The Times, They Are A Changin'

Egads. It's been a really, really long time since I've posted a blog here.

Well, in the interest of putting a conclusion to my very cobwebbed last post, no we did not meet the King of Tonga. However, we were greeted at the airport by his personal assistant and a couple of other attendants who gave us a tour of the island before we flew to Va'vau for our week-long sail about that group of islands. It was nice, but I would've liked to have spent more time actually on the islands rather than a boat. The snorkeling was very cool.

But, that's ancient history -- MONTHS ago!

Today, was a monumental day. It was the day that Barack Obama was elected to be the next US President! I am very happy about this news! I think he gave an amazing speech and I was quite impressed with John McCain's concession speech as well. He was extremely gracious and well spoken and I think he handled his rabid crowd of "supporters" well. Now, let's hope those rabid supporters don't do anything drastic in the next four years...

I'm even more excited about moving to Kenya now. (Oh yeah, did I mention that we're moving to Kenya in January?!?!). I mean, the thought of moving there has always been a bit scary and exciting. But now, I feel like I can go there and be proud that my country has elected a half-Kenyan president. I only wish that we were going to arrive in Kenya a bit sooner. Alas, the itinerary has been made and we'll be arriving 3 days after Obama's Presidential inauguration. I've been thinking that it would be cool to be in Kenya on that important day.

Already it feels like the negative stigma that has shrouded our country for the past 8 years is suddenly lifted. Obama is a man who is preaching words like "hope" and "change" and is inspiring a country that has become apathetic and despondent. People who have felt powerless and at the mercy of those who have abused their political offices. Obama's grassroots approach is giving power and inspiration back to the people. And, in his speech, he reminded people that they have to continue to help themselves -- that they cannot depend on him, a single leader, to carry them. This is an important distinction and, I believe, something that will be difficult for many Americans to take on. But how wonderful if the people of America take on this challenge and embrace stewardship of their country's fate and its global impact!

It will be interesting to see what transpires under this new administration. I know that Obama will restore the US foreign diplomacy which GW has so unwittingly tarnished. It's also clear that Obama is inspiring people in a way that is being compared to JFK and MLK -- BIG stuff! It was powerful to see the video footage of the likes of Jesse Jackson and Oprah Winfrey in tears as Obama gave his speech. Lots of people showing emotion -- when was the last time people reacted to a presidential election in this way? This is not only an American thing. The entire WORLD has been hoping that Obama would be the next US President. It is a global concern.

This has been a marathon campaign and I think everyone is glad that it's finally over. However, once he takes that office and the day-to-day events and decisions and negotiations start to take hold, will Obama still have the ability to inspire change?

Trip to Tonga: Part 1

A few weeks ago, Susan and I went on a family vacation with her family to the South Pacific Kingdom of Tonga. Before this trip was planned, I never even knew there was such a place as Tonga! Hey, I like to blame it on my American upbringing, but the funny thing is that we Americans hear about Fiji all the time and Tonga is practically next door to Fiji. What's up with that? It's a curious phenomenon for which I have no explanation...

Susan's parents decided that they wanted to rent a sailing yacht for a week to sail around Tonga and bring the family along. So, with much planning and intra-family-communication (which I blissfully delegated to Susan) a vacation plan was devised and off we went! In all, there were eight of us, me, Susan, Susan's parents, her brother Joff, his partner Min, sister Michelle and her friend, Leah. Susan and I flew into Auckland the night before to stay the night at her parent's house before taking off with the rest of the family on an early morning flight to Nuku'alofa.

Susan's father, Gavin, picked us up at the airport and on the drive to their house, he proceeded to tell us about how the King of Tonga had actually gone to his primary school in Auckland and that Susan's friend's father had gone to school with the King of Tonga and that they still keep in touch. When this friend of Susan's family learned of our planned trip to Tonga, he told Gavin that he would contact the King of Tonga (King George Tupou V) and tell his Royal Highness of our arrival. So, reportedly, this information had been conveyed to King George V (KGV) and there was talk that perhaps we might be invited to dine with the King. Gavin then explained that the King resides on the island of Nuku'alofa, but our plan was to go to the Vava'u group of islands and we would only be taking connecting flights from Nuku'alofa to Vava'u. However, the rest of the family was staying in Tonga longer than Susan and I and we actually had planned to fly back to Nuku'alofa and stay our last night there before a morning flight back to Australia (via Auckland). So, Gavin suggested that perhaps Susan and I could be the representatives of the family to have dinner with KGV. Gavin is a couple years older than the King, so although he went to the same school, was not in the same class. However, he did have photos that he took as a child when the young prince came to Auckland to see the school prior to his attendance, which Gavin later showed us that evening. We were all quite amused by the idea of having dinner with the King of Tonga and wondered if anything would come of it.

We had a nice dinner with Susan's family and a couple of her school friends that she invited for dinner and then went to bed. We had to get up at about 4 am to get to the airport by 5 for our 7 am flight (ugh). Leah and Michelle are quite into gourmet cooking and Michelle pooled her connections to obtain export-quality meats to transport from New Zealand to Tonga. Not only did they bring meat, but a whole host of other goods (cereal, crackers, jam, honey, butter, etc) to feed eight people for a week. Luckily, Susan and I only brought one check-in bag between us, as we needed to check in another whole bag full of food (as did several of the others). After checking in our bags (and the airport customs hermetically sealed the meat box in plastic wrap), we then stocked up on duty-free alcohol to keep us in good spirits on our sailing trip as well. While we were wandering around the airport before our flight, Susan and I realized that we had forgotten to stop our mail delivery at home, so Susan thought of sending a post card to our downstairs neighbor to ask him if he would get our mail out of our pathetically small mailbox. I was skeptical, thinking he wouldn't get the post card from Auckland until after we arrived back in Brisbane, but she sent it (and, miraculously, it made it to Brisbane before us and he did retrieve our mail for us!).

Soon, we were on the plane to Nuku'alofa. Stay tuned for more...

For those of you who can't wait for the next installment (who know how long it could be, with my blogging record?), you can go straight to the photos here: http://picasaweb.google.com/barckhoff/Tonga2008