful!

This is a large tapa cloth that is made out of bark.  It is amazing how much work goes into something like this!

Here are a couple of women making tapa cloth.  They pound the bark into strips and then glue the strips together to make items out of it. 

This is a dress made from tapa.  Everything including the flowers are made from tapa.  It was so beautiful.  There must have been hours and hours went into this!

Here are the chickens that they had on display along with other animals.

Of course the Tongan pig.  We could not have a fair with out a Tongan pig!

This was a group of professional performers that sing and dance.  Elder and Sister Beckstrand fixed quite a few of their teeth so they put a special little show on for them right there!

There were some amazing wood carvings here.  Tonga has such talented wood carvers.  We always love looking at the beautiful items they have created from a piece of wood.

This was an old tree stump, turned into an octopus.  A hotel has purchased it for a great amount of money.  It was amazing!

This is what they laid out for the King to walk on as he made his way around to all the booths to inspect all the items.  This was all tapa cloth! 

Here was the cutest little group of children all dressed in Tongan attire to perform for the King.

"Would the marathon runner feel the triumph of finishing the race had she not felt the pain of the hours of pushing against her limits?  Would the pianist feel the joy of mastering an intricate sonata without the painstaking hours of practice?"  Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Furniture For Schools in Tonga

On August 10th we started to unload 3 twenty foot containers full of desks, chairs, computer desks, office desks, pin boards, book shelves and white boards donated from schools in New Zealand who were upgrading their furniture. They donated it to other schools in the South Pacific that are in bad need of supplies that they can't afford. This equipment is still in great shape and is a great upgrade to our schools in Tonga. We create a project to be able to pay for the shipment of these things to Tonga and then we, LDS Charities,donate it to the schools. These schools are so thankful for what we are doing for them as you can see in these pictures of what they had and what they have now.

This is one of the containers full of the furniture that they sent.

We had volunteers from the local stake come and unload.  They had about 20 young men.

Here are some of the boys unloading and putting it in our warehouse.

This is our warehouse when they were about done unloading. They were great help.

The containers are all unloaded and we are closing them up so the shipping line can pick them up.

Some of the desks were taken apart so it was a jig saw puzzle putting them back together. The Stake President and the boys were a great help.

It was almost an all day job so we bought them lunch. Here are some of the boys enjoying their lunch.

 On August 12th we headed out to look at the 11 schools that had requested school furniture. Following are pictures of our day. Hope you will enjoy seeing the children as much as we did.

This is one of the schools that we visited. You can see how over crowded that they are and the desks they use.

This is what most of the teachers desk and chair look like.  In fact it is one of the better ones.

This is one of their libraries. As you can see they need shelves and book cases.

This is a typical desk in most GPS schools here in Tonga.

More class rooms. In the back ground you can see their book shelf that is not in very good shape.

Another crowded class room. The Tongan children love to have their picture taken. Just look into their beautiful eyes.

Another class room!  In the back you can see water bottles hanging from the ceiling.  In them are each of the children's tooth brushes as they are teaching them the importance of brushing their teeth after they eat.  Elder and Sister Beckstrand would be very pleased with this!

Again you can see how poorly the desks are that they write on.  Can you imagine trying to write on this rough table top?

Like we said the Tongan children love to have their pictures taken.  They really ham it up!

On August 19th we had our Handover Ceremony and handed over the school furniture to 11 different schools.  They were so surprised at the items that they were getting and of course very, very happy!  Following are some pictures of this day.  Hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed the day!

This is a picture of part of our group from the eleven schools and the Ministry of Education.  There were many more outside with their trucks waiting to start loading.  The Media was there as well filming our ceremony.

This is the Stake President doing the formal Handover to the schools.

Following the ceremony the media inter viewed Elder Murdock.  He is a star now!

The schools were so amazed at the quality of this used furniture that they were receiving.

And the loading begins!

This is the Principal of the Free Wesleyan Church Primary School.  He was so thankful for what we gave to him.  He ask me to take his picture with his school furniture.

There were many hands helping load the items.  We were amazed at what these young Tongan boys could lift!

Here is one of the twelve corner computer desks that we had to fit all the pieces together!

And still more loading!

It was amazing to watch how much they were able to pack into their trucks.  Some did not even tie down, they just put the kids on top to hold it down.  Only in Tonga!

A couple more trucks loaded up and getting ready to head out.

In with the furniture there were all of these boxes of books for libraries.  They were so happy to have them.

And finally an empty warehouse!

Now to finish our report on this project we had to go back to the schools and take pictures of the furniture they received all set up.  So August 25th we headed out to do this.  Unfortunately due to heavy rain that we have been having, a lot of the schools did not have their students there.   Here are just a few pictures of the day.

This is the school of Nakolo.  The desks looked so wonderful, especially the nice desk for the teacher.  They had prepared a little ceremony for us to thank us and then a luncheon feast.  We were surprised as we did not expect them to do this for us.  They also proceeded to fill out car truck with fresh fruit and vegetables.

There were a few children there so we had them sit in the desks for this picture.

This is one of the twelve corner desks that they are using in their little library.  In the back you can see the bookshelves with the books that we gave to them on the shelves.  It was very nice.

More desks and book shelves.  Made such a difference in the school rooms we had seen before.  It just brightened everything up!  Now if we can just get more chairs to go with the desks!

Another school with the desk and chairs that we had given them.  They look so much better than the desks that they had.

This is a chair that we gave to them.  One of the teachers is using it for her chair and has written her name on it so that it does not walk away.  That seems to happen a lot here in Tonga!

This is only part of the fruit and vegetables that the schools that we visited filled our trunk with.  We had already given at least four big baskets away to people that we felt needed them.  The rest we distributed among the Senior Missionary couples.  They call us the "Fruit and Vegetable Wagon" as this seems to be happening a lot!

"Fifty years from now, it won't matter what kind of car I drove, or what kind of house I lived in.  Fifty years from now, my life will have meaning only if I've taken the time to be a positive influence in the life of a child."   Janene Wolsey Baadsgaard