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Dec. 12, 2006 Pasikala was a young man, maybe 22, from Neiafu, a city on the island of Vava’u in Tonga, in the South Pacific. I met him in Honolulu, which is a magnet for Pacific peoples. Perhaps US mainlanders don’t realize that most Polynesians—Hawaiians, Samoans, Tongans and Tahitians—are big, muscular, well-built people, by and large, surpassing Caucasians in this regard. Pasikala was no exception, he stood about 6’-2” and weighed around 185 pounds, but he was solid muscle from head to foot. He looked even taller than he was, because he wore his very curly hair in a big spherical mass, something like an Afro. However, Polynesians are pronouncedly non-Negroid, with their own characteristic features, and skin colors in the Amerindian range. Many Samoans and Hawaiians are sullen and aggressive, and it pays to be very respectful in their presence, but Tongans, on the other hand, are jolly and jocose, as friendly and amiable as can be. This was Pasikala all over again. He never stopped laughing, smiling and joking. His native language was Tongan, related to the defunct Hawaiian language, and he spoke English with some difficulty. Living conditions in Tonga, once called the Friendly Islands, tend to be primitive, according to Pasikala’s descriptions. I’ve never been there. Actually ‘Pasikala’ was his surname. I’ve forgotten his given name. Pasikala’s grandfather had been the first man in Neiafu to own a bicycle, and so ‘Pasikala’ became his name. ‘Pasikala’ is about as close as you can get to ‘Bicycle’ in a Polynesian language. Anyway, Pasikala managed to reach Hawai’i by stowing away on a ship sailing from Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga, to Honolulu. Somehow he managed to sneak into the hold of the ship with enough food and water for the 12-day voyage. Once aboard, though, he said, he found food and water in the hold and wouldn’t have had to bring his own. When he reached the docks in Honolulu, he managed to sneak his way through. Only one officer noticed him, but being a lenient, decent chap, let Pasikala go through. Once in Honolulu, Pasikala became a day laborer, doing construction work on a cash basis. He got involved with a Hawaiian girl, who idolized him, but, of course, she was a modern, civilized, American-style Polynesian, light-years away from pristine Polynesian modes of thought and action, like those of Pasikala. But they planned to marry. Then the blow fell. Immigration officers raided a construction site, arresting several Pacific Islanders who had made it to Honolulu. Pasikala was taken to Oahu Community Correction Center, which is where I met him. I had been arrested for illegal camping, and Pasikala was in the same dormitory, awaiting deportation to Tonga. I recall one anecdote of his. He had been arrested in Tonga also, for some minor offense. He said that, in Tonga, detainees have to work hard, digging ditches 12 hours a day with picks and shovels. They don’t just lie around, as they do in the US. He told me that when officers in jail there punished him for misbehavior, he was placed naked in a cell with a hive swarming with bees, which was agitated by one of the jailers. He was stung repeatedly and got swollen all over. During our weeks together, he taught me some Tongan words, which are obviously closely related to Hawaiian words: alofa = aloha = love; fafine = wahine = woman; vaitafe = waikahe = river; savaiki = hawai’i = homeland; moko = mo’o = lizard; etc. I don’t know what became of him. I wrote him later, but received no answer. He had been hoping to rejoin his girlfriend eventually. I was a little dubious about the likelihood of an Americanized Hawaiian girl being able to adjust to living in Tonga, but if they ended up marrying, she could probably have brought him back to Hawai’i. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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