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As COVID-19 spreads a shadow of sadness and pain across our country, I’d like to share a story of friendship and hope with readers of The Chronicle.
This story started more than 25 years ago in the Boistfort Valley in Lewis County as pastor Buddy Patten and his wife Jerri took their three children to China to spend a year teaching English at a technical institute there.
When the year was over, the Pattens returned to Boistfort, and started working to build an exchange program between that Chinese technical institute and the Centralia College English Department. As a result, in the summer of 1996 a group of 10 native Chinese English teachers spent a month in Lewis County, studying methods for teaching English as a second language. Another group of 10 teachers went through a similar course of study at Centralia College in the summer of 1998.
As the teachers were studying here, they lived in the homes of host families from the Boistfort Community Church congregation, learning about life in America and building close friendships. When the 1998 crop of teachers returned to China, my wife Shari and I, along with our four children, traveled with them to spend a year teaching English. It was a fantastic experience!
Now, fast forward more than 20 years. Shari is spending a lot of time making facemasks to help shield at-risk members of the local community from the COVID-19 virus. We’ve also gotten back in touch with some of our Chinese friends to see how they fared through the outbreak there. Our friends recounted many stories of the good times they had while visiting America and staying with their host families.
When our friends learned that we were making facemasks, they became very concerned and wanted to help. Before long, 18 of those original 20 teachers had joined in to purchase light-duty facemasks to ship to their former host families here in Lewis County.
Over the past couple of weeks boxes and boxes of facemasks have made the trip from Sichuan Province in China to those former host families with instructions that they be used by families and friends, and that they be shared within our communities to help protect those most at risk from COVID-19. Most of the hosts are still in Lewis County, but a few now live in other communities in southwest Washington and in western Oregon
Via email, my wife asked our dear Chinese friend who started this effort: “How can we possibly repay you for all of this?” Our friend replied: “Shari, we are all family. We are in this together!”
It’s hard to describe how deeply these acts of kindness have touched our hearts so many years after those cultural exchanges when we were all much younger. To me it shows the great value of working across barriers to build friendships with people who might otherwise be viewed as strangers.
Here’s one last bit of advice and encouragement from a Chinese friend who likes to go by the name Daniel: “Everything will be better and all of you will survive, I believe. So, just like us, stay at home, have lazy days, wear masks, and wash hands as frequently and carefully as you can, especially after you come back from outside, and keep away from the crowd.”
Please stay well out there!
Donald Watt
Chehalis
