Vavaʻu, Tonga · 2020The banana agreement

In Sweden there's a saying that goes roughly: if we do this, you take care of the bananas. It means that if I keep my side of a deal, you look after what I need.

A few years before we left, we made that agreement with God. We would take care of His business, and He would take care of the bananas. This was in Sweden, where no bananas grow.

God has a sense of humour. In Tonga we were given bananas fifteen or twenty times in a single year. Sometimes a neighbour came with a small bunch, sometimes a big one.

One man stood out. The first time he came, he said to one of our daughters, “I support John, you need these,” and left three big bunches of the finest bananas you can imagine. The weeks that followed were hard for us, and those bananas made all the difference.

He came back again and again, always silent, just bringing the bananas with a smile. We called him the Mysterious Banana Man. The fourth time he brought five big bunches, some ripe and some not so ripe, which is perfect for a large family.

Bananas are an amazing fruit. You can eat them raw, boil them, fry them, bake with them, freeze them and make smoothies. We did all of it.