No homeless in Tonga

James and I were walking to the ATM. A dishelved hopeless looking older man sat stewn on the sidewalk ten yards away. He had no shoes on his tattered feet. He looked sad and exhausted.. hot maybe hungry. My heart sank when I saw him. He did not ask for money he just sat quietly radiating sadness.

James and I have made a habit of trying to give thoughtful gifts to people in need, in the US so many are addicted to drugs we hesitate giving out cash. A bottle of water, some fruit, a meal or blanket are better gifts. But here in Tonga they say there are no homeless there are no drugs maybe some alcohol but nothing like the problems we see in the US. 

As my heart was bleeding for this sad man my inspired husband withdrew money from the ATM. He kept a 10 dollar bill out. As we walked by the man he handed it to the man. This moment is forever ingrained in my memory because the man reached up to take the money but at the same time turned his face to ground to ashamed to look in James eyes or even whisper a thank you. He was so humbled every motion and movement in his body radiated it but he also needed help so he took it dispute it tearing his soul in two. I was overcome by emotion and I wept, emotion overwhelmed me of the scene I just witnessed and emotion because of a memory that surfaced of before we were married my husband jumping up during a inappropriate scene on tv and flipping the tv off. That is who I married a man who has prompting and reacts despite the judgement of others. A man that has deep compassion and kindness. I think my devotion grew in that very moment and my feelings of love for his and to God expanded. I am grateful to a God who gave us the holy Ghost a discerning spirit to help us know what to do in this life. 

We are in the capital of Tonga

We made it to Nuku'alofa. We had rented a car and reserved a Airbnb in anticipation of coming here. We were excited to go to church and drive around to see the island and sites but when we got to the airport our rental van was not there. We tried calling several time but to no avail. A women working at the airport called us a taxi and we very  gratefully took the ride ( which ended up taking a hour) to our Airbnb. We are safe and it's clean but it's just shocking the conditions people live here. You hear stories about third word countries but the houses are mostly just cinderblock with rusted metal roofs some doors are just sheets there are no couches I see people huddled on the floor. It's been cooler here so it's doesn't feel like living in a sauna (I'm grateful for that) hopefully some of skin staph infection that almost everyone has now will clear up. I plan on getting some colloidal silver when we get to Auckland. There is a Costco there which we are all so excited about. Eating plant based has been good here but our options for fresh fruits and vegetables are limited to whats in season. So we mostly ate alot of watermelon with lime squeezed on, pineapple (until it went out of season) papaya, bananas, guavas, coconut, root vegetable (cassava, taro, sweet potato plantains) less often we had cabbage, tomato's, green beans, onion, garlic, cucumbers, star fruit, mountain apple, apples and occasionally we bought bread or barbeque chicken legs, one time we bought pizza but it was so expensive and had hot dogs for the pepperoni! Cheese is imported so it's crazy expensive anyways we are looking forward to more diversity in our diet. We are definitely spoiled coming from the US and having access to the even the most basic grocery store.

Our layover here is a day and a half but since we didnt end up getting a car and everything was closed Sunday (so we could not rent one) we just hunkered down which was good because I woke up Sunday morning with a fever and ear ache. I feel like I have been more sick than healthy on this trip. I wonder if its because of the immense amount of stress/ fear that I have had... I wish that I just trusted more in God instead, it would be alot better than making myself ill. Jesse had some medicine for ear infections so I took some and my ear doesn't hurt today. Hopefully we can go for a walk to the king's palace this morning which is close by (it has been raining nonstop and I'm unsure if the roads here are safe for children to walk along) the road hear are very narrow and mostly just gravel. It seems everyone has a car because you never see people walking. James and I have always exercised we love going for walks and runs so that has seemed strange to us. Most of the time here in Tonga we have not had a car ( we rented on for just a week) we simply walked everywhere with our bike stroller. 

This has truely been a life altering experience I'm so grateful we did it. We have learned so much. Most importantly my children have changed and  hopefully they can hold onto that change and use it to propel them to do good with there lives. That was one among many reasons we brought them here is that we wanted them to see the conditions of people outside of America to see how they live and what opportunities they have. I think it's really struck a cord with Royce. I hope they can all always remember how blessed they are and never take for granted the privileges they have or opportunities available to them. I hope they lift and help others less fortunate.