Gentry also has made several lifestyle changes while abroad. She has begun going to church regularly because religion, mainly Christianity, is very important to the Tongans. She has learned to eat differently as the local food staples are root crops and bananas. All other foods, including fruits, vegetables, grains and meats, are only available at random depending on the season. “As Peace Corps volunteers, we are expected to integrate as much as possible with our village. Integrating allows us to establish relationships and trust within our community, therefore helping the volunteer find out the true needs of the community, not just the volunteer’s own ideas of what the community needs,” she said. “Other ways of doing this are attending community functions like weaving circles, Taulunga’s, a type of dance, and feasts.”
Shannon Gentry is spending her time in the Peace Corps in the Kingdom of Tonga, working as an English and health education volunteer
Peace Corps provides many opportunities
Published: Saturday, September 13, 2008 8:23 PM CDT
Morgan Wall
Staff Reporter
Caption: Shannon Gentry is pictured in the Kingdom of Tonga, along with another volunteer and Gentry’s two homestay sisters. They are on their way to a Putu, a funeral. She is in Tonga with the Peace Corps.
Life in the Peace Corps is often seen as time spent feeding starving people or working in HIV/AIDS centers. However, for many people who serve in the organization, this is not something they encounter.
Shannon Gentry, a Mount Airy native, is spending her time in the Peace Corps in the Kingdom of Tonga, working as an English and health education volunteer. As part of this position, she teaches English at the village’s primary school and works with community groups and a local family health center.
Gentry decided to apply for the Peace Corps in April 2007 and was on her way to Tonga for training by October.
“It was neither a hard nor easy decision to join the Peace Corps,” she said. “I had known for years that I wanted to live abroad, but I had struggled with what it would mean to commit to a life overseas.”
In the 11 months she has been there, her experiences have been many and varied. During one night, she dealt with a pig giving birth outside her house, a rat working its way through her bedroom and a group of women from the local youth group appearing in her yard at 3 a.m. to build a fry cake shack.
Gentry lives in the Vava’u island group in the village of Tefisi. Vava’u is a 45-minute flight or a 14- to 26-hour boat ride from the Tongatapu island group where the capital is. The Kingdom of Tonga is in the south Pacific Ocean, south of Samoa. It is comprised of 169 islands, 36 of which are inhabited.
As an English teacher, she has learned about many of the customs of the Tongans as well as been able to influence the children in concepts such as throwing trash in a bin instead of on the ground. The school in her village has about 115 students with five teachers and Gentry.
“It’s hard sometimes, and it’s fun sometimes, and it’s just indescribable sometimes,” she said. “I absolutely love the kids I’ve gotten to know and feel that I am making a difference for them, even if I’m not making a difference within the school system. Being a teacher isn’t my passion, but I’ve discovered that I can still have an effect on these kids in so many little ways.”
One day, Gentry saw a first-grade student drop a piece of trash on the ground. She stopped the student, picked up a piece of trash and had her do the same. She then dropped the trash into a near by trash can. Within minutes, the entire first-grade class appeared in front of Gentry with a piece of trash which they threw in the trash can, exclaiming “Senoni!,” which is Gentry’s Tongan name.
In addition to students, she has been able to introduce members of the community to different experiences and types of food, including omelets, which are not common in Tonga.
In the schools in Tonga, corporal punishment is acceptable. It is also common for teachers to take a nap in the middle of the day because it is also common to call on people at any time of the day or night. Many chores are taken care of during the early morning hours or at night when it is cooler.
Gentry also has made several lifestyle changes while abroad. She has begun going to church regularly because religion, mainly Christianity, is very important to the Tongans. She has learned to eat differently as the local food staples are root crops and bananas. All other foods, including fruits, vegetables, grains and meats, are only available at random depending on the season.
“As Peace Corps volunteers, we are expected to integrate as much as possible with our village. Integrating allows us to establish relationships and trust within our community, therefore helping the volunteer find out the true needs of the community, not just the volunteer’s own ideas of what the community needs,” she said. “Other ways of doing this are attending community functions like weaving circles, Taulunga’s, a type of dance, and feasts.”
As part of the integration experience, Peace Corps volunteers spend three months in the country they will be stationed in learning the local language and culture as well as how to perform well in their service program. Many things, however, are not taught in the training. This includes learning how to do laundry by hand, a task Gentry has yet to accomplish to the satisfaction of her neighbor.
“She saw me hanging my laundry, saying I was faka’ofa, that means pitiful, and she wanted to help because I work for the Peace Corps. It was really sweet, but I didn’t realize my laundry skills were so faka’ofa,” she said.
Each person’s experience in the Peace Corps is unique based on which service they are there to perform and what country they are stationed in.
“Tonga isn’t poverty stricken in the same way others are. No one is starving, no one is homeless because there are plenty of natural food resources and in the Tongan culture a person has a family to turn to always,” she said of what she has learned. “We are here because business, economics and English have become the education needs here. As a volunteer, we give what we can with our time and knowledge to help our communities to grow on their own. Not only are we having the pleasure of learning about their culture, we have the opportunity to share ours and change views and assumptions that this culture may have of us.”
Contact Morgan Wall at mwall@mtairynews.com or 719-1929.
