Cheerleaders at the Cave: When People Were Pom-Poms
TONGA
I’m not sure why I was debating. With all flights on hold to any of the other regions and limited ferry routings, Tongatapu was my primary playground. Unbeknownst to me, the Anahulu Cave was soon to be one of the highlights. Akin to my cave adventures in Ljubljana, Muscat, Harare and Ottawa, seeing the spikes and spindles of stalactites and stalagmites are stellar reminders of just how small I am in the Grand Scheme.
Usually, caverns can offer reprieve from a strong sun and avail springboards for the super keen athlete. Strong winds have coloured my stay in Tonga, sometimes softening to a light breeze, but generally shaking the screen of my laptop and giving me a sideswept look, so, I wasn’t particularly escaping the sun when I veered right into the underground tunnel.
A short walkway led to a modest cave. Soon, it became evident why the locals also loved this attraction. Splashing and spelunking happened all around. It was a playground that combined rock climbing and scaling with diving, flopping and tumbling from various heights into a freshwater pool, deeper than 15 meters. For a long while, I just watched ... Some scurried up only to find the spot from which to reenter the water, others chatted it up with others before diving back in. Almost no one sat and simply stared on the sidelines forever - each one of us was (eventually) coaxed into experiencing the cool clutch.
The sculptured surroundings created by the natural world over time offered an interior design that was elemental, variegated and useful. To infuse our modern moments, music filled the space as if this was the venue for an adult pool party. From Despacito to other top 40s, island music and Afrobeats, my senses were seeing old marry new, while Nature delivered (as she does so seamlessly), the backdrop for today’s tunes and technology.
What a symbiotic symphony of sites and sounds, co-created by the cosmos and humans! Often, these places are protected with protocols where touching, feeling, experiencing is substantially restricted with rope and stanchion. While the latter did secure the entry steps, spotlights then lit the way forward for your own amusement.
I gazed for a long while. Like a guest invited as a +1 to an event, I observed much more than I engaged. Then suddenly, a group of girls began cheerleading for me to make the plunge. And why not? Everyone that jumped in resurfaced, seemingly reinvigorated and rallying for more.
What makes strangers suddenly step forward to offer support? I thought of the ways in which we un/consciously encourage others and what the world would be like if regardless of relation, we could sense the fears and hopes of another, then with pom-poms of nurturing affection and assurance, be the sidekick that makes another a master of their own dreams.
For me, while these moments can sometimes be daunting, I’ve given myself a few high-fives for snorkeling with sharks in Tuvalu, ripping it on a jet ski in NZ, standing at the lip of an active volcano in Vanuatu and snorkeling solo in Samoa to see giant clams. Here too, I mustered up some mojo: the lowest ledge wasn’t going to be challenging enough. On the other hand, the high ones had me envisioning C-spine fractures and other catastrophic outcomes. So I let my hands cup the slippery and sharp edges, finding ways to smoother slants where my feet could follow, gripping and climbing till some middle mound balanced both fear and ‘I can do this’ in the same breath. I looked below, mental noting the small jagged outcrop of rocks that I had to make sure to miss. The girls counted me in (a few more beyond 1, 2, 3) - and I took the leap, simultaneously inhaling to the full real estate of my lungs while lunging my right leg forward first.
I’d never met them before and likely won’t ever see them again. Yet in that moment, these people became pom-poms to push me into a new terrain.
The splash was brisk. The water world welcomed me and though time seemed hard to gauge, I was expecting air sooner than it came. When I shuffled up to the surface, the girls chuckled. It took a while as they all laughed amongst themselves, reporting and sharing before they translated ‘we wondered when you were going to come up and why it was taking so long. When we were getting worried, you came up’. My jump must have landed me deep. Though I’d pushed my limits, I was in no mood to meander down below but rather, keen to leave the underwater capsule as soon as I arrived.
We all exchanged sentiments of success, as if my plunge was theirs too. It was as if it was gift I was glad to receive from them - and one I hurriedly mirrored. After all, it was my turn to pay forward the cheerleading encouragement to another random soul who also seemed to be sitting on the fence.
I’ve noticed that the girls here (and boys too) giggle often, when asking questions, or stopping to clarify directions, or for discerning how long I was underwater for. A singsongy ‘ee-oh’ was what I got, the Tongan way of saying yes. It's either this, or a fleck of the brow. The latter seems to be the more ubiquitous and universal motion - one which involves only the penthouse features of one's face, as if both eyebrows are going over the same speed bump. Gregarious laughter often filled the space here too. Perhaps these squeals of joy are on the same spectrum of ‘life’s short, got to enjoy what it offers’.
After the novelty wore off and comfort settled in, I scanned the caves again, basking in the sounds and little swallows that fluttered from one crevice to another. Being immersed where Nature offers herself as the venue of growth, giddiness and giggles, I felt gratitude wash over me. As we bid each other goodbye (me overstaying much longer than I anticipated), I climbed the stairs and looked to the fork at the exit. To the right sat the car and the direct drive home. To the left, a little strip snaked its way down to the beach.
Glancing to the hues in the setting sky, I wandered down the path. Like a little child, Igrinned to see the surprise that awaited at the bottom: a rainbow. As if it was Nature’s turn to also say, ‘I too am a cheerleader!’
May we be standing by and always on the ready to cheerlead one other,