My OperaVISITING AN ORPHANAGE
Sunday, June 1, 2008 6:46:01 PM
Our second full day in China, Ken went with Clay, on a sightseeing tour through Zhengzhou, with Qing Qing (pronounced: Ching-Ching) who is the adopted daughter of Clay and Pam.
She was abandoned, as a newborn, in a cardboard box on the steps of the school where Pam and Clay were teaching English. She had been born with her small intestine outside her body and was only a few hours old when she was found. They saved her life. She's a cutie!
While Ken and Clay were exploring the city of Zhengzhou, which in itself was utterly fascinating, Pam and I took a train ride about an hour into the most wonderful countryside I had ever seen in my life, to an orphanage that Pam had never visited before.
I saw CAVE DWELLINGS!! Dozens of them. It was so amazing, I could hardly breathe! It was truly one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I was unable to get any photos of them, though, due to the speed of the train and the distance of the caves. It is hard to believe that in the 21st Century there are actual cave dwellers. There are, by some estimates, 40 million cave dwellers in China today. I had seen pictures of them on the internet and had read everything I could find out about them, but actually seeing them in person was awesome.
We took a Chinese interpreter with us on this trip. She is very sweet young Chinese woman who works with Pam and Clay. When we got to the small village where the orphanage was located, we stopped at a market a few blocks from the orphanage and bought four HUGE bunches of bananas and a big fancy box of "moon cakes," because it was the Moon Festival that day. It was almost more than the three of us could carry.
The moon cake, when I tasted one later, proved to be heavy, doughy, and not very sweet. Much loved by the Chinese people, but a bit strange to the Western palate.
With our heavy purchases in our arms, we took the waiting taxi to the orphanage and met with the very gracious director. We offered our gifts to her and then, through the interpreter, Pam explained that she runs four foster homes for children who are in transition for foreign adoptions and that they also take babies who are at risk for dying if they don't have operations.
We talked with the director for about 20 minutes. (I mostly listened and smiled a lot.) After about 10 minutes, the director interrupted the conversation and through the interpreter said, "I so appreciate the love and compassion that I feel from you all."
Pam asked if the orphanage had any babies or small children that could use their services and the director said she had at least 20 such children. We asked if we could see them, and she graciously agreed and immediately took us to another building. To get there, we went down a long walkway, up two flights of cement stairs, and down a long corridor.
The director had brought one of the huge bunches of bananas with her when we went to see the little kids and she gave each of the tiny toddlers a banana, which they gobbled down as if they were starving! They were adorable!
And then we came to room after room of children and babies; two and three babies to a crib, who were waiting...just waiting. It broke my heart!
Some were Down's Syndrome babies. Some had cerebral palsy. One baby had no eyes. There were no eyeballs in the sockets and his eyelids were fused closed. One was an albino with severe mental disabilities.
One of the toddlers was a little guy covered from head to toe with black freckles. He was considered disabled, even though he was perfectly normal in every other way. He was so cute!
We saw more than 50 children who needed homes and we were only in two small buildings of that huge complex. None of the babies cried, except one. They were all so good. The one who cried was a little mentally disabled child alone in a bed. He was about 18 months old and even his cry was more of a hopeless little moan than a full-blown howl like we would hear from one of our babies.
Their "play room" had a heavy barred door on it.
The room was about 15' x 15' and it had pads on the floor about an inch thick and just two round plastic balls for the babies to play with.
This little guy was posed with the ball, but he just sat there until we left.
On one veranda there were 20-25 children, most of whom were sitting on hard wooden potty-chair type structures, with a wood surround.
Many of them were mentally disabled. They couldn't get out and they must have been terribly uncomfortable. There was nothing to entertain them. Few of them talked. None of them fussed. A few of them smiled at us, but I tried to imagine a similar scene in one of our institutions. Perhaps, I am naive, but I couldn't.
