In the October holidays, 29 boys accompanied by Mr Cameron Quince, Mr Myles Carrick, Mr Troy Stanley and Mr James Norman embarked on a Service Learning/U15s Rugby Tour to Tupou College, Tonga. Over the years the relationship between Newington and Tupou College has continued to strengthen as a result of these special touring opportunities. Below is an edited speech given by Tour Captain, Mitchell Loveridge (10/MA) after returning from the Tonga Tour.

Our time in Tonga went way too fast, but thinking back to our first day in Tonga it feels like a lifetime ago. In only eight days we were involved in so many extraordinary experiences that it felt like a lot longer.

I am and I think we are all grateful for Dr Mulford’s efforts in reuniting the two brother schools. Both schools are incredibly blessed to have such a tight connection to each other, improving each other and giving them both more diversity. Tupou College’s Principal has also seen the importance of the relationship and he has spent a lot of time strengthening the bond; he provided us 29 boys and four teachers with amazing hospitality. I think that Mr Quince should be given enormous praise for the pride and passion he puts into the relationship. We all saw the respect and love he gives the Tongan culture; back at Newington you can see how he looks after the Tongan boys so kindly. The Tupou boys’ lifestyle is completely different from ours, but they embraced us with open arms and helped us immerse ourselves in their unique culture.

All of us had a wonderful time in Tonga because of the way everyone looked after us. Every boy was humble, respectful, friendly and generous; not once did I hear anybody complain. These attributes we hopefully will bring home to Sydney and Newington. All of us, staff included learnt a lot from our Tupou brothers, whether to smile at boys passing by or to share what little you have. To put this into perspective, many of the Tupou boys spent all of their own money to buy a lollipop for us and would not let us refuse it. Even if they had not eaten all day, their money would go towards us. If you walked between classes you would have seen at least 50 boys go out of their way to come and say hello. Not once did I meet anyone at Tupou, or in Tonga who was not friendly. The Tongan boys who slept in our dorms sacrificed so much for us, including their brand new dorms and their studying time. The equivalent of their trial exams were on while we were there and they provided us with a lot of care. A boy in our dorm became really sick, but two of the Tongan boys stayed up all night long going to the toilet with him to make sure he was ok. I know everybody on that trip had moments which we will cherish for as long as we live.

Our touring party had some life changing experiences in Tonga. Amazing experiences where you could not get anywhere else in the world. There are not many places where you can see and feel so much passion in their singing. You could pay thousands to see the best singers and musicians; however, I would choose to sit in their chapel and listen to the Tupou boys any day of the week. Being able to witness a traditional Tongan wedding, as well as watching traditional dancing and fire twirling in the Hina Caves are things we will never forget. For example, when we asked a boy if he could climb a palm tree and he responded no and then laughed and within 20 seconds was 20 metres up dropping down coconuts.

An experience which will probably stay with me for the rest of my life was when George Atiola’s little brother got up and sent us all to tears as he spoke about how he felt when his brother left for Newington. When he started crying and told us how much he misses his big brother and told us how he has not seen him for over two years, I realised that when the boys come over from Tupou College that it is incredibly hard for them to leave their parents, brothers and sisters, all of their friends and their rich culture. These boys are given an amazing opportunity to come over to Newington. It is incredibly hard for them to leave and integrate into a different culture, but they do it so well. These boys are and need to be treated in the utmost respect by the Newington staff and boys as they are doing something incredibly courageous. In just eight days, we crammed many different experiences into the tour but it was what we learnt which we will remember the most.

In our society and even at our school we seem to judge people on measurable achievements rather than qualitative achievements. We tend to believe that the person with the highest salary or whoever scored the top mark is a better person, rather than qualitative accomplishments. You cannot really score those who help the struggling boy, the boy who cleans away the plates, or the one who studies the hardest but has been made to repeat three years in a row. We were given huge proportions of amazing foods and the leftovers were given to the boys, these leftovers were probably going to be some of the best food they would eat that year.

Yet never did I hear anyone complain, even when they waited on our arrival until 4 AM to have dinner, even when they were sleeping on the concrete with backpacks as pillows and we were in comfy beds and even when we went to the farm helping weeding for just half an hour and we were complaining and they came back after six hours and had smiles ear to ear. I learnt from Tupou College that you should not miss these little and quiet achievements as these things make a person and a community better. It gives a heart to a school and to a country. Something that we have been working on at Newington is to build us into men of substance rather than hollow men. Tupou has shown me that it is a lot more important to have character and be a good man before anything else.

The opportunity we were given to travel to Tonga and be embraced with such love and compassion was a once in a lifetime trip. It was great to see a different perspective and side to the Tupou boys who come to Newington. We were incredibly fortunate to be able to immerse ourselves so easily into such a rich and unique culture. Words cannot describe how thankful everyone on the touring party is for their amazing hospitality. I wish I could stay there forever, as I could never get sick of the smiling faces and delicious food. I recommend that everyone should be signing up for next year’s tour and it will be even more special as it is their Sesquicentenary.