Pangai - big city to some

On Tuesday the couple from the outer island finally made it into Pangai for a visit! We were all excited to see them, their boat schedule was changed three times before they made it here in the afternoon. That night we went out to the one restaurant in town and had pizza and beer. There was quite the international group of people hanging out that night - america, ireland, germany, poland, australia. We met a few more people that are living in town here, they're fun to hang out with.



Eric and Melanie had to get back for the beginning of school, so had to catch the next boat back instead of staying in town longer. So it was supposed to come through during the day on Wed, then it changed to the middle of the night and Eric had to get up every hour and go out our back door to check for it on the beach. Then it changed to Thurs. morning, Thurs. night, and finally 5:00am on Friday today. So the schedules are constantly changing. On Tues. both big ferry boats came into Pangai and it was a circus in town. People were hanging out everywhere shopping for new supplies that came in. And the gas station had lines of cars waiting to fill up.

On Wed. night we were invited to Mele's house for dinner, her brother is the harbor master in Nuku'alofa and owns the training center I work at, so he wanted to have dinner with us and some other people in town here. Mele is the best cook here!! She cooks Tongan food, but with a more western style, using more spices and flavor. They had a buffet set up on their patio, we had a roasted pig, rice with veggies and little octopus, shrimp, and really good steak/beef. And last night we made bean burritos with Alicia, Eric and Melanie. It was really nice to see them and have them stay with us. On one of the nights it was like a big sleep-over with four people in our living room!

We had a few unfortunate events the last couple of days though. Alicia was ready to take her black puppy home for the first time, Brett went out the back door to find him, and he was laying there dead next to our house!! It was really sad, our neighbor kids were really cute though and helped dig a grave. Brett started packing down the dirt, then we realized the kids were mounding it up like a Tongan grave. They even lined it with rocks, and with white shells spelled out "puppy"! We noticed the mom dog was looking really sick too and not eating. The next morning we found her also dead next to our back door!! The neighbors think it might have been some kind of poisen or something they got into. The rest of the puppies are doing fine, bouncing around and nipping at our feet whenever we go outside.



Brett went to teacher planning today, and starts school with the kids on Monday. I'm just hanging out, doing a little work when needed. It's been pretty lazy here lately. We did get some packages and mail recently (thanks mom and dad!), so we're getting updated on the rest of the world through people and time magazines. I wonder sometimes what the newest songs on the radio are.