USA Alaska
USA Alaska
What anyone is doing in frozen Alaska I have no idea. But apparently there are ways to stay warm, or at least live in a limited stupa (?) There are surprisingly a number of Tongans in the frozen tundras making a living and supporting their family in Tonga and in other parts of the United States.
The photographs of the stunning landscape makes it all exotic, and the place to visit if it were not for the thought of leaving the tropics to the frozen tundra. But like many of the family oriented societies of Eastern Europe, and the Middle East, Tongans will go where ever their family members reside and where together they can pursue support for home and a new life.
I was surprised to hear there is more to Alaska than Anchorage which I had unwittingly thought was the only habitable place in Alaska. There are a myriad of places in Alaska where Tongans work as clerics, loans managers and baggage handlers.
It was amazing to think that one could move totally from an environment where ice is artificially generated at a very expensive prize, to where the thing floats freely on the water and noone thinks twice about it. These people have a number of things from their daily lives that we here in Tonga only read about in books or see in movies.
[ref: Photographs © and used courtesy of Kaueni Finau]