Today we visited a
second orphanage in Qing Yuan. During my
phone conversation and follow-up emails with my contact, Steven was invited to
come with me! Though not as excited as I
about the prospect, he ultimately decided to come with me. We started our day at 0600 in order to meet
up with the group in Huadu by 0800. We
arrived at our meetup location on the side of the interstate quite early, with
only one small incident of being dumped just before the interstate by one taxi
who refused to go on and picked up by another who overcharged us for the short
ride down the interstate to the pickup location.
The day took on a
more unfortunate turn when we contacted the group only to find out that their
van driver had not arrived yet and that they wouldn't be leaving Guangzhou for
quite some time. Being that we were at a
roadside gas station between towns, we had no choice but to sit and wait...a
wait that lasted more than 3 hours when it was all said and done. It was then that I decided future trips like
these would not rely on group transportation where I had to wait alone in
remote locations. Instead, we will find
our own transportation and meet at the final destination.
We were finally
picked up by the group bus around 11am.
I was happy to meet a dynamic group of mostly Russian women and several
of their children. Though Steven didn't
meet any new close friends, I was glad for him to see that other children did
these things too. It was quite a large
group, about 20 of us that arrived at the orphanage. We prayed as a group after exiting the bus
and many bags of goodies and toys were unloaded from underneath the bus.
The children were
excited to see us, and at this location, a group visits every Saturday. The children seem to know the routine well
and were spoiled from the moment we walked in.
They were given all kinds of treats including dried fruits, candy,
yogurt, and even little special jars of liquid vitamin. The place felt happier than the other
orphanage I visited two weeks before.
The ayis were kind and welcoming and actually visited and played games
with us and the children. There were
large rubber mats pulled out and laid on the floor so we could sit with the
children.
A sweet smiley girl
connected with Steven when we learned she likes to draw. Her hands are crippled and her arms turned
where she lacks control. But with
Steven's help, she sat at the table and drew for a long time. He held her hand, guiding her creation. She could not stop grinning the whole
time. Many children gathered around a
small plastic table with matching chairs to grab their own piece of paper and
draw a picture. It was quite the happy
scene. Later, the children got turns being
spun, like on a merry-go-round, in a cloth parachute held around the edges by
many volunteers and ayis.
The children here,
much like the other orphanage, vary in their condition from minimal to
severe. One little girl around 2 has an
already-fixed cleft lip and palate. I
learned at my second visit to this orphanage that she will be adopted very
soon! Another cutie pie, maybe 5 years
old, has the most precious face, great speaking, and a perfect mind. She has clubbed feet and other crippling
conditions in her spine. She pulls
herself around on her hands and knees, evident from the callouses that have
formed across the tops of her feet and ankles.
She can pull herself to a standing position, where she actually stands
on the tops of her feet. Though she has
had surgeries to correct some back problems, her legs were never treated and
she will likely never walk. There are
several children with general mental handicap, several Down's Syndrome babies,
and a few children with cerebral palsy.
I spent a lot of my
day with a tiny little girl, who, when I picked her up, was flaccid and seemed
to be unable to hold herself in any position.
Her eyes are unable to focus, but when I bounced her on my knee or raised
her above my head into the air, she would smile. After engaging her for a short time, she
started showing she had more strength than I realized. I laid her down on her back, and after a few
minutes, she had turned to her stomach and scooted across the floor, where she
was picking up and dropping the leg of a small plastic chair. She enjoyed the "clunking" sound. Later on, she moved to the TABLE, and quite
successfully repeatedly picked up and dropped the leg of the table for an even
bigger clunking sound!
Due to our late
arrival today, our visit was only just over 2 hrs. This group tries to arrive around 10am and
usually leaves around 1:30pm, eating lunch together downstairs as we leave. I asked the leader
if she could have the driver take us back into Huadu instead of leaving us on
the interstate. After a couple of
translations to a Chinese girl and then to the driver and one request to take
us farther down the road, we were still dropped off at the wrong exit, but at
least it was in town. We caught a random
bus in what we hoped was the right direction and rode it a few stops. We then flagged down a motor taxi, where I
showed him a picture of the bus stop we wanted to go to, and he easily took us
there in about 10 minutes. It's always
an adventure when traveling! Our day was
blessed and I think it was a great experience for Steven.
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