I made it home safe yesterday. I will be adding one or two more final posts to wrap up my experience with a few thoughts. I wish I could say, "it's good to be back", but I really wish I was still in Tonga with Rachel for another 3 weeks. A few more pictures is all I am up for tonight.
Fire roasted taro or something. This was a gift from one of the families in our village. Sharing food with your neighbors is part of the Tongan culture. Tongans have poor eating habits, a lot of carbs, fried food, and late night eating.
Sitting in the net between the pontoons on the trimaran.
Passing time with "Winnie" (English spelling) and Loni, the teenage girls from our befriended Tongan family. I would tutor Winnie with her math and English assignments. The schools can not afford text books which greatly reduces the students ability to effective learn.
Winnie starting the 400m track race. She had won this event and it is normal for family members to run down to the field and yell for their children. The track was all grass and there was a bit of rain this day. After she one this race, Rachel ran down and did a couple cartwheels. Everyone was surprised to see her gymnastic moves and the whole town was talking about it. The Tongan youth are very interested in things like this, especially American dance style.
Lima is the fifth daughter in our Tongan family. She is wearing her school uniform. All the girls braid their hair.
Missionaries of many Christian faiths are common in Tonga.
One of the fruit trees in our yard, this one is a papaya tree.
One of the species of centipedes we say, this one is about 6". In one of my first entries, we had thought Caleb was playing with centipedes, but they were really millipedes. We had a lot of millipedes in our house in the evening, they would just walk across the floor minding their own business. The millipedes give you bite that is similar to a fire ant bite.
I found three centipedes of this specie in our house. I only told Rachel of one. Each night Rachel would go to bed thinking that bugs are crawling all over her. She would use mosquito repellent at night and I wouldn't... she slept with a sheet over her while I did not... so... if a bug was going to get one of us... it would be me. I slept great every night. We used a mosquito net overCaleb.
Common jellyfish, this is a small one for this specie. On the trimaran, we saw a school of jellyfish under the boat... there must have been thousands. I never saw this specie in the water while snorkeling, but I often saw a smaller specie.
Caleb playing with the starfish. There are thousands of this specie of starfish on the reef below our house.
The army of ants the we battled everyday. The won this skirmish and walked away with the cracker.
Common crab at our beach, about 5" long. One night a crab was literally knocking at our door. 
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