Atlanta-area Delegation Leader Jone Cross recounts her enlightening adventures with People to People Student Ambassadors
Meandering through the jam-packed, people laughing, board-game playing, drum-drumming streets of China, our delegation was overwhelmed by activity. We had not been disappointed in the beauty beheld on the Great Wall or in the Forbidden City, but it was the street life in the smaller towns and villages that educated our eyes and minds. We saw grandmothers and grandfathers holding babies in quiet repose. We saw husbands and wives dancing to cassette players. We saw dancers with scarves and umbrellas. We heard musicians with flutes and cymbals. These were not special celebrations on special dates. These were people escaping their hot cinder block homes and apartments. These were people simply celebrating life.
It was on one hot summer night in Louyang, China that a student (who lives in the same neighborhood as some Atlanta Braves baseball players) leaned close to me and said. "You know, Jone, in America we know how to accumulate wealth and buy a lot of stuff. In China, they really know about life." He will never forget that night, nor will I.
People to People Programs has been an avenue through which many of my goals and dreams as a teacher have been fulfilled. By inviting young people to experience the world with me
— not to read about the world with me, or watch a video about the world with me
— but to EXPERIENCE the world with me, I have had the opportunity of witnessing young minds awaken to truths of the world.
I have observed personal growth as teenagers change from being self-centered and ethnocentric into citizens of the world. I have rejoiced as young people became conscious of the fact that they had far more in common with other people in the world than they had differences. I, along with the students with whom I travel, have gained a true balance of love and appreciation for America with love and respect for other countries of the world. There could be no greater joy for an educator than which I have experienced as a teacher-leader.
My involvement with People to People began in 1992 as I helped organize a delegation of 16 students to Russia and the Baltic States. Whenever I reflect upon the incredible experiences I have had as a teacher-leader, I'm overwhelmed with the recollections. Living in a country where we take freedom of religion for granted, it was an overpowering experience in 1992 to visit an underground altar in a Russian church that had been used daily
— at the risk of imprisonment
— by an entire village from the end of World War II. And, we, as a delegation, had the honor of spending two days inside this church, working alongside Russian villagers to sweep out rubble, clean floors and polish pews as the freedom to worship had been returned to the Russian people just a few months before our visit.
My People to People memories are almost illusory
— spending the night at a marae (the meeting house of New Zealand's Maori people), snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef, hand-feeding dolphins at Tangalooma Wild Dolphin Resort in Australia, sand dune toboggan rides, hiking a section of the Great Wall of China, a night safari in Africa, visiting Nelson Mandela's home, living for three days in a beautiful Italian convent with nuns who spoke no English
— looking out the window of my room at the great Mt. Vesuvius, being recruited as a substitute teacher for an English class in an Austrian middle school, hiking a glacier in Switzerland, island hopping in Greece
— watching Ambassador Program's Keith Currie jump twenty feet from a rocky Grecian cliff into the Mediterranean Ocean (and then inviting my students to join him).
On a 1997 trip to Australia, I was invited to the cockpit of a 747 flying from Auckland to Brisbane because my co-leader told a Qantas pilot that it was my birthday. Strapped into the navigator's seat, I stayed an hour in the cockpit
— saw the coast of Australia as it became visible on the horizon and had a pilot's view of a night landing. But, one of the most memorable People to People experiences is one from this past summer. I happened to look out our bus window as we were driving through a wilderness area of South Africa. I saw a group of children playing outside in front of a small brick building. Our delegation manager told me that this was a wilderness school. I asked if we could stop for a visit. (The leader of a delegation that traveled to South Africa in 2000 had suggested to me that our students bring books and other school supplies with us to donate.) We got off the bus and our students opened up backpacks filled with supplies for these children. The headmistress of the school started to cry. "We had no more supplies
— no pencils, no paper. The last supplies we received were from a People to People group that came by three years ago. I prayed for People to People to come back. Here you are!" For the first time, I knew what if felt like to be an answer to a prayer. To the right is the song the Africans children sang to us that day (I'll never forget that moment.)
This December I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity of traveling with alumni to Antarctica! What an honor it will be for me to say that I have traveled with People to People Student Ambassadors to all seven continents. The enrichment that People to People has brought to my life is third only to my spiritual life and my family. I hope the adventures continue for many years to come.
