TONGA

Rhett was just about to update this blog, but his explosive diarrhea says otherwise! Haha, we were walking away from this flee market, and he's like, "Guys, I gotta go" (Guys=Austin and Uliti, a cousin. Liti speaks good english and is so rad, he's been our tour guide and become a good friend.) So Liti is like, alright, let me call a cab. Rhetts like, No, like right now! So he ran in the bush and did his duty! So we went and got him some toilet paper and he was greatly pleased. Since then he's been going pretty steady! Haha, but he'll be alirght. If not, I'll just give him a little blessing.

Man have we been having some fun! First off, the second day we got here we were out in the sun for like 6 hours! The tongan sun is brutle and Rhett's peeling forehead can witness to that! He looks like a burn vicitm...hey, he is a burn victim! This coast line that we went exploring down was amazing. It was on the north shore of the island, and had a low overhanging cliff with waist deep water that ran all the way down the side of it. There was a current pushing north with the winds, so that when we got sick of walking we could just wade....lazy river style. Anyways, Liti all of a sudden warned us of black and white snakes that are deadly to the bite. I figured that there was nothing poisonous in Tonga. The funny thing was that Rhett went off in some cave off the shore a few yards, and he looks up and BAM! There was one of the snakes just sitting right over his head. Rhett has an eye. Let me tell you. He can see everything! Look a crab! A fish, a starfish! What is that? He sees it all! A good companion. Ok he's back! Here Rhett...Sorry guys, you just never know when that diarrhea's gonna hit. So let me tell you about Austin's injury. We went out to this island just a little way off the coast with a bunch of the family that's hooking us up and it was just us there. Right off the coast of the island is this old sunken ship that's completely rusted, the top of which sits about 15-20 feet from the water. So naturally we had a good time diving and flipping (and Austin gainer-ing) off of it for a while. Then we moved on to the rope swing that hung off of a coconut tree right by the shore. At first we were just swinging out of the tree over the 6 inch deep water coming back onto the sand. Then Austin wanted to try swinging into the water, so he had me pull him as far and as fast as i could on the rope towards the water. He let go over water that was hardly to his shins and lands first on his feet and then on his back. He gets up quickly, smiling, as if nothing happened. Then he looks down at his aching foot to see a flap of skin dangling from his heel with blood pooring from his wound. When one of the Tongans saw it, he went and grabbed some leaf and folded it up, put it in his mouth and chewed it into a pulp. Then he pulls it out and puts it in his hand and squeezed the saliva-leaf juice into Austin's gaping laceration. "ah, that stings!" he yells with a smile on his face. The tongans were proud that he didn't cry or moan. So I've had a good time dancing the past couple nights while Austin's had to stay at home, poor chap. Yesterday was sweet. We checked out some of the sights like the King's Tomb, then went to the blowholes. It was seriously so cool. 4-5 foot swells were coming in and crashing into the rocks and through holes in the rocks sending water 30+ feet into the air while we stood on the cliff and watched. Don't worry, we have some pictures. This place is amazing, even if it is 3rd world conditions, there's no surfing, and pigs eat dead dogs.......yeah, that's not even a joke. Well, we love you all. Noko'o!