Eastern Mennonite School - Shenandoah Yearbook (Harrisonburg, VA)

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Omar Eby, James Bomberger, Hubert Pellman, Diana Enedy, Jay Landis Jay Landis “Was it insured?’ Liz Chase asked in the early hours of the Great Fire. We had read Ghosts by Ibsen in drama class too recently. At next day’s assembly the answer rang: EMC’s students are its best insurance. With ashes in their hair they sing!” — Jay B. Landis James Bomberger, Jay Landis, Omar Eby 30 Faculty Staff

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Joyce Lehman Alphie Zook AUBURHA.BOYERS Auburn Boyers Faculty Staff 29

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“Friends Come From Afar’’ Dodging my way through the streets of Beijing my eyes darted back and forth to avoid bicycles plowing through with double loads of precariously balanced eggplant baskets. Surrounded with a moving mass of blue Mao jackets, the green and red ac- cented PLA uniforms, the starched white blouses of the “young patriots,” I heard shouts of Wai guo ren (foreigner) and mothers scurried to lift their infant children for that first glance of an outsider. I joined the mad rush for the bus and climbed through just as the door wheeled shut behind me. We were all jammed in there together in one situation regardless of our nationalities. We were standing pressed chest to chest, schoolboys yelling to each other, mothers holding babies as the trolley reeled back and forth, live chickens yielding protest and all fighting for a seat at each new stop. A new way of travel, a new way of thought so different from the Chinese of my dreams. Climbing the winding hairpin turns of the mountains which hid the Great Wall I crested a peak and looked over at the lush tapestries of these mountains so different from my own Massanutten Peak. The jagged edges rose up sharp and silent from the ex- pansive plain below. Though much of the wall remains unrestored and crumbling against years of environmental warfare, it snaked into the neighboring hills, here disap- pearing from sight, there dividing the mountains. Jolting along in the train as it weaved slowly through the mountains I listened to the loudspeaker screeching highly animated narratives in Chinese intermittent with Mar- tial music and occasional breaks for news. I felt the presence of yet another set of eyes curiously perusing my features. With the in- tensity and forwardness that only the Chinese have mastered he administered to me a barrage of English schoolbook phrases. 1 smiled and offered what Chinese I knew to Above: Doris and Jim Bomberger. Below: Professor Wang. start a conversation. I began to realize the intense desire of the Chinese to grasp any English phrases and to hear the scared words spoken from the lips of a native speaker. I arrived at Sichuan Teachers College to find my mother (Doris Bomberger) as it were swimming in hundreds of English composi- tions. The exchange has found the Chinese eager to utilize all possible resources to ad- vance their oral English and wish to have everything marked repeatedly in red. My father (James Bomberger) was scampering from classroom to classroom lecturing on English Literature, Why Jack London isn’t given his rightful place in America. The American system of education and abstract art. Despite the heavy schedule they seem- ed to enjoy the new experiences and learn- ing to eat such delicacies as sheep brain, pigeon eggs and duck-tongue soup. “The body travels more easily than the mind and until we have limbered up our im- aginations we continue to think as though we had stayed home, we have not budged a step until we take up residency in someone else’s point of view.” The China Educational Exchange program was negotiated in the fall of 1980 with the Sichuan Bureau of Higher Education and stepped out with these words of John Erskine’s. The idea of an exchange was provided to develop mutuality in learn- ing and service and an equality in relation- ships as a peace offensive to a country so long hidden behind a mutually constructed wall. EMC’s involvement began with the ap- pointment of two of our faculty members, James and Doris Bomberger, to a two-year assignment at the Sichuan Teachers College in Chengdu, Sichuan Province from 1981-1983. To complete the exchange EMC has welcomed professor Wang Shiyuean from the Sichuan Foreigh Languages Institute in Chongqing, Sichuna Province. Professor Wang arrived on campus in September of 1983 and stayed until June of 1984. Three new classes were introduced in to cur- riculum which were taught by him. They were Early Chinese History, Chinese History and Culture and Introduction to Chinese Language. Says Wang, “Teaching American Students is a little different. I have to adapt some, but I see it as an enrichment of my teaching. This is of course a pleasure for me and a great opportunity to present my country to the students. I can introduce the reality and mind of the Chinese people to the student. I think the exchange is very beneficial.” From Confucius, in the opening passage of the Analects, “Is it not a pleasure to have friends come from afar?” Faculty Staff 31 — Cathy Bomberger