Defining Moments

Tevita was born with a talent to draw.  His fits memories of his passion for drawing came from his young childhood while attending primary school.  He had a teacher who would tell a story and while they were telling the story would draw pictures of the story.  This really intrigued Tevita and he was instantly interested in art.  He soon found himself going to the movies just so he could see the pictures then the next morning would sit down and draw out what he had seen the previous day in the movie. 

Tevita relates a story when he was younger in 1980 when and some friends were in Pangai, Ha’apai.  The boat didn’t come when it should so they spent the night on the beach so they could be the first ones on tomorrow's boat.  They did get on but so many other people boarded that the boat almost sunk in the harbor.  Many people had to get off but the boat was still quite overloaded as they started the trip to the nearby island of Ha'afeva.  Somewhere between Pangai and Ha’afeva, the overloaded boat capsized.  Eleven people died that day but Tevita found himself on the bottom of the boat which was now all that showed.   From his vantage point he could see and hear many people yelling and screaming for help.  He knew he could not just stay there and watch so he jumped in to help.  

He came across an eight year old boy hanging on to a volleyball.  Tevita had found a small board that he was now holding on to and told the boy to hold on to the other end.  Tevita could see Ha’afeva in the distance and thought he would be able to make it to the island by the end of the day if he paddled hard.  But the distance was deceiving and with the small boy holding on to the other end of the board, progress was slow.  He paddled and tried his best to move through the water  until it was almost dusk but could see they weren’t much closer to land.  He was quite sure he would die that night but decided to have the young boy stand on the board and wave his arms to see if he could attract any  attention from the boats that had been sent to rescue the people.  He truly felt blessed as they were seen and soon rescued.   It was almost 8:00 P.M. when they finally made it to shore

This incident made Tevita strong and when times get tough for him, he draws from the strength he learned that day saying to himself "I can get through this as nothing can compare to that day".   

Tevita tells another story of sleeping in the attic every night while attending school in New Zealand.  If there were art classes being held at night, he would come down out of the attic and attend the class.  He had a part-time job where he worked washing dishes on Friday and Saturday night for $20.00 a night.  He would go to school all day Monday thru Friday and then work Friday and Saturday.  He lived on bread, milk and tuna fish and was glad when he got to go to work because he could eat the leftovers.

He had a good teacher in Auckland who helped him get in to the Auckland Technical school.  They only took 30 students a year and he was one of the lucky ones.  He had to make a portfolio to be accepted.  He attended school both day and night as well as working many all-night shifts.  Frequently when riding the but, he would fall asleep and many times would miss his stop.  He was able to find a job in a plastic factory and came back to Liahona in 1980.  At that time, Liahona was shuffling teachers around and there was an opening for an art teacher.  He was hired and taught school there for the next 13 years until 1993.