Cyclone Gita

Hello all,

I have received a lot of inquiries on Cyclone Gita and the impact on Vava'u.  Because Vava'u is 310KM North of the main island of Tongatapu we were not affected by Cyclone Gita very much. A little bit of wind and some rain on Monday night but nothing of significance.

The main is of Tongatapu however was hit head on by a category 5 cyclone deemed to be the worst storm to hit Tonga in recorded history. The damage is extensive and people from all over the world is rallying to help in the aftermath of the storm.

Digicel (one of the cell phone and internet providers) has given everyone in the country $20 of cell phone time so that people can call loved ones during this time. As a matter of fact Barry is on the phone with his mother right now.  I have read that New Zealand and Australia are ready to fly to in with aide and supplies but they need to wait for the runway at the airport to be cleared and for basic services to be restored.

I don't know the official count but I have read that there have been 3 serious injuries and 30 minor injuries reported as of 7am this morning.  Our hopes and hearts go out to all the people of Tonga in this difficult time.

Here are some pictures that I got from friends on Facebook about the damage in Tongatapu.

If you look closely you will see that most of the buildings that were damaged are made out of wood. So you plan on coming to Tonga and you want to rent a house make sure it is built out of cinder block or build a house here please make sure it is rated for a Category 5 cyclone.

As always I am here to answer any questions that you may have.

Until next time have a great sun shiny day!

Char

Why have I not posted in a while ... Well I will tell you

So, I have received many comments on my little blog here asking why I am not making posts more often and the short reason is because I am being harassed by an “Anonymous” person.

The long answer is I was being harassed by a commenter named Riverbend. I had to restrict all of the comments on my site so that I have to approve every comment before it gets posted on my site. I have asked this person (I do not know if Riverbend or Anonymous is male or female but I am going to use the male identifier from this point forward), I have repeated asked him to stop making negative or irrelevant comments on my site. The requests were repeated ignored.  Eventually I simply marked the comments as spam and eventually the comments stopped. 

In the meantime I decided to look up Riverbend and find out just what his deal is when I found the advertisement to my current business, Falaleu Deli, up on his website and many negative comments associated with my business and Tonga in general. When I tried to ask Riverbend to stop using me and my business in his negativity I found that I was already blocked from commenting or emailing him. This coward would not even respect my wish to be left out of his hate mongering by blocking me before I could even send the request.

Just when I thought it was safe to continue with my hobby of writing in my blog the comments started up again under the identifier “Anonymous”.

Since this coward refuses to identify himself and any way, shape or form I cannot block him from sending comments to me. This obtuse person is so oblivious that he hasn’t even noticed that not one of his hateful, malicious comments have been posted on my site. He just keeps sending them even though I have asked him repeatedly not to post on my site.

I have NOTHING to do with your vendetta against Vava’u, Robert Bryce, Hunga Island or Cocomo Village. LEAVE ME ALONE!!!!!! Stop commenting on my site.  NO ONE sees them but me and you are only pissing me off!

If you do not have something nice to say please say nothing at all.  I am not at all interested in the view or opinion of someone that does not live in Vava’u …. Which you do not!!!  I have no interest in reading such vile comments such as the one you sent today that featured no less than 112 childish namecalling words that are extremely offensive to me.

I have had no problems with anyone or anything in Vava’u other than Riverbend/Anonymous harassing me online. I have a successful business and a wonderful product that is in demand by locals and tourists alike regardless of what this person (who does not live here) thinks. I am living a dream that most people do not think is possible and I am here to answer questions for the adventurous few that would like to join us … safely and without regret.

For those that have asked me questions on comments and I have not answered please email me at sbbs2009@gmail.com and I will be more than happy to answer all of your questions about living in Vava’u. For Mr. Riverbend/Anonymous … please email me so that I may ascertain your IP address and block you from all of my online endeavours.

Sincerely

Char

Busy, Busy, Busy

Hey there everyone,

It has been super busy here with our new business opening up and the tourist season in full swing.  Our deli is growing both in popularity and in product base.  So many people come in and ask for something specific like Meatloaf and then it becomes one of our best selling items. This has happened so many times it is hard to keep our freezers full.  Today Barry is getting our order off of the ferry from Nuku'alofa of Baby Back Ribs and pork chops.  Something we have not seen here in the 3 years we have been around.  I can't wait to get my teeth into those!

Big shout out to the Oyster Rally that just left Vava'u. Thanks to them we have been able to prepay our rent for the year and now we can concentrate on growing our business and even getting some time to go fishing.

