life is a BEACH until you have sand in your shorts

we are expecting a fast moving cold front to pass through here tonight dropping temperatures into the LOW seventies ... out will come the ski parkas and wool hats.
There was absolutely NO one at the beach yesterday ... it was sunny & 78 degrees... way tooo COLD for Tongans ... so i had the sand and the surf all to myself. Then after a few beers, which i had brought with me in a small cooler bag ... I started to reflect on the SEA of faces that i saw in the parade earlier this week. There were literally thousands of kids .... proud and happy to be marching in a parade ...each marching step bringing them closer, into the future ... a future that offers little in the hope of finding any meaningful jobs. My guess looking around the CAPITAL city is that at best a couple of 100 new jobs OR less open up each year. Sooooo what happens to all those 1,000's of children marching toward graduation... what happens to them ?????

The potential is here; god knows it wouldn't hurt to have a few more helpful services available, but after 8 months in Tonga it's clear to me there is a meaningful disconnect. Necessity might be the tool of invention ... but not here .. there are lots of needs and Tongans want badly to have certain "things" but the sand in their shorts isn't enough to follow through and change out of their shorts ( let me correct that, Tongan's out of a sense of false modesty ...swim with all their clothes on.... not shorts) and that may very well be the problem !!!

Let's have a PARADE

WOW ... what a week; i actually met someone who had read my blog .... Kate Asleson's MOM ... for me blogging is anonymous, and as far as i know NOT even my kids read my writings, but there she was in the flesh telling me she had read "what was the JETMAN thinking" ... I was floored, and I might add, she actually encouraged me to continue writing .... sooo here it goes:

I LOVE marching bands and today to celebrate the opening of Parliament there was a 2hr parade followed by a drive through of the KING, then another 2 hr parade by the same marching people from the first 2 hrs !!!! I swear i couldn't get enough. These bands don't just play music , they dance when they march. It was soooo kool to see this Christan nation swing their hips. The first half is all about waiting for the KING!!!!! The second half is all about BLOWING IT ALL OUT!!!!
The King seems so other worldly ... but when you actually see him drive by in an open car .. all decked out in medals and a crown ... you realize ...holy crap-o-la this Kingdom is for real.
Ohhhh and the crowds ... the streets were lined with thousands of people and every school age child in Nukualofa (the abode of LOVE) was in the parade.
Now the streets are quiet ... until the church bells ring in the morning @ 05:30 to wake me up.

unlock your bike and free your mind

I have decided to give the church bells that ring loudly outside my window 100 times @ 0530 and on special occasions 0430 ... like this morning ... NEW MEANING ... at least new meaning to ME. I'm not going to get up out of my bed and join the church choir, which i can hear through my rain soaked closed windows...instead I'm going to be filled with an early morning inspiration! Just for beginners, how do they ever get that many people to show up on a rainy, dark and very wet morning is beyond me, but the church rocks with their voices singing LOUDLY.

Soooo what i have decided to do once i hear the bells begin to ring, is to wake up and write in my blog or deepen my yoga/meditation practice by adding an extra hour to either one each day. Today since the bells rang @ 0430 i have been able to do both and since i sat in meditation first i'm now full of reflection.

What comes first to my mind is .. my stolen bicycle. I foolishly felt safe enough to occasionally leave it unlocked inside my gated yard which is chained shut @ night. However some poor soul maybe not realizing or more likely NOT CARING that a bicycle with lights and a basket cost a P/C/V close to a month's salary ... stole it! As an event; it has affected me more than anything else that has happened in Tonga. I now look @ people with a suspicion, "are you the ONE that stole my bike that meant so much to me ????? " And for that reason I regret that i had forgotten to lock it that night. Whoever stole it will most likely will continue to steal and that is NOT my problem, I instead,have to let it go so that i can continue to free myself of attachment and be more focused in the NOW rather than be upset with the past. So in this over the top christian nation i forgive the B-st-rd.... obviously whoever stole it sleeps through the early morning church bells and lacks the moral christian values that this island nation so strongly embraces.

2 posts in 5 days .... this won't last 4 long

Sundays in Tonga are days of eat/sleep/pray ... in any random order that god chooses to ordain.
Well i prayed for a nice day and it was purrrr-fect. After eating a big breakfast Shawn stopped by and we went out taking promotion photos for the BIG full moon bonfire party at a Beach/Cave/Resort. What a great place, it is his hope that this will be the first of many events held out there as he promotes a new GREEN eco-resort... something that will be self sustaining (a buzz phrase that the P/C approves of).... well Tom his counterpart came loaded with food, ... we ate in the car on the way to the resort and when we got there they FED us again .... having prayed earlier and now having eaten enough for 4 people i slept in the car on the way back home ..... IT WAS JUST ANOTHER CULTURALLY CORRECT SUNDAY IN THE KINGDOM OF TONGA !!!!!