Tonga

Before departing Tonga, we had a chance to visit with Elke and Werner Stumpe at their home on an island that they lease. Together with the crew of the vessels San Souci (from South Africa) and Breakpoint (from Germany), we toured their property with the Stumpes and had a cool drink made from fruits they grow on their land. The Stumps have developed the property with a Swiss Family Robinson type home made of sticks and palm fronds.

Elke Stumpe told us that the western culture is quickly coming to Tonga. According to them, only a few years ago you would see all women in the village wearing traditional skirts (vala). Today many women wear skirts of western styles, and only half of the men seem to be wearing the traditional skirts(tupenu). Men of any walk of life wear the tupenu. It was odd for us to see a grounds keeper with a machete chopping bushes and moving the brush around while in his long woven grass tupenu. When not in school uniforms, the younger generation, inspired by rap videos has adopted the baggy pant style. The school uniforms for the boys continue to be the tupenu skirts and for the girls it is the vala skirts. There is probably a difference in the cut of the boys and girls skirts but to us they looked the same.