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We got up for a breakfast meeting with Dr. Wei, the orphanage
director, at 9am in our hotel room. Xixi told us we'd need
to be flexible at this portion of the trip and it started
right away, when we were told to be ready at 8 for dim sum.
We met Dr. Wei, Vice-Director Mr. Qian, another orphanage
director in for meetings, a representative from Red Thread,
and the driver for the orphanage (the only driver for the
orphanage, so he brought Amy to Nanning almost 5 years ago!)
for dim sum at a local hotel.
Our plates kept getting filled by Dr. Wei and Xixi, who both
think Amy is too skinny! Dr. Wei called Mr. Gan, the retired
director of the orphanage, but he was unreachable. After previously
telling us she couldn't contact the foster mother, Dr. Wei
then told us that she was on her way over!
It was thrilling to see the foster mother in the room. The
foster mother told us that Amy was her first child who she
fostered and the first one who's returned. Mark and I were
so happy to meet her, since she obviously did a wonderful
job raising Amy for 5 months.
Everyone there pored over the photo album we made of Amy,
learning who all the family members were. Both Dr. Wei and
the foster mother were trying to take the album, but we promised
to make anoth for the orphanage. I passed out my name cards,
making sure everyone knew how to reach us. We're the second
Guiping family to return and it thrilled all of the staff
that we were back. And although they were happy Amy could
use chopsticks, I think they wanted her to speak Chinese.
We left, hoping to see Dr. Wei and the foster family that
evening.
Dr. Wei then drove us to the new orphanage, to see the outside.
First, she stopped the driver by a fruit stand and filled
a bag with food to fatten Amy up! We got to see the outside
of the new orphanage. It's a nice-looking building that houses
about 30 orphans (way down from the 200 or so when Amy was
there!). Dr. Wei is trying to build a wing for the other older
special-needs orphans still housed in the old orphanage, but
needs to build a retaining wall to prevent erosion first.
Amy skipped around the green space outside of the orphanage,
too.
Here is what we know about the orphanage:
- There are about 30 kids in the orphanage. A few are in
foster care.
- A 7-year-old is there and in school.
- There are about 10 special-needs kids there.
- All of the children are somewhere in the queue to be adopted.
- The orphanage does *not* need clothes, cribs or blankets
as gifts.
Dr. Wei left us then, but gave us her driver. He took us
by Amy's finding site (private to us) and also took us by
the old orphanage where Amy stayed. There was an interesting
alter outside of the orphanage, too.
The driver then took us to a pharmacy to help the orphanage
buy some much-needed medical supplies. While waiting, Amy
rode an incredibly loud Pikachu ride. She kept complaining
how loud it was, but wouldn't get off (although she politely
refused a second ride from the driver). We spent about $300
(2250 yuen) donated by our local FCC on pans, stethoscopes,
sphygmomanometers, large tweezers. They didn't even have enough
money for tongue depressors at the orphanage. A lot of the
supplies the orphanage needs aren't available in Guiping,
so hopefully our Love without Boundaries fundraiser can help
these supplies get purchased in Nanning or Beijing.
The driver then returned us to the Changtai hotel. We changed
rooms to the 6th floor (farther away from karaoke) and then
met our guide to go to the Western Hill, otherwise known as
Xi Shan or Siling Hill. Western Hill is a beautiful mountainside
filled with tea plants and shrines. It's a regular meeting
place for Guiping folk, who get water from the springs and
climb up the mountainside for regular exercise. We rode up
the mountain on a cable car (Xixi bought insurance for the
crazy foreigners) and walked down. We saw beautiful Guan
Yin and Buddhist
temples. It was humid and very green on the mountain. Amy
got to feed turtles and see a lizard, too.
We came back to the room and rested for a few hours (Amy
watched a movie with her stuffed animals).
We met with Xixi to walk the main Guiping street again. We
bought bracelets for Amy's friends and two pairs of shoes
for Amy to wear in the future. Mark and Xixi ate chicken parts
on a stick and I found a yarn store. (I took pictures but
didn't buy. It's basically lace weight. You can either buy
the yarn or buy a sweater to be made with yarn you like in
the pattern you want.)
We walked through a huge open-air market across the street
from our hotel, too, but didn't buy anything. It was a circle-of-life
market and I got a bit queasy. We shopped in the market again
(more A-Ha for me!) and then met Dr. Wei in the hotel. She
thanked us and gave Amy a present - Guiping
tea, a purse and a red thread. She gave us a certificate
for our donation. She wanted to take us to dinner and wanted
to pay, so we declined. We ate in the hotel again and returned
to our rooms.
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