The Road Less Traveled : Mr. Fink comes to Tonga

After going a full year between my first and second visitors, I only had to wait the interminable length of two weeks for my third. This particular visitor was one of my best friends from home, Michael Fink, who I have known since we were 12 in Boca and lived with for 3 of my 4 years in college.

While my last two visitors, Katherine and Aunt Ruth, got a taste of my Peace Corps life and Tongan culture, we mostly stuck to the tourist beat. Fink and I of course did the tourists things as well, but he had told before he booked his flights that he wanted to stay in my village and live the Tongan way – a request that I was happy to oblige.

For the first two days we stuck to a consistent schedule, school in the mornings and the beach in the afternoons. Fink made an instant impression on all of my school kids, as they were particularly awed by the size of his biceps and repeatedly asked me why mine were not as big. He watched me teach, played rugby with the older boys, observed the kids climbing up palm trees to give him his first taste of a Tongan coconut, helped me grade the kids practice exams, and even jumped into the fray by taking my place to teach a few games. I know after Fink leaves my kids will continually ask me, Where’s Maikolo (the Tongan name I that dubbed him)?

Those first two afternoons were no less enjoyable, as we headed out to the beautiful beaches of Keitahi and the even more stunning Secret Beach. One of the other volunteers, Joey, joined us on the second day, and it was an absolute joy to again watch my two worlds collide as one of my best friends met my close Peace Corps friend. Luckily, they liked each other.

After the beach, a Tongan man from Joey’s village invited us to come back to his house for dinner and then to kava. After a quick bite, we drove to the nearby village of Tu’anekivale because they had a toua (a women serving the kava) on that particularly night. So from 9 pm to 1 am Fink and I sat on opposite sides of the toua, two spots that inspire by far the lewdest jokes, and we drank kava bowl after kava bowl, as Fink learned some Tongan words and just how dirty the Tongan jokes can be in a kava circle. Always a good sport, the men were impressed by Fink, especially after the toua gave him a kiss on the cheek.

The rest of trip was equally amazing. Fink was able to meet all of my Tongan and Peace Corps friends, making a much better impression upon them than I normally do. We went out one night to the only two bars, and watched game 1 of the NBA Finals, which ended disappointingly in a Miami Heat loss, but were able to see our team come back strong and take game 2 the following Monday. On Saturday, we left the friendly confines of land with another volunteer, Ryan, to snorkel off of the islands surrounding Vava’u and even were able to climb through a few island caves that I didn’t know existed. We could not have had a better day weather wise, and the visibility in the water was perfectly clear. Fink even braved Mariner’s Cave, where he had to trust me enough to swim under water into a black hole with no end in site, but was rewarded by glimpsing the coolest cave I have even seen. To top it all off we had dinner at the Spanish tapas restaurant Paella on the island of Tapana - easily one of the most fun, delicious, and random things to do in Tonga.

The week went by way too fast, as we caught up on the past 6 months and picked up just where we left off before I had left for Tonga. It really meant a lot to me for Fink to come all the way to Tonga, and he is truly a special friend and person for doing so. I was so glad that I was able to share a little of my life with him from these past two years.

Thanks for reading and please enjoy the photos.