Tuesday, April 25, 2017

The Tonga Man.

Those of you who have met me know that I can speak pretty quickly . . . even for Americans. Dr. Thomas gave me some tips for communicating while here: Speak Loudly (I tend to fade as I speak), Speak Slowly (for obvious reasons), and do not use contractions.

I guess I forgot to apply the lessons that I learned today. When we were getting the bill in order to check out, the lodge owner, Mimi, knocked on Dr. Thomas's door and I answered. Now, I've spoken to her a few times and saw her in church, so she already knew about my rapid speech tendencies. She wanted to talk about the bill and I suppose it would have been difficult for her to do that with me. When I answered the door, she politely, and with a thick accent, told me "I want to talk to the Tonga man," meaning Ba-Eland, who has been gracious enough to drive us around. I turned around and called Ba-Eland, and immediately started laughing because I knew exactly what was happening. Moments like that are priceless.

Ba-Eland posing with drums.

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