My Final Site Visit

Several weeks ago I had my third and final site visit from Peace Corps. A site visit is when my Program Manager and several other Peace Corps staff come to my school and home, watch me teach, and speak with my teachers to see how I am doing as volunteer both personally and professionally. The previous two visits were extremely constructive, as while I have always felt that I had a strong relationship with my three other teachers, hearing them express their feelings for me was a positively overwhelming experience. In Tonga these moments rarely result without a few tears, and there was not a dry eye in the classroom on either visit.

For my third site visit, and one that I unexpectedly learned once it was over was also the final one, a ministry of education official tagged along to watch me teach. Over the past two years, as the Peace Corps Tonga framework has shifted to focus on volunteers working as teachers in primary and middle schools, the Peace Corps has formed a much closer working relationship with the Ministry of Education, one that has become stronger and stronger in the year and a half I have been here.

As a quick aside, one of the amazing aspects of living in Tonga is that because it is such a small country population wise (100,000 overall and no more 14,000 on my island of Vava’u) and landmass wise (all 176 islands are roughly equivalent to the size of Dallas or Memphis) that I have incredible access to numerous high-ranking officials. Just a few weeks ago I needed to talk to someone concerning the United States Air Force visit – more on that in a few months – and within minutes I was able to see and speak to the highest ranking military figure on my island.

I have met the Minister of Education. The deputy Prime Minister of Tonga attended my Peace Corps swear in ceremony. Last year I drank kava with the Minister of Finance and the Chief of Police. My first visit to Vava’u included meeting the Governor of the island, and all the volunteers up here know every Education ministry official by their first name. I’ve even been within feet of the King, and was condescended with a nod. It is pretty ridiculous when I stop to think about it and I could go on likewise for many more paragraphs.

To end the digression, never the less I was a little nervous when I heard a ministry official was coming to watch me teach. Even in my second year of teaching, I still have so much to learn about education and teaching English in Tonga. I love my students, and I like to think that they are fond of me, but I know that I still have a lot to learn in my role as a teacher.

But time and tide wait for no man, so I did what I have done for so long now, and taught my class while 7 people from the Peace Corps and the Ministry observed. Of course my kids, unused to all this attention, were as nervous as I was - making their behavior far better than it is on average - but working together we were able to cobble up a decent performance that satisfied all my spectators.

Afterwards, when we met with my other teachers, I was again blown away by their kind words about the job I was doing and about their feelings for me as a person. One of the most satisfying aspects of my time here has been the relationships that I have built with the people I live and work with, and I cannot properly convey how much it meant to me to hear that they felt the same way. In my still not strong Tongan, I tried to express how important they all were to me and how I could not have achieved anything without their help and support. I have an experienced an incredible time with them and tried to make sure they knew that.

It was a very touching moment, one that could only end in the most endearing Tongan phrase…’Ofa Atu (Love You).

Thank you for reading – I know I got a bit sappy at the end there – and please enjoy the photos below. Happy Passover and Easter to everybody!

P.S.       Before leaving you to the photos, several days ago we were able to gaze upon the beautiful eclipse in the clear skies of Vava’u, watching first a shadow creep over the moon before eventually spawning a reddish hue. The kids loved it, and they came to school the next day with a million questions. Superstitions are hard to break, however, and all of the students were convinced that it meant something terrible had happened, like that the King had passed away. Luckily, nothing happened as far as I know, but convincing them of that is another matter entirely.

My second site visit. My Peace Corps boss Lavinia on the left, Paea in the middle, Aki on middle right, and Selu far right

Last year's Class 5 and therefore this year's Class 6. I don't know why were jumping....

The non-jumping version

Paea and I listening to our site visit conversation