"Service is Important to Me"

“I chose the Peace Corps for many reasons, and in many ways, Tonga chose me,” Scarlett Vogle, of Alexandria, said at Biddle’s Brewing in Williamsburg last Wednesday evening October 23.

She was on a break from the Peace Corps and was doing two lectures during her time back in the States. 

“There are so many reasons I wanted to join the Peace Corps – I applied when I was fresh out of college and ended up teaching abroad through a different organization, and then applied in February of 2020,” Vogle said. “I nearly gave up, but they finally reopened posts in the Pacific.

Peace Corps offers the opportunity to help others, travel and cultural immersion, she said.

Vogle was drawn to the South Pacific and Tonga.

“I did look into moving on my own, but couldn’t make it happen,” Vogle said. “The benefits, afterward, specifically study opportunities, were also a draw for me.”

In December of 2022, Vogle applied, interviewed, and got accepted for the English Language Development Project in Tonga. About four months later she had to get fingerprinted and obtain medical clearance.

In June of 2023, Vogle joined the Peace Corps group in San Francisco, then flew to Fiji to train and live with a few local host families. 

After training, she moved to her school and village, in Tongatapu. Her tenure there ends in September of 2025. 

The Peace Corps began its relationship with Tonga in 1967, Tonga is located in the South Pacific, near New Zealand and Australia.

Tonga is a constitutional monarchy, and is also self-governing, with a King. Vogle said the time difference is 17 hours, and there are about 110,000 people living in Tonga. 

She said their biggest industries are agriculture and crafting, and like the United States, there are a lot of prominent jobs there – such as lawyers, doctors, and teachers.

Her School

Vogle is certified to be a secondary education English and library teacher. She is currently working at Tailulu College, near her Peace Corps-provided home.

“We are teaching the students the basics, that’s how they learn the best,” she said.

During her tenure there, she has introduced reading programs, a spelling bee, poetry, and a language week.

Vogle said when she first arrived at the school, the school was filled with layers of dust and volcanic ash. 

“We just want students to come in and use it,” she said, of the library she helps with.

Vogle will also become the school’s new volleyball coach next year. Their school schedule runs from February to November, and in Tonga, schools are typically government schools or church schools. Government schools are well-funded and are typically filled with the cream of the crop academic students. 

Church schools are self-governed and have the last chance students, Vogle said.

There is also a push for vocational occupations including horticulture, sewing, and carpentry. 

She said that students at her school are also into sports programs, which takes a lot of the students’ time away from the classroom. Students in Tonga also learn about Tongan culture and Japanese/Chinese languages. After school, Vogle teaches phonics, homework, and other reading programs. 

Church

Vogle talked about the importance of church in the Tongan culture – where Sundays are made up of church and napping time.

“There are no stores open, no exercise, no gas, and no swimming – just to name a few things,” Vogle said. “Most families have commitments to the church,” she said, where services can last anywhere from one to two hours.

Funerals, according to Vogle, are a big Tongan event and with a big family can last upwards to a month but are typically three evenings with prayer and food and can be live-streamed. 

“They are very traditional,” Vogle said. “Graves are hand-dug and the cement is hand-poured. Following a death, some wear black for a month or cut their hair.” 

In Tongan families, the father’s oldest sister is the person in the family who gets the best of everything.

Vogle also discussed kaipolas - big feasts with lots of speeches and prayer, church conferences, ringing in the New Year, and weddings. Weddings are all-day events that can be quite expensive, according to Vogle.

“They’re very loud, and packed full of traditions, traditional dancing, and a lot of food,” she said.

Food

“They are very root-vegetable and meat-heavy when it comes to eating,” Vogle said

On Sundays, they typically cook lu, a type of leaf.

Tongans are also big on seafood, sea grapes, and sea cucumbers. Vogle also remembers skinning breadfruit with tin cans. 

She also stressed the importance of the uta, the family farm, which can be shared with many other families. 

“There are some tractors and machines, but a lot of things are done by hand,” Vogle said. 

Her typical lunch is ramen noodles with just the seasonings along with bread and butter.

“They are a food-sharing culture, and when you bring items to school – you are typically followed around until you share your food,” Vogle said.

Culture

“Tongans live generationally,” Vogle said. There can be upwards of twenty people living in one house. 

TVs are not common, she said, but radios are. 

“They listen to popular music,” Vogle said. 

There are typically rainwater collection tanks near homes, as the running water is not safe, and there’s little to no hot water. 

There are a lot of “free-roaming animals,” according to Vogle, like dogs, pigs, chickens, and cats, which are not all friendly. 

One of her funniest memories was when she was trying to explain to her students what a skunk is as animals like skunks, rabbits, squirrels, deer, and snakes are not prevalent in Tonga.

Deep freezers are common but microwaves are not. “There’s a lot of American influence,” Vogle said.

Many families will ship American goods to Tonga, so items like ranch dressing, diapers, hygiene products, and makeup are available when you know where to look, but they are not cheap. 

Vogle said although careers like lawyers, doctors, and nurses are prevalent in Tonga, their hospitals are filled with poor equipment, and procedures like kidney dialysis are not done in Tonga. 

Vogle said during her time home, she read that some hospitalsin Tonga are receiving their first sonogram machines.

She said she is lucky that the Peace Corps provides homes that have electricity, hot water and some other amenities. 

The things Vogle misses most from home are air conditioning, a good steak with salad, driving and independence, and her friends and family.

“It’s hard to say exactly what I will do in a year, but I will likely come back to Alexandria for a couple of years, and pursue a Master’s Degree in education and school administration,” she said.