Returning Home… Summer 2008
July 26th, 2008The long flight home…
As I had promised…I really am going to try to blog more consistently this year while I am still here in Tonga so lets see how long I can keep this up! We (my sister Sulia and my niece Sulia) left Utah on Tuesday on the Air New Zealand flight going out of Los Angeles and stopped over in Apia, Samoa before finally arriving here in Tonga this Thursday.
[Apia, Samoa Airport sign]
[ sister Sulia and niece Sulia outside the Apia, Samoa Airport]
Our flight was completely full as everyone is trying to get to Tonga for the upcoming Heilala festivities and the Coronation. They even had a live Tongan band greet us as we got off the airplane. I was trying to take a picture but I didn’t want look like an annoying tourist…hahahaha!!! Tonga is one of the few places that I have ever travelled to where the US Passport line is longer and slower than the other lines… the Tongan passport line had fewer people and the was so much faster… so to kill time my niece Sulia and I were taking pictures of ourselves… lol!
[me and niece sulia killing time while standing in the immigration line]
When we finally got through the immigration line we walked into the baggage claim area which is the most hectic area in the airport. Here are some pictures I took while I was sitting around watching everyone get their bags and having no desire to walk through the crowd and get my own bags… hahaha!
My niece was so fascinated by how people would climb on the luggage carousel and grab their bags… some of which were workers and others were just passengers trying to get their bags! She thought it was the coolest thing and wanted to go and climb on it just for the fun of it…hahaha! I was so happy to hear that because I was too lazy to go and look for the luggage so I told her to go and find the luggage. We finally made our way up to the front so that she can experience climbing up on the carousel thing to grab her bag…and for some reason she thought it was so awesome…yeah it doesn’t take much to make her smile! Hahahaha!!! She finally found all six of our bags and hauled them over to me while explaining that she much prefers the baggage claim in Tonga to the one in the US. She said the one in America is so boring… hahaha!
[me, niece sulia, and sister sulia posing for pictures while everyone was going crazy looking for their luggage]
This is my niece Sulia’s first time here in Tonga…so I have asked her to write down a couple of her thoughts to include in my blog…for our younger readers…
[niece Sulia with her favorite drink... Fanta Pineapple]
Lil’ Sulia’s Blog
Hi everyone my name is Sulia Matagi and I am 11 years old and I visiting the island of Tonga for the first time. I am finally here at the place I have heard so much about and where my mom, aunties, uncles and grandparents grew up. Now I understand why they love this place sooooo much! Everything is so different but it’s also familiar…I really don’t know how to explain it! When my aunty ‘Anapesi asked me to write something for her blog I said “Okay” like it wouldn’t be a problem, but now that I’m typing I don’t know what to write about. My aunty said to write about my experiences so I guess that’s where I’ll start.
When we were getting close to landing in Tonga I looked out the window and I was amazed at what I saw. From high above it looks like a huge flat surface with green everywhere! Everywhere you looked there was green, green, green, Not like in Utah where everything is brown and dusty (No offense to those that like brown and dusty places). It was just very beautiful even without mountains.
[niece Sulia pointing out the window as we are about to land in Tonga]
When we got off the airplane we saw all these random people staring at us and waving it was way embarrassing…LOL! When you first walk in to walk out of the building it’s INSANE! The line is so long that you feel like you’re getting WAY old when really you’re still your age, but the craziest thing at the airport is finding your luggage. When I say crazy I don’t mean like people are in line looking for their luggage… no I mean like people are running over people, trying to find their luggage! When you walk in you see all these people trying to find there bag’s and then you see the police/helpers telling everyone to move away and that they’ll get their luggage soon. Everyone is stepping on each other to find their bag’s like as if their whole life is in their bag, but my auntie’s were lucky they had me because I could squeeze through all these places and get our luggage, and I looked puny so people helped me a lot. When we got out of the airport we met up with Uncle Joe and all of his friends. What I think is cool is that in Tonga they drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is also on the right side instead of the left side
[niece sulia resting after finding all our bags]
I met a whole bunch of my cousins today it was the coolest thing! I don’t remember all of their names but I know that I am related to all of them. They came over and we played outside until 10:30pm and we were so loud and none of the neighbors even cared they just looked at us and laughed…I love my life! Oh yeah, one last thing, I was climbing on the mango tree in our yard and I broke a huge branch and I thought I would get in trouble but my uncle Joe just looked at me and laughed…LOL!!!
[niece sulia hanging from the mango tree right before breaking the branch...LOL!]
[niece sulia on the mango tree drinking a coconut]
Well I think I should go to sleep now because I’m getting really, really, tired. Bye for now everyone! I will write more later…