Legacy

As the end draws near, more and more people are offering the compliments “You’ve done great things for Tonga,” “we are grateful for your hard working,” and “Tonga will miss you.”  It makes me feel good, but it also makes me think.  Of all the great things our Ha’apai team has accomplished, how will this impact Tonga’s future?  What will I leave behind?  What is my legacy?

It’s not just a thought for the plane ride home.  The Peace Corps also wants to know the answer.  “Sustainability” is the crown buzz-word in the Peace Corps lexicon, as the best projects are supposed to carry on after we leave. 

The reason Peace Corps wants to hear about sustainability is that it’s so difficult to accomplish.  A Vava’u volunteer not many years ago helped start a library and a DVD rental business, but as soon as they returned to the states the town raided the buildings and distributed the books and DVDs amongst neighbors.  Libraries indeed have the worst reputation, as a previous volunteer told us about the time she returned from a mid-way break in the states to find her school’s newly renovated library (her pet project) utterly destroyed by careless students.  Libraries are one of those projects that interests foreigners more than Tongans, so it’s difficult to pass them on after your service ends.  Todd knew that even if he could find community support to re-open the Ha’apai library this year that it would not open next year in his absence.

Watching something you’ve worked on for months so quickly crumble can be devastating.  That’s why I’m so happy with our education projects in Ha’apai.  Sex-ed, Juleigh and Blair’s Camp GLOW girls’ empowerment camp, and my health promotion tour cannot fail in the same way as a ransacked library.  The goal was to teach people, and the people have already been taught.  We have no way of measuring the future impact of our education projects either; we’ll never know how many STIs or unplanned pregnancies we prevented, how many girls we empowered to become future leaders, or how many people turned towards healthier diets. 

There are sustainability goals with these projects that can fail, sure, but these goals are secondary.  We hope the government conducts another Ha’apai Camp GLOW next year without us, but it won’t devastate us if they don’t; we already felt our success at this year’s camp.  My sex-ed website will remain online forever whether or not Teisa continues with sex ed classes next year. 

My own Ha’apai Healthy Eating and Oral Health PCPP is showing strong signs of sustainability, as Ha’apai’s health promotion officer has all but continued the project without me despite me already beginning to write the final report.  I think she will continue the health talks for months, but even if she doesn’t, we’ve already reached nearly 1000 people.  I’ll feel great is she does, but not bad if she doesn’t. 

But all this uncertainty makes answering the original question rather difficult.  What impact will I have had on Tonga?  I like to think that I’ve taught many people many important things about science, biology, teacher training, healthy eating, oral hygiene, and sexual protection, but the future impact will never be measured.  That’s okay with me.  For the rest of my life I’ll only have happy memories of my accomplishments and nothing will be able to take that away from me.