Marie Fitzsimmons, center, with husband Kirk Peters and a fellow Peace Corps volunteer
named Kelly at the Great Wall. (Photo provided)

Their days in China ending,
a look back as Africa looms

(Longtime Watkins Glen High School teacher Marie Fitzsimmons and her husband, Kirk Peters, have returned to Peace Corps service. Where years ago they served in Africa, this time they are in China. But a return to Africa is forthcoming. Marie's second report from there.)

By Marie Fitzsimmons

Kirk and I leave the English Library and head for our apartment on the Hexi University campus in Zhangye, China. We have been administering oral examinations to hundreds of students and our bodies are stiff from the hours of testing.

We have heard so many conversations telling of where students are from, what they are studying, and of their favorite sports and hobbies. We have meted out points according to mastery of vocabulary, clarity, and expression and smiled with encouragement as we urged all of our students to be at ease and to share all that they could. And we have been so moved by these precious moments of intimacy where in the masses of beautiful and earnest faces, a window is open to a single being, a voice is heard, and hearts are opened. We are feeling a mixture of wistfulness and excitement.

These are our final weeks in China and soon we will be flying to the United States to obtain visas for our next Peace Corps assignment in Namibia, Africa. We have been dreaming of returning to Africa for years, for it is the home of our first Peace Corps assignment -- the place where the world opened to us and the story of our lives together truly began.

We have been readying for Africa via so many life experiences and exchanges. You will remember Timateo Kamanga, who joined our family and our school from the Malawi Children’s Village in 2005 and then went on to join the Atwell family and graduate from Hobart College. You will also remember the great excitement created as Kate LaMoreaux and I journeyed to Cape Town, South Africa with our students as they competed in the South African Model United Nations and visited Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for so long. Later that same year, our family and school welcomed Khaya Makhuba from South Africa. (Our Rotary Club has facilitated such tremendous exchange programs.) For years, I have been teaching the ACE Modern Africa course at WGHS, our students have represented many African countries at the Cornell Model UN and we have even attended Cornell’s Conference on Violence Against Girls in Sub-Saharan Africa. So, how is it that, in all that preparation, we have journeyed to China?

Kirk and I had applied and been accepted for Peace Corps Response assignments in Sierra Leone when the Ebola crisis broke out. Our early belief that the virus would be contained and the people of West Africa would be spared its ravages was proven wrong and before long, Peace Corps had to suspend its remarkable work there to ensure the safety of volunteers. While insignificant in the global picture, there we were, with leave of absence from our jobs and our affairs all in order for a departure.

Then two positions opened up in China.

China ,with its dynamic position in the world , flourishing cities, advanced technologies, and powerful global economy was not on our radar as a Peace Corps country. But, in a land of 1.3 billion people, you can imagine the dichotomy of life experiences. Peace Corps is here to serve in the more rural areas of China where the population has not been privy to the same advancements that have occurred in the eastern urban areas. It is believed that English can play a pivotal role in improving the quality of life here in rural China and volunteers are teaching at colleges to help facilitate that goal. Volunteers not only serve as English teachers but serve to create remarkable relationships with students, staff, and community. These relationships can serve to create mutual understanding and true friendship. They are the core of our time in China and in our small time here, we have experienced hundreds of encounters that will live in our minds and hearts forever.

We have also journeyed to the ancient sites of China that are located in the Gansu province where we live. We have been privy to historical connections that have transformed my 25-year study and teaching of China into vivid and personal experiences. I have always loved teaching about China at WGHS , but when I return in September, I know that our classroom will be all the richer for this time.

I cannot wait to share with my students how it felt to visit the most northwestern segment of the Great Wall on a bitterly cold day where my imagination took me back hundreds of years and I could feel the cold wind stinging the faces of the intrepid guards and the invaders who challenged them -- where I could feel the loneliness of a desolate post and transcend time again to think of my own son, a modern-day border guard, at the desert edge or in the rugged mountain terrain of Southern California.

I can’t wait to tell of the hundreds of Mogao Grottoes at Dunhuang where the Buddhist monks spent their lives journeying towards peaceful minds. I know my students will share our wonder at the very existence of these mountain caves and the fortitude it took to create these dwellings of prayer. Throughout history, there were times of destruction when dynastic powers sought to deny the past or foreign invaders plundered works of art. And,there were times of rebuilding and restoration when leaders paid homage to the past or felt the importance of recording the remarkable history of China.

Not far from these Grottoes, sand dunes form massive mountains and a small crescent lake incongruous in this desert has one imagining the oasis that long ago travelers once sought. Of course, I must tell of the camels trekking up the mountain side -- some so stately and beautiful, others so gruff and shoddy. And of course, I must tell my students the story of the train ride home from Dunhuang where the 87-year history of a woman’s life made its way to our hearts.

The train has been far more than transportation -- it is where children have been set onto our laps to rest, where oranges and sunflower seeds have been shared, and where the language of humanity overcomes any barrier. On this trip home, we were joined by a man with the saddest eyes and an excellent knowledge of English. He was coming from his grandmother’s funeral and his heart was so heavy with his loss. As we listened to his story, our own emotions were so stirred and once again, we could feel decades disappear as the past became the present. This is the story he told:

His grandmother was from Mongolia and born to an impoverished family who could not care for her. At age two, they would set her outside with grass on her head to indicate that someone should take her. This went on for some days until a little girl traveling with her family convinced her parents to take her as their own. The travelers paid some money, goodbyes were said, and his grandmother began her new life in China as the daughter of these travelers. She had a very happy life with this kind family until a time when China was enveloped in conflict between peasants and landowners. This conflict caused great pain for the family and separations and sadness occurred. However, as a young woman, she met his grandfather and the two married and lived a very happy life with seven sons. Still, she yearned for a daughter. Her adopted mother told her she must tell the Bodhisatva of her longing and, lo and behold, after doing so she gave birth to her final child, a daughter. She was the kindest woman and treated all of her children, her 23 grandchildren, and 7 great grandchildren with tenderness.

I heard this story and could not help but think of my own grandmother who suffered the loss of her mother at an early age and went on to become the mother of 15 -- my mother being the youngest. And how my own mother has been the kindest of women and has treated all of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren with tenderness.

This is our small story of Peace Corps China. One hundred fifty more volunteers make their way each day for two years, teaching students with their open hearts and endless kindness. The personal history of each volunteer now weaves a tapestry of human connection with the thousands of students, hundreds of co-teachers, and dozens of shopkeepers, neighbors, and fellow travelers.

And each volunteer holds on to a wisp of possibility that maybe, just maybe, the barriers that keep the world in chaos can give way to connections of the heart and lay the foundation for peace.

Photos in text:

From top: Marie enjoys an evening of fun and games with students in the English Center; Kirk during oral exams with some of his hundreds of students; Kirk learns how to line dance; and students celebrate after exams are over. (Photos provided)