For the record, the Palangi is me.
It is the Tongan for word for someone who is white, of European descent to be more accurate. The young girl in the last image has albinism. I was the only palangi on the scene that day (and most others as well).
"Da Palnagi wanna go swimmin eh?"
That's what I heard a young boy yell out to me my first day I was in Tonga as I was down by the wharf watching the kids swim in the afternoon sun. Everyone seemed to think this remark was particularly hilarious. One thing I learned quickly in Tonga was that people will laugh at you, often and openly, especially as a "palangi". So when the boy from the water called this out, I simply hollered back, "Yeah, da Palangi wanna go swimmin!" I snapped a picture, shrugged off my backpack and camera, and jumped in, clothes on. We laughed...together, hard.
I didn't need to speak Tongan to know they were saying to one another,
"She's not really going to get in in she?"
They were surprised that not only did I join them, but I could swim quite well by their standards. This incident would precede me in a number of locations on Tongatapu.
