I am gearing up for another trip to Haiti. Last year I organized a group of 10 willing volunteers to go to Jacmel and spend a week doing pediatric general surgery. Over the next few months we are raising money and finishing the plans for our return in November. I will be posting blog posts about our Journey to Jacmel 2014 over the next few weeks.
But for now, I wanted to introduce you to another project, and a bit of a collision of my worlds. I took a trip to China last year with an established volunteer surgical group (Children of China Pediatrics Foundation: CCPF). Many serendipitous forces conspired to make it possible, and fantastically rewarding. My father was the first "Welcome House" child in Pearl S. Buck's humanitarian project to help children of mixed race. China was Pearl S. Buck's home and heart. The CCPF was traveling to the area of China where Pearl spent her childhood and early married life. As my worlds collided, I was able to participate in a worthwhile mission and learn some valuable lessons about an important part of my family's history. I wrote this blog post for Pearl S. Buck International and encourage you to check out the link http://www.psbi.org if you are further interested in the organization. I am working on returning to China again with CCPF http://chinapediatrics.org and encourage you to check out their website too. And now .... A return to blogging.
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| Surrounded by girls at the Chongshi Girls School, Zhenjiang, China |
“If you want to understand today, you have to search
yesterday.” – Pearl S. Buck
It was a last minute trip – a chance email followed by a
phone call and I was on my way to Nanjing, China. As a replacement for a
surgical colleague who could not make the trip, I was going to Nanjing to work
with the Children of China Pediatrics Foundation and to perform surgeries on
orphans.
While I hurriedly prepared for the trip, my quick search of
information on Nanjing turned up a mention of the Pearl S. Buck House at
Nanjing University. As the first Welcome House child, my father, David Yoder,
shares in the rich legacy of Pearl S. Buck’s humanitarian work. With help from
Janet Mintzer and Pearl S. Buck International, I was able to arrange a visit to
the house and the nearby Pearl S. Buck sites in Zhenjiang. Ultimately, these
opportunities allowed me to better understand China of “yesterday” and helped
me to make sense of China as I was experiencing it “today.”
I have had the privilege of travelling rather extensively
and have spent time doing service work in places as diverse as Mongolia,
Vietnam, Haiti, Bolivia and Tanzania. Despite my thick passport my initial
experiences in China were intimidating. The airports were massive, the cities
crowded. Shiny modernity is pushed up
against ancient sites of unfathomable age. With no talent for languages, eastern
characters and sounds were lost to my understanding. Cultural sites of human
dedication and persistence – the Great Wall, the Terracota Warriors – were
perplexing in their massive scale and crude beauty. Of the places I have been,
none seemed so different from the place I call home. China “today” is hard for
me to understand.
As a fitting start, I toured Pearl’s house in Nanjing on the
day of my arrival. Tucked in the University grounds, there are photographs and
books displayed throughout the two story structure. It has beautiful windows
which open out to the campus and let in the purposeful energy of the bustling
students. There is a quiet in this place, a respite from the frenetic noise and
clutter of the city and perhaps a recollection of a more simple “yesterday.”
The work of the Children of China Pediatrics Foundation took
me inside two hospitals and an orphanage in Nanjing. I worked with other
volunteer doctors and nurses and gave lectures to Chinese providers. We had
banquets and parties and saw the great historical sites of Nanjing. Interwoven
through these experiences was my growing understanding of Pearl Buck’s love of
this country and especially these people.
Towards the end of the trip, I left my group in Nanjing and
took a half-day trip to Zhenjiang. The modern efficiency of the bullet train
beautifully contrasted with the historic home of Pearl S. Buck and the
accompanying museum. Carefully curated the museum paints a vivid picture of
Pearl Buck’s life in China and beyond. I
surprised the tour guide when I pointed out my dad (David Yoder) in one of the
pictures of children from Welcome House. She was excited about the connection I
had to Pearl S. Buck and more excited to hear my dad would be joining the PSBI cultural
tour in September or 2015.
After a great visit at the house
and museum, the highlight of my trip was the visit to the Chongshi Girls High
School. Pearl S. Buck was a student at this school and later taught English on
the campus. I it was here that I best understood Pearl’s passion and love for
China and her people. My tour guides were two enthusiastic, curious, smart
girls. Their beautiful English was punctuated with earnest teenage silliness.
They showed me the cafeteria and the classrooms, the cool hang-out loft with
beanbag chairs and pool tables. They were proud of the school museum and the
areas for learning and practicing calligraphy, traditional dance, meditation
and make-up application. I could have stayed there all day, soaking in their
chatter about their studies and their plans for the future. Both girls were
participating in upcoming trips to the United States – one with PSBI and one
with a sister-city student exchange program - and they were both nervous yet excited
about these far away adventures. This was the China of “today” that I could relate
to and understand. This was the China that I am sure Pearl S. Buck loved – this
hope, energy, enthusiasm, dedication and commitment – this “today” owns the beauty
and passion of a more simple, but just as determined, “yesterday.”
China is still intimidating to me.
Unlike our culture in so many ways, its rich ancient, history, it’s complex
“yesterday” guides its modernizing “today.” Touching the parts of China’s past
that captivated Pearl S. Buck helped to personalize my involvement in work in
this country. Her love for the Chinese people, children and culture, so
masterfully expressed in her writing, live on in Pearl S. Buck’s legacy in
China and beyond. I am proud to have a connection to her story and hopeful that
my work in China can, in some small way, honor her legacy.
