Today I attended the inquiry conference and I was really impressed by what was shared in the presentations. I thought this was a great chance for us (soon to be actual field study students) to be more familiar with "field studies."
The first presenter was Daniel Hansen and he talked about westernized medicine vs. traditional healing in Tonga. I thought his presentation was so interesting because I've never thought anything more about traditional healers in my culture, because it was a normal practice even in my community back home. He shared two experiences at the very beginning where the traditional healer would step on the injured ankle to massage it, to make it better and also she made a drink of herbs and plants for him to drink because he had a sore throat. I thought it was funny because I've seen and experienced both experiences. My brothers played football and basketball in high school and so whenever they got hurt from practice or a game, my grandma would "fotofota" or massage and step on their ankle, shoulder, foot, arm, and whatever body part was injured, to make it better. And always, it worked, and they were able to play sports again. The herbal drink, also known as "vai pala" is also common. When I had cold sores, sore throat, or any other kind of sickness, my grandma and mom would make this and literally force me to drink it. I hated the taste, but it did work! I've never thought anything more of it, and so I was really glad to attend this lecture and see things from his point of view. In his presentation he volunteered at the local hospital and mentioned something about education and outreach programs. I think that is something I could do in Tonga in my free time, is to visit the local hospital, Viola Hospital, and see if they offer any outreach or educational programs for the community.
I also attended Annie Christensen's presentation about physical education in Tonga which was perfect for me personally because I will be studying health education, but on the main island, and also at the church school. I learned what kinds of questions I shouldn't ask and know I have to be careful of asking "what do you think..." kind of questions because most of them do have this perception that the American way of thinking is the right way of thinking. I can totally see that coming. I hope to do participatory observation at the school by helping the teacher teach health. I think one of the challenges I will have to face is being able to communicate to the students on a level in which they can understand. I'm not sure how I would explain "a calorie" or other health terms to them. I guess the best way is to practice with my family and non-health majors. I learned that most of the material used to teach at the high school were from America, and so they had to learn health and nutrition according to American standards (nutrition..etc), which I thought was interesting, because we all have different perceptions of what "healthy" means and I don't think there is one right standard or answer. This made me wonder if I should look into New Zealand health education, since the population there is so diverse and they may have similar food groups and nutrition values to Tonga. I was really glad one of the questions she answered was that high school students enjoyed physical activity aspect of health, rather than the nutrition aspect. That made sense because the nutrition aspect were according to American standards, and aren't applicable to the students. I wonder if having material that were more applicable to the students there would make them want to learn and make a difference in test scores and such.
I learned a lot from the presentations today and more excited to hear about more people's experiences abroad. This has motivated me to continue to do research for my project and also has made me even more excited to go!
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