The light of goodness shines through life, and far beyond it

Idropped to my knees and sobbed on the sidewalk. I’d just left the cafeteria of the primary school for nomadic children in Qinghai province’s isolated Qumarleb county.

Just before, I had returned from an overnight stay with ethnic Tibetan nomads in a remote stretch of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It snowed that day in early August, while I milked yaks and collected their dung, and herded sheep with my host family. Their cliff-top pasture was too remote for mobile reception.

Upon returning to the county seat, I received messages that our beloved friend and colleague, Mike Peters, who had cancer, wished to donate whatever was left over from his final expenses to the nomadic children for whom I’d started a small volunteer group to support. That’s when I jolted up and strode out to the street. It was one of many moving moments since I’ve started working in Qumarleb. The children and I later sent him videos to convey our gratitude and good wishes.

I’ve learned more about the good in people through working in Qinghai than perhaps any other way. Qingmei Dorlma said she never smiled until she was 14. That was when cleft-palate surgery changed her life. She’d never had friends. The other kids called her “monster”. She dared not speak in class, let alone dance and sing — something she loves to do — around others.

Today, her grades are excellent. And she enjoys staging musical performances with her classmate friends.

We’d saved for a long time to afford the more than 30,000 yuan ($4,400) surgery. I did a double take when the doctor almost immediately said he’d do it for free.

People brought her gifts like a teddy bear and art supplies during her recovery in the hospital. Others later took the mother and daughter to Beijing’s major attractions. Qingmei Dorlma hadn’t even seen an escalator before. Still other friends gifted her rarely employed mother a total of 4,000 yuan, more than her annual income.

The host of the short-stay apartment they’d rented insisted on “paying” them and cooked for them.

I also recall one moment in which my immediate family was experiencing a serious health crisis. I was probably about as frightened and upset as I’ve ever been.

Then, I got this photo on my phone of a couple of dozen Chinese girls in camouflage military-style fatigues and red berets tossing bags into a semitruck trailer.

Apparently, somebody in Shandong province had heard about what we were doing in Qinghai and decided to organize a clothing drive.

Our current plan is to largely use the money Mike graciously left to create the Mike’s Light fund to pay full tuition for four years of university for underprivileged but promising nomadic student hopefuls.

They, in turn, during their school breaks, will teach in Qumarleb, where many instructors have only completed primary, middle or high school.

We’ve already successfully done this with three students.

Mike’s generosity has extended beyond his own life because of the way he lived it.

We hope to help his light shine on — far and bright — in this world, even after he has left it. Sartre once said, “Hell is other people.” He’s not wrong. But he’s not entirely right, either. “Heaven is other people,” can be equally true. Working in Qinghai has taught me so. Nobody’s perfect. Far from it. But I’ve met some angels on this Earth. Their light lasts.