What can be done for these poor lost children? Who will help to make their lives worth living? The orphanages can't afford to do it. The need is overwhelming! My heart breaks again when I see these pictures. Something must be done!
She was abandoned, as a newborn, in a cardboard box on the steps of the school where Pam and Clay were teaching English. She had been born with her small intestine outside her body and was only a few hours old when she was found. They saved her life. She's a cutie!
While Ken and Clay were exploring the city of Zhengzhou, which in itself was utterly fascinating, Pam and I took a train ride about an hour into the most wonderful countryside I had ever seen in my life, to an orphanage that Pam had never visited before.
I saw CAVE DWELLINGS!! Dozens of them. It was so amazing, I could hardly breathe! It was truly one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I was unable to get any photos of them, though, due to the speed of the train and the distance of the caves. It is hard to believe that in the 21st Century there are actual cave dwellers. There are, by some estimates, 40 million cave dwellers in China today. I had seen pictures of them on the internet and had read everything I could find out about them, but actually seeing them in person was awesome.
We took a Chinese interpreter with us on this trip. She is very sweet young Chinese woman who works with Pam and Clay. When we got to the small village where the orphanage was located, we stopped at a market a few blocks from the orphanage and bought four HUGE bunches of bananas and a big fancy box of "moon cakes," because it was the Moon Festival that day. It was almost more than the three of us could carry.
The moon cake, when I tasted one later, proved to be heavy, doughy, and not very sweet. Much loved by the Chinese people, but a bit strange to the Western palate.
With our heavy purchases in our arms, we took the waiting taxi to the orphanage and met with the very gracious director. We offered our gifts to her and then, through the interpreter, Pam explained that she runs four foster homes for children who are in transition for foreign adoptions and that they also take babies who are at risk for dying if they don't have operations.
We talked with the director for about 20 minutes. (I mostly listened and smiled a lot.) After about 10 minutes, the director interrupted the conversation and through the interpreter said, "I so appreciate the love and compassion that I feel from you all."
Pam asked if the orphanage had any babies or small children that could use their services and the director said she had at least 20 such children. We asked if we could see them, and she graciously agreed and immediately took us to another building. To get there, we went down a long walkway, up two flights of cement stairs, and down a long corridor.
The director had brought one of the huge bunches of bananas with her when we went to see the little kids and she gave each of the tiny toddlers a banana, which they gobbled down as if they were starving! They were adorable!
And then we came to room after room of children and babies; two and three babies to a crib, who were waiting...just waiting. It broke my heart!
Some were Down's Syndrome babies. Some had cerebral palsy. One baby had no eyes. There were no eyeballs in the sockets and his eyelids were fused closed. One was an albino with severe mental disabilities.
One of the toddlers was a little guy covered from head to toe with black freckles. He was considered disabled, even though he was perfectly normal in every other way. He was so cute!
We saw more than 50 children who needed homes and we were only in two small buildings of that huge complex. None of the babies cried, except one. They were all so good. The one who cried was a little mentally disabled child alone in a bed. He was about 18 months old and even his cry was more of a hopeless little moan than a full-blown howl like we would hear from one of our babies.
Their "play room" had a heavy barred door on it.
The room was about 15' x 15' and it had pads on the floor about an inch thick and just two round plastic balls for the babies to play with.
This little guy was posed with the ball, but he just sat there until we left.
On one veranda there were 20-25 children, most of whom were sitting on hard wooden potty-chair type structures, with a wood surround.
Many of them were mentally disabled. They couldn't get out and they must have been terribly uncomfortable. There was nothing to entertain them. Few of them talked. None of them fussed. A few of them smiled at us, but I tried to imagine a similar scene in one of our institutions. Perhaps, I am naive, but I couldn't.
What can be done for these poor lost children? Who will help to make their lives worth living? The orphanages can't afford to do it. The need is overwhelming! My heart breaks again when I see these pictures. Something must be done!
