The Road Less Traveled : Goodbye and Hello

Like Peace Corps Volunteers, Wesleyan Minister’s serve for a period of two years. This does not mean that they only work as ministers for two years then return to life as layperson, but rather that they remain in a village church for those years before moving on to another one. Our church’s minister, having arrived in July 2012, had fulfilled his two-year requirement several weeks ago and a new minister was coming to take his place.

One thing you can always count on in Tonga is a goodbye feast, especially for someone as important as the Wesleyan Minister. In one of the few Sundays I can recount where there was only 1 church service, instead of the usual two or even three. This was to give the men and women of the village more time to cook the food and prepare the tables for the goodbye feast.

The service was like any other, and once the Lord’s Prayer was recited, we all left the church and walked to the hall into an overwhelming amount of food heaped on twenty or so tables. I was given a promising spot next to several of the more pious adult men and in absolutely prime real estate, right in front of one of the two roast pigs. We feasted while people took turns giving speeches and thanking the minister. There were many tears (a speech isn’t a speech in Tonga unless it coincides with plentiful amounts of crying, dramatically long pauses, and the theatrical blowing of one’s nose into a handkerchief) and the minister’s wife graciously thanked me for my service and reminded people that I was leaving soon as well.

It was a feast to end all feasts…that is except for the next two weeks when we had another round of copious amounts of eating to celebrate the arrival of the new minister. Once again there was lots of eating, crying, and speech making – though I believe this time these were “celebratory” tears rather than “sad” ones. I was just as fortunate in my seating arrangement in this feast, as I was honored to be invited to the main table with the minister, his family, and the village elders. Of course, proximity to the pig was again certainly an advantage, and no cause for complaints.

After not attending a feast in months, I very much enjoyed having three in as many weeks as I am trying to eat my full of roast pigs before returning to the states. As always, thanks for reading, and please enjoy the photos from my last camping trip.