My visit to the Tongan Police Station

So, the Christmas/New Year's celebrations being over I had hoped to settle into a quieter existence only to find that the week following New Year's is "Church Week" here in Tonga, with church services going on daily, morning and evening.
OK, I am not an atheist and truly believe in freedom of religion, however I also believe that other people's rights stop where my nose begins so to speak.
Tonga is a particulary religious country, not unexpected since when one looks at the big picture it is an extremely small dot of land in an immense ocean, at the mercy of the weather and any geological hiccups which might occur to an almost unfathomable degree.
Getting back to church week..I live in a house which has a Free Weslyan Medothist Church (the main church in Tonga) kitty corner across the street, a church hall a few doors down and a Free Church of Tonga (a Pentecostal breakaway sect of the Free Weslyan) just behind on the next street. Normally the daily routine is church bells from the Free Weslyan at 5 a.m. followed by church bells from Church of Tonga (these go on for at least a solid 5 mins.) then the singing starts, followed by a lengthy sermon in Tongan by the minster, delivered at the top of his lungs to the point of hoarseness. In the evening this is repeated around 7 p.m. and the service normally lasts until 9 p.m. or so. Once or twice during the week there is some event at the church hall and these can go on until late into the night.
OK... so far I'm coping in spite of the fact that when there is the occasional quiet spell between the evening/morning events the neighbourhood dogs take their turn to disturb the stillness.
However, over the past few weeks the Church of Tonga seems to have undergone a revival and many, many times their evening service, complete with drums has lasted into the late evening and early morning. I began to ask myself.."when do they sleep?"
Since they are there at 5 a.m. and again at 7 p.m. and stay until 12 midnight that leaves only from about midnight to 5 a.m. to sleep right! 5 hours. Possibly they sleep all day? Don't any of them have jobs to go to, or children to take care of? These and other questions started to pop into my head...not the least of which was "when can I sleep?"
I began wondering about that civilized invention called the "noise by-law" which we have in N. America...quiet between the hours of 11 at night and 7 in the morning. Have the Tongans something like this? If not, why not? Surely I am not the only one who needs to sleep at night.
So, in spite of the travellers caution to stay clear of the local police when visiting a foreign nation, taking courage in hand I dropped by the local constabulary. After explaining the situation to a seemingly sympathic policewoman who only questioned whether I had any personal animosity to the Church of Tonga, I was given a tel# to call if the nightly Church of Tonga services continued past 10 p.m. b/c there is in fact a by-law which forbids noise, even the honking of a car horn after 10 p.m. Wow, better than I thought!
Quiet that night and no after 10 services at the Church of Tonga have been heard since then. Another interesting thing is that many of my neighbours have been going out of their way to say hello to me. I wonder if the police did talk to people in the neighbourhood as I suggested, possibly mentioning that there had been a complaint from a "palangi"....I am the only palangi around.
So, maybe there is some special power in being a palangi...no fear of the evil eye or something to that effect b/c I am sure that all the neighbours are relieved but none would have complained...being a stranger/palangi I am given the leeway to act a little differently.
So, I am now only wrestling with my personal tendency toward insomnia and working daily in the library. It is almost ready for the students to come back and use. I understand classes start in about 2 weeks. Still lots to do tho' and the weather has been a little hotter and somewhat muggy. Have to drink lots of water to replace that lost to perspiration brought about by moving, breathing, etc. Not as bad as Southern Australia though, where I hear they have been having a heatwave in the 40's (100+).