1969 remembered: Writing about my first year in Tonga

In 1969, aged eighteen, I spent a year as a volunteer teacher in the village of Houma, Tongatapu, and lived with a Tongan family in Ha'alalo, a nearby village. For me, it was a formative year like no other in my life. I learned to understand and speak the Tongan language, I learned to live in a small community in another culture than my own,and I began to find the values, interests and ideas that I have tried to keep and develop in the following years.

I don't know what has happened to all the blog posts I put here: there were many which have disappeared, but it gives me an opportunity to start afresh. For more about my first year in Tonga, I can direct you to Amazon Kindle Books, where you can buy two e-books I have completed, both titled "1969: A Year in Tonga". It's not an original or captivating title, I know, but it tell my prospective reader what my books are about. I am working slowly on Book 3, and I think there may be a Book 4, too. After that, I want to write my stories in different forms, focusing on particular experiences, looking at later visits, too, and reflecting on how my lifelong connections with Tonga have affected me, and why you should read a book about Tonga. Write to me, comment, and above all, keep me to my plans, please.

Where was I?

Where was I? It's been a long time since I posted here, and I haven't idle, but work on the memoir of 1969, my first year in Tonga, has been slow. I have had competing work that paid the bills, but admit that I have let drift the momentum of my writing.

Now I am 65 (since January), I have thought about it a lot. The sands of time run through our fingers, seemingly quicker as we get older. I am forming a plan in my mind, to write about all my work and life in Tonga, and to sort out my numerous diaries, photos and recorded tapes.

I don't have a timescale yet, but I have ambitions to start and finish several projects, which seems to me a good thing. It is good to be back, though in reality I never went away. Keep watching for further news.