ORDINARY TONGAN LIVES - Houma, Tonga

Story collated and written by Haitelenisia Afemui ‘Uhila Angilau for her 'Ordinary Tongan Lives' facebook page

“At about 2:30pm yesterday, we were at Fanga selling a truck-load of manioke. After 30 minutes of sitting there, we sold one basket. That’s when I called my Mom and asked to speak to my Dad. I wanted his permission to give away the cassava for free—especially for those in dire circumstances after the cyclone. My Dad grows a lot of different crops. We help him and we also sell his crops. Knowing him, I knew he’d say yes. It’s something he’s always done so of course he said yes. We stopped selling right away and headed straight to Pātangata. We stopped at every house to drop a basket for each family. Many of them thought they had to buy them.

They told us how they live off the ocean and don’t have tax allotments for farming. I really felt for a lot of them. They definitely needed it. Some people ran to their houses to get seafood in exchange for what we gave. Some said they would like to pay us back with seafood next week once they go back fishing. We knew they were grateful and wanted to show it by offering something. But we reminded each of them this was for free. When we came to the end of the village, a lot of the kids there were already running ahead of us yelling, ‘The Mormons are here! The Mormons are here!’ We are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and it has taught us a lot. But we weren’t going for the Church. We just wanted to help.

If we sold the truck we gave away, we would have made at least $600. Everything we’ve sold has been sold out this week. We’ve sold 4 trucks of manioke this week. People know us because we’ve been farming for so long. But the money is nothing compared to the joy we felt. After Pātangata, we wanted to go to Popua but the waters were too high and we couldn’t get there. This is not new though. We’ve done it before. Sometimes we randomly drop by a village like Popua or any other area and drop off food for them. In each case, you always come back with the best feeling ever. We were just glad we were there in a time of need.” - Houma, Tonga 

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