Publications & Links
In 1975 the Peace Corps Tonga office gave every volunteer a 200-page cookbook developed by and for Peace Corps Volunteers in Tonga. A beautiful book showing how to build a Tongan earth oven (umu), and listing many Tongan plants and animals in both English and Tongan with cooking directions. Scanned to PDF in 2015.
In 1976 I had the opportunity to interview Tongan elders of Niua Fo'ou about the dramatic evacuation of their island in 1946. Those interviews were later published by anthropologist Garth Rogers of the University of Auckland. The most colorful character was Palenapa Lavelua — a drunken bum and a good storyteller — whose tale appears in Chapter 5.
In Memory of Three Dear Friends
The legendary hermit savant from Denmark who lived in Tonga for about 30 years. He returned to Denmark in the early 1990s and died there in 1995. A tremendous influence on Tom's own life.
Left Tonga in the early 1990s for Japan, where he taught English, before developing brain cancer. He was brought back to the USA, where he died. "The time that Lolo and I shared a house together was one of the happiest times of my life."
Became a chicken farmer in Puerto Rico and named his farm "Hacienda Niua Fo'ou." He died of a heart attack while working in his fields in 2005. "Ifa was a role model of kindness and re-defined what 'open hearted' means."
"I would like to dedicate this to the memory of my beloved friends: Tavi, Lolo, and Ifa. Three men whose virtues of caring and generosity raised the bar higher than most of us can ever hope to reach." — 'ofa atu, Tom Riddle, USA, 2026
Read the memoir about Tavi →