Living without a washing machine and other conveniences was hardly what Kim Kimball Fale had in mind after graduating from BYU. She had earned a bachelor’s in business education in 1977 and a master’s in business education with an emphasis in organizational behavior in 1979. But when her husband, Tevita, suggested they move to his native Tonga for a few years, Fale agreed.
“I said, ‘Okay, I’ve got my master’s degree, I’m willing to go,’” she says. “I committed for five years, and that five years turned into eighteen.”
Initially Fale and Tevita lived with his parents in the village of Mu‘a while they both worked. Tevita grew crops on the family plantation while Fale got a job teaching English, economics, and history, first at Tonga High School and later at Liahona High School (owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). She learned to adjust to the British schooling system that Tongan schools adhere to, which bases eighty percent of students’ grades on exams and twenty percent on all other work.
Fale soon found she was able to help her students both excel in exams and prepare well for college. She received several awards for excellence in teaching from Tonga’s Ministry of Education and from the Church Educational System. “I felt part of my role was not just to teach the subject material, but I also felt a tremendous responsibility to prepare them to study in international universities,” Fale says.
The students Fale taught faced tough competition to get into universities, and many of them were not fluent in any language other than Tongan. Fale believes that her high expectations were strong motivators for her students. “I knew they could do it,” she explains. “Sometimes students tell me I was one of the toughest teachers there, but I did it with a lot of love.”
One student, Melika, took one of Fale’s English language courses for two semesters and still didn’t pass—the second time missing a passing grade by only one point. When Melika told Fale that her aunt would no longer pay for Melika’s tuition, Fale invited them both over to her home and convinced the aunt to let Melika return to the class. Melika took the class a third time. This time, she passed.
Years later, Fale was at a graduation ceremony for a relative in Hawaii when she met Melika again. “She told me she had just earned a degree in teaching English as a second language and that she was going to go back to Tonga and teach,” Fale says. “That was a nice surprise.”
Fale says raising her family—six sons and two daughters—in Tonga was perhaps the best decision she and her husband have ever made. The family raised pigs, harvested coconuts and other crops, and served their community. With limited access to TV and radio, the Fale family focused on education, family, community, and faith. All of their children graduated from college, and all six sons served missions.
In 2013 Fale and Tevita returned to Utah, where Fale now works as an education advisor at Utah Valley University. Their children are scattered across the globe, living in Tonga, New Zealand, Samoa, and the United States, but Fale makes a point of staying connected. “The Polynesian culture is all about family,” she says. “We need to be together.”