You can see the products that we offer at www.facebook.com/falaleudeli/

Ok, enough of the shameless business plug!

The garden is growing great! It turns out that basil and oregano love the soil in our yard. We also have broccoli, brussel sprouts, cilantro, sage and dill growing. And now that we have decided to stay in Vava'u for a couple of years at least we are building a bed to grow pineapples.

Wow, so much has happened in the past couple of months it is hard to stay focused on one subject.  Our friends from Australia have returned to Vava'u and they bought a fishing boat that we hope will be in the water next week.  I will be sure to post some pictures of that!  And now that Vava'u finally has some decent internet I should be able to post a little more often.  Just let me know what you want to see and I will get some pictures for you.

Until next time.

Have fun and play safe!

Getting the garden going

My wonderful and always thoughtful landlord brought me a truck full of prime top soil a while ago so that I can start my own garden in the yard.  So here are Vise (pronounced Veesay) and Barry taking the dirt from the truck in the rain; which they both say is the best time to do any hard work because it cools you down as you work.

After looking at all the things that we buy in the market compared to the ease of growing your own my husband and I wanted to have a small garden in the yard for a few plants that we need for our deli such as Oregano or Basil.  While we were sitting outside with Vise (our landlord) we got into the conversation about growing these items and were to get the seeds from.

Seeds!!

Vise just started laughing as us.  We are such funny foreigners I guess.  He brought over all that dirt and made a garden bed for us, grabbed one branch of Rosemary that I bought at the market that day and stuck the cut end of the branch in the ground.

"That is how we grow things here!" he said "We need no seeds!!"

And apparently it is that easy.  Now I have Basil and Oregano growing and I have started some strawberries, grapes, lemons and pomegranate in the small pots that he brought over as well.  I just know that we will have the rest of that garden area growing with more herbs as we find them.  I never thought of just taking stuff we bought and sticking it in the ground.

Barry has been cutting off the top of his pineapples and planting them and now he wants a place to grow potatoes too.  I am so glad that he is the gardening type.  I don't mind gardening but he is the one that prowls the yard every day with a watering can to see if the pineapples are rooted yet or notices if the banana trees have grown any taller.  I am glad to watch and wait for things I can eat to sprout.

Sweet Limonade

I made the most amazing Limonade today because someone decided to drop off 2 50 pound bags of limes!  Last week someone else dropped off a big bushel of Hopa (plantain bananas) and the week before that still another person dropped off a basket full of Coconuts.

I do not yet know who dropped off the limes but when I do find out I will make a lime pie for them as a thank you.

I find it absolutely amazing that people will just drop by and leave food for you without coming to the door to say hello or leave a note to tell us who these generous people are.  They don't want you to know who they are. Completely selfless and humble these people just try to help!

But I think I know who left the limes. Sam came by the other day while I was making some limonade and he asked me if this was something I do often but I only make it when limes are in season and you can get 15 for $3.  Today I have so many limes that they will last me for many months.  Barry and I will sit and juice all of these and freeze the juice so that we can have limonade all year long instead of just a few months a year.

When Sandy dropped off a whole bushel of bananas I made her banana bread. Now every time she wants banana bread she drops off bananas.  I think she is the one who dropped off the Hopa last week but I have not seen her yet to ask her.

There may not be a whole lot in Vava'u but the people here more then make up for the lack of department stores.

I love it here.

Pictures!!!! For Christmas!!!

So ....

As Barry and I are sitting here in Vava'u for Christmas and, being the off-season most others are away, we were invited by our wonderful and always welcoming landlords to attend the 50 Anniversary Gala of the Catholic Church High school.

This was a wonderful event where nearly 5,000 people attended in temporary pavilions set up over tables set up on about 1.5 acres. This was on the front grounds of the Catholic high school with about acres of 3/4 acres of green space inside the horseshoe.

While waiting for the festival to start the music started and people went onto the central area to dance and enjoy their event.

If you look carefully at this picture you will see a woman in the centre on the ground.  This woman is so excited for the day and for the festival that she has dropped and started rolling in Joy and happiness.  This is a common sight in Tonga.  People yell, whoop, dance and roll to express their joy and excitement when they have a festival like this.

On the tables the food is wrapped in serving size packages and is piled high on the table. Barry (handsome man in the picture) and I literally had to eat our way to our plates so that we could put the food on our plates!

