glenbrook south hs newspaper -- tonga pcv feature

8/7/2019 Glenbrook South HS Newspaper -- Tonga PCV Feature

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features March 11, 2011 13Titan travels to Tonga, adapts to cultureNirali DaveCO-FEATURES EDITOR

When John O’Malley, class of ‘04,

graduated from South, nobody thought hewould end up half-way across the worldin the Kingdom of Tonga, an archipelagoin the South Pacic.

O’Malley began his journey aftergraduating from Illinois WesleyanUniversity in 2008 with a double major inhistory and biology. Initially, he plannedon becoming a dentist but soon realizedhis dreams of traveling the world,backpacking across Europe for fourmonths prior to joining the Peace Corps.

According to O’Malley, he neverexpected to have joined the Peace Corps,and neither did his family. He applied hissenior year of college, but due to medicalclearance and other complications, hedidn’t join the program until October2009, with a 27-month commitment: three

months with a host family and two yearsof work on the island of Ha’apai.

“[My host family was] very nice to meand I learned Tongan really well in thosethree months,” he said. “It was studyingin a class the rst half of the day, justgoing around town the second half […] Topractice your Tongan.”

At rst, he hoped to teach biology, butsince there were no open positions, hetaught English.

“I was going to be a biology teacher atrst,” he explained. “There were not manyopenings. It was like one spot a year […]So they were going to make me wait. Butthen something happened where they hadto switch me into a different program andpostpone it for longer.”

In the end, however, he was able to

teach his passions of health and biology.Currently, he teaches two classes a day.

“What the Peace Corps is good for, Ithink, [is] it gives you the independence tochoose what you want to do,” he said. “Icame in as an English teacher and I founda way to change that […] I like that I cando all the fun things I want to.”

Taking this freedom into his ownhands, O’Malley began teaching kidssex education with another volunteer,as it isn’t taught in Tongan schools. Hishope is to reduce thenumber of unplannedpregnancies byeducating peopleabout the topic.

“We’re trying toteach kids

s o m esex ed

because it’s not really taught here,” hesaid. “It’s a taboo subject: teachers don’twant to teach it, kids are embarrassedabout it.”

In order to teach Tongan natives,he contacted health teacher MichelleScheinkopf and biology teacher ChrisHilvert this past winter to gather resourcesto take back.

“Students here don’t get their owntextbooks,” he explained. “They can’tafford it. There aren’t enough. There aren’tTongan textbooks. So I use the textbook and have them look at it during class andphotocopy things.”

He also began another major projectregarding healthy eating and oral hygiene.He receives money through a Peace Corpsfund in order to go through workshopswith a nurse, doctor and health promotionofcer at the local hospital. He’s makingposters, having radio broadcasts and isrenting a boat for a week to spread theword to other islands, hoping to solvemany prominent Tongan health issues.

“Diabetes [is present] in almost 20percent of the adult population here,”he began. “They’re obese [...] They loveeating as much as they possibly can, andthey’re eating a lot of canned importswith a lot of salt in there, so the bloodpressure’s off the charts. There’s so muchsugar in everything [...] They eat a lot of candy, a lot of junk food, so I’m trying tochange that.” 

O’Malley enjoys how generous hisneighbors are, bringing him food almostevery night. However, he was not a fan of “Khole,” the Tongan word for borrowing,and the meaning behind it. There’s nounderstanding of bringing it back, andso people will borrow items with noexpectation having them returned.

“It’s a very communal culture […] Icame with a lot of things that were mypersonal property, and that was a rudeawakening moment when someone hadcome to borrow something,” he said.

In addition, O’Malley explained thatmany times, his belongings would be“borrowed,” and after hunting down hisbelongings, they were often found broken.Now, he realizes he can’t get upset about it,especially when they help him so much.

“When I think of all the countries Icould’ve gone to, I didn’t pick Tonga,[Peace Corps] picked it for me,” O’Malley

said. “I came tothe perfect placefor me because Irealize now whenI started howselsh I was.”

He also had todeal with naturaldisasters suchas earthquakesand cyclones.Last year, hee x p e r i e n c e dCyclone Renee,and this year,Cyclone Wilma.

“The door blewoff of the housewe were in,” hesaid. “My bedgot soaked, a lotof trees fell down[and] we lostpower for like aweek. But thenthis year, whileI was in the States for holiday, CycloneWilma came and it was really nasty... Itripped off part of the roof of the sciencebuilding, which had just been renovateda month ago.”

Another hardship he dealt with wasstress management.

“I don’t actually work that hard atteaching [...] But it’s like some days whereyou just want to go home and relax […],”O’Malley said. “You can’t plan for a lot of the things that can come down on you,it’s like all of a sudden. Sometimes youjust wish you could crawl up and take meback to where this was just a lot easier.”

He found that partaking in Boy Scoutsand Eagle Scouts in high school preparedhim for his journey.

“If you can survive summer camp inthe woods with Boy Scouts, it’s not sobad when you have cockroaches crawlingon you at night, [...taking] cold showers[…],” he said. “I do pretty good with timemanagement, stress management, I think Boy Scouts helped with that.”

After having adapted to a year in Tonga,O’Malley found himself initially learningto be a teacher, but now plans to do moreprojects, get closer to his neighbors andrelax more in his remaining year.

As for the future, he hopes to do Peace

Corps for shorter periods elsewhere, traveland eventually join the State Departmentas a foreign service ofcer, working atvarious embassies abroad.

Throughout his experiences, though,O’Malley found himself more open-minded, feeling the effects of Tonganculture on his life.

“How I’ve changed for the better is thatI’m less selsh and I’m more easygoing,”he explained. “[I’m] more generous, and

also I’m less anxious […] I think I’ve justcalmed down a lot.”As for anyone considering joining Peace

Corps, O’Malley explained, “Everyone’sexperience is going to be different... Whenyou don’t like what you’re doing you ndwhat you want to do [...] You have to bethe type of person that’s open, with prettymuch no expectations of what you’regoing to get into.”

To learn more aboutO’Malley and histravels, visit www.johnoutsidethelines.blogspot.com.

PEACE, AMERICA: Above, John O’Malley, GBS ‘04 grad, celebrates a cultural festival with other volunteers and na-

tive Tongans during his Peace Corps service. In his free time, O’Malley enjoys spear shing, as it provides food,

recreation and exercise. He also enjoys home improvement projects in reading. Behind, the science room of the

school, next to his house, had its roof blown off during recent Cyclone Wilma. Photos courtesy of John O’Malley