Hello everyone, 'oku mou fefe hake?

I hope all is well with everyone. Of course not all days can be sunny days, but at least when you find it cloudy and rainy, please note that we're all in the same boat. Today at the Lalo Kalosipani, it has been fine weather, sunny, cool breeze . . . just beautiful even hearing the sounds of the paini trees swaying with the wind, just amazing. Oh well, you should know that our two very old kalosipani trees have been for months trying to recover to their usual form, after hurricane Renee made some devastating changes to them, but we're still proud of these two trees. By this Christmas, our Kalosipani trees will be our very own Christmas tree.

Our Sunday

Today the 24th of October, our Sunday was the usual. Except that this time, I had to rise to the occasion of doing the 'umu. Not to make it sound like I have never done the 'umu before . . . believe me . . . I always wanted to do it, but lately they have kind of revoked my fei'umu license. Mo'oni! It was like, "Hiko don't do it", "Don't touch that". But today, I was surprised to find out that Neniti was really ill, and instead of giving me the honor of doing the 'umu, they called up the neighbours to do our 'umu (can you believe that?). I couldn't help but feel embarrassed, that our neighbour is doing our 'umu, instead of the man who is second in charge? No way was I going to allow that to happen! I got up straight away, chased the neighbours out, ke 'alu ia mohe ke fiu, te u 'ai pe 'e au 'emau 'umu. So, I vau and tatau the niu, laku e maka, faka'afu e 'umu, fohi e manioke, vau the mei and ta'o. I knew our 'umu was so kakaha, so I told them 60minutes only, but they feared that I'm out of touch lately, so they reckoned an hour and a half, and guess what . . . paku e 'umu. Me'amalie na'e kei toe hina kasa, ke toe tu'u fo'ou 'emau haka!

Looking after this house

Well, for now I'm here at home (my parents' house) all by myself. I only get to sleep over here most of the nights for the sake of looking after this place. Please note, the difference in taking care and looking after is that I don't clean anything, nor the windows nor the gardens. Basically, it's just checking if anybody had broken in, and that mom's koloa fakaTonga is still accounted for. So far, we have had breakins at the shop from the other side of the road, but not here, no. And since Poini and Mom had gone over to Bundyland and that Silia had returned to her family in Popua for the time being, so I figured out that I would have the place for myself. But in these circumstances, sometime it really sucks coz I could remember what it's like having a full house at one time, and now it's empty. Sad though to see changes coming and going in this family. I've been wondering though, if I could rent the place to some Chinese falekoloa, only for this coming month. Well, other than making some money, it could be one way this house could feel like home again. It's just an idea in case some of you are worried already.

Hihifo Catholic Youth Festival

Last week, our Catholic youth had our first ever festival celebrating youth talent and unity. It was held on three evenings, first evening was supposed to be held in Kolovai, but it switched suddenly to Matahau due to a funeral in the Hihifo area. This night na'e fakahoko 'aki e ngaahi fe'auhi solo tau'olunga from each of the participated youth group, namely Kolovai, Te'ekiu, Fatai and Matahau. And gladly for our representation, we had our very-own Etivise Sikei winning that category, then of course we had Melekoula Sikei our punake faiva and costume designer. The rest were a mixture of other Pacific island dances, a Tongan group dance, pea faka'osi 'aki 'a e Aloha Night 'a ia na'e faka'osi mai pe mo ia ki Matahau ni. The hit story for the night was when all the first prizes were being called out for our Matahau youth, and no wonder our very own relatives from Te'ekiu were'nt so amused as they couldn't take being second best lightly. Two of them (close relatives, I'd rather not say their names out of respect to them) were shouting out negative remarks at the whole function, calling it unfair and that and that etc, which became a bit disturbing. Well, since no-non-sense 'Anamaka and also Kasa couldn't stand those defamatory statements any longer, they both decided to respond in kind. Luckily, the peacekeepers got in at the right time and closed up the party. Well let's say, and believe me it could have gotten worse, but that was the end of our festival week. No big trouble but no big joy either in the end for everyone. It was a bit sad.

Parliament elections

Well folks, on these historic elections, I have updated you before about the impact on our little village. As you all know, it's a big change for our little island kingdom. But as you know, change always comes at a price. There was one incident that happened here in the village when two of our local elderly men ended up brawling over the elections. Ko e malo mo e 'ofisakolo, ke ne pukepuke, coz the rest of us, we were just happy to be entertained. Second to that, ko e 'ai ai 'ena toki nofo mai ki Matahau ni, mo 'ena toe fie fuhu. Kuo 'osi taimi ke na taki taha foki ki Vaotu'u mo Fatumu. But just as I had predicted about changes like these for our people, some won't take it lightly when hearing others saying something negative about their favoured candidate. Well, I won't be surprised to see more stunts like this again. After all, "Face of the Champion" (mata 'o e hau) never disappoints when it comes to stuff like this. But stay tuned for more on this historic elections scheduled for November 25. Click here for a list of all the candidates for this election. Remember, Matahau and the whole of Hihifo is Tongatapu Constituency no. 5.

Anyway, as for me, I need to do some stuff now for my work. Sorry folks if I had said anything that may have offended anyone. And if so, my humble apology to everyone and 'ofa atu from us all here at the lalokalosipani.

'Ofa lahi atu from me,

Hikosi'i