Everything on the table was available eat or take home. People came, ate and left leaving room at the table for others to come and eat as well.  This picture shows only one table but in each tent is 12 tables and there must have been 100 tents.  The amount of food and people was truly amazing.

While the dancing and presentations continued during the feast the different groups or families would take the field and present their gifts to the school and to the dignitaries that were there for the festivities.

As the people bring their gifts of cloth, blankets, tapa, and mats to be presented to the school a young lady in traditional clothing is covered in oil and does a very delicate dance. The woman in blue is going to the young lady to put a $2 bill on the young ladies oiled skin as appreciation for the dance and a donation for their family/group.  One girl made $600 during her dance.

All in all it was a very interesting experience and I hope we get invited to the next one.

This picture is showing some of the handicrafts that are available at the market. Everything is hand made by the sellers and the selection is always because of this.  

The market is also the main place to buy all of your produce.  This is the closest thing that Vava'u has to a grocery store. Each table is individually owned and items for sale depend on the availability.  For example pineapples can be bought for 5 for $10 in November and December but they sell for $10 each the rest of the year because they are not in season.

For all imported food items you can buy those at the Chinese shops. Meat is bought at the Chinese stores as well but everything is frozen and the quality is not anything near as good as we get in Canada. 

Things to bring to Tonga

Everyone keeps asking what to bring and what not to bring when moving to Tonga.  I will tell you now that everyone wants/needs different things. 

When Barry (my husband) and I first planned to move here in July 2015 we packed everything we thought that we could not live without. Sentimental items, king sized memory foam bed, $4,000 fridge and freezer set, quad bikes, side by side, and a hundred more items that we figured we could not live without.  After being in Vava’u for 6 months we found out that none of that stuff is good for here and we were VERY GLAD at that point that life happened and we did not actually end up shipping all of that stuff all the way to Tonga.

And why were we happy about that? Because the bed is so big it will not fit in the bedroom that we have. The fridge/freezer – while beautiful, huge and perfect for our foodie tendencies – is too big to fit in the kitchen, not made to withstand the salt in the air, and would cost an arm and a leg to run in Vava’u. The quad bikes – while very nice – can be bought and imported cheaper then what their used value was in Canada and as for the cost of the side by side, one can be imported for less than the cost of buying and shipping one from Canada.

Barry and I spent 6 months in Vava’u and when my father came to visit he packed an extra suitcase just for stuff that we wanted. The list was very simple … Feminine hygiene products for me and new knives and measuring cups for Barry – both which are hard to find here in good quality.

Our next “order” coming in October 2016 is also very simple – knife sharpener for Barry’s knives, sewing machine needles, meat injector for our Deli business, flask (for the late night parties in the bush), and a few skin care products that I cannot get on the Island.

It all depends on what you absolutely have to have compared to what you need.  Toothpaste? There is lots. Not the wonderful assortment and fancy flavours that we are used to having our choice of but Crest and Colgate are available at many Chinese stores. Hell, I even saw Closeup at one store.  Some stores specialise in ordering from Costco in the US and will take orders if you ask them nicely.  And most times all you have to do is wander through the Saturday morning market to find other items that are not cheap and Chinese – such as Charmin TP (a big treat here but not something most people would pack).

As for larger items that do not fit in your suitcase quite so easily, shipping from New Zealand or Australia is fast, easy and reasonably priced.  For example, I just bought 160kgs of items online from a reputable store in New Zealand that I cannot get in Vava’u. I have contracted with a shipper in Auckland – Friendly Islands Freight (recommended to me by people who have used them for shipping to Vava’u) – and I will have these items in my possession within 2 weeks of ordering for about $150 NZ.  I personally think this a good price considering where we live.

If you don’t mind used items you can always ask around for items that others have brought in that are just sitting in storage right now.

Furniture can be bought from local builders or you can pay for the imported stuff from stores in Nuku Alofa or in Vava’u.  This price might seem outrageous at first but if you remember that the US dollar is double the Tonga Pa’anga or that shipping from North America is nearly outrageous then the high looking prices are definitely worth it.

Also, there are often people coming in who have no problem bringing the small “can’t live without” items like sewing machine needles, or watch batteries, are a bottle of an herb or spice that you can’t get here.

I recommend – leave your items in a prepaid storage facility near a person of trust. If after 6 months you think it is worth it to ship your items here to Vava’u then have your person ship them. If you don’t need them, then have your person sell the items. 

Because it is absolutely amazing how your priorities change after you have been here for 6 months.