How the first api (House) was built in Tonga:
Thousands of years ago on a lush lonely island, there was one family. This is their story.
“Ofa come here, I need your help.” Mafi asked as she heard the clamour of all the feral animals (Predator or not) in the lush forests of Tongatapu ( Before there was a name for that Island). Her family traveled through terrains that no one had survived. It had beens days since they arrived at this mysterious island. “Ofa, come here you lazy pig!” Sione screamed as the echoes of mighty roar disrupts many animals rest. Mafi and Sillivia were calmly sweeping the floor of their camp.
“I can feel a little bit colder, dad.”Ofa mentioned as he grabbed the raw pork from his and Sione ( His dad) pouches for supper. The whole family questioned the unfamiliar sense of a cold breeze. He didn’t feel like anything was about to happen. The screams of pigs made a weird sense of them being watched. It had never rained since they’ve been here.They all thought that they needed to watch out before their supplies were being stolen by people they thought wouldn’t be on this island.“ Mum our supplies are being stolen by someone.” Ofa and Sillivia said in unity. Mafi pondered around building something that they could be safe in. She saw some plans to building places in Hapi,her home before moving here. In the afternoon,when everyone was altogether smiling like they just saw something amazing. “Family, its time we build an Api(House)!” Mafi proclaimed.
For a couple of minutes Ofa, Sillivia and Sione were all wondering if the mother or wife was acting crazy. “ I’m serious if you’re wondering.”Mafi said to make matters better. “ Well, we do need need to create a Api because of people stealing our supplies from our camp.”Ofa mentioned as he had been convinced from the start. It would take two days to complete the api as they knew half of their resources was already stolen.It was a hard complex process. See, the whole family weren’t builder or knew how to create something. Without knowledge of building the family was working for a week. I just came back from the beach up north. “There's a storm coming and this could destroy our camp but also us.”Sillivia said. The storm would destroy them,however they continued building their house but more faster as they had finished adding in the floor to the house.
A week had gone and the moving was a quick job as it had taken a long time for the storm to come. As more family moved to this island.The idea of an Api was spread around Tonga and is continuing today, as bigger structures. A house is called an Api, as homage to the original house that was built to survive the worst but still remain and also because of Mafi actions.My message to you from this passage is that you can think out of the box(like a house). It is alright if people don’t believe you.
