Graptolite - Speaking in Tongs
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Sun 15 Jun 2008 08:11
Sunday 15th June PM
Saturday night we watched the England/All Blacks game in a waterside
restaurant with Nick & Rosie and others.
Sunday morning saw the faithful called to prayer and dinghies raced ashore
with smartly clad sailors to one of the local churches. Not me obviously.
I'm still recovering from Ebola or leprosy or whatever and anyway communing
with deities is not my scene. Having said that I was curious to see what
damage the missionaries had done to these unfortunate people and I'd been
told that the singing was good.
After lunch Heike, Colin and I strolled down the near deserted main street
following the sound of bells. The big Catholic church didn't appeal. Too
much S&M and ritual cannibalism for me. The Wesleyan Methodist place we
found up the road had some good singing coming out of it. All in Tongan.
People were still flocking in, dressed in their big pandanus overskirts but
as we were fairly immodestly dressed for the occasion, we sat outside for a
while listening.
Heike went to another church for an evening service but it turned out to be
something like a Rastafarian disco. Big herds of pigs running up and down
the road in the dark apparently made the walk back to the dock less than
interesting.
M