More Yangzhou Sites

This morning we separated from most of our group.  Four families took a bus over to Gaiyou to visit their daughter's orphanage while the Clements, The family from Shanghai (The Waldmeir's) and we took a smaller bus to see some more sites around Yangzhou.  The first item on the list was to visit the "pick-up" points for the girls.  This is what the guides were calling the location where the girls were found when they were abandon so many years ago.  I say abandon but as we discussed with so many parents they were not abandon but placed in very strategic locations so that they would be found very soon and taken care of.  But, that is another story.  Anyway, the first spot was near a Police station where Grace Waldmeir was found.  Next, we went to a hospital where the twins were found.  They all went inside and were able to talk to a nurse that actually remembered them.  Because they are twins they are remembered by lots of people and also delight a lot of people with how much they have grown and how happy they are.  The Clements were also treated with seeing other newborn babies in the hospital (with their parents) and were pretty upbeat about the whole thing.  When we got to Ali's location it was a bit different.  Ali decided at the last minute that she really did not want to go to her location and chose instead to stay with the Clements family at a nearby shopping center, a new Walmart believe it or not.  Sue and I proceeded a few blocks to the location and Sue quickly realized that so much had changed since she was here 10 years ago to pick up Ali that it was almost unrecognizable.  The site is near a police station and several new tall buildings had been erected.  I think we were both not quite sure how to feel other than that site is gone and things are much different now, in so many ways.
Next, we dropped off the Waldmeir's to head back to Shanghai and the other two families headed out to lunch at a very nice restaurant that served "Hot Pot".  This is a meal were we all get little kettles of boiling water and a whole plethora of  meats, vegetables, tofu, etc. are place on the center of the table.  We all choose what we want to put in our pot and cook and then later cool and eat.  A really neat, and fun experience.  The girls especially like it but ended up gorging on watermelon.

 The meal was topped off by a waiter coming to our table and doing a very elaborate dance as he stretched a noodle and placed it in our pots.  A very good noodle also.

After lunch we headed back to the orphanage to look over all the girls records.  Of course it was a much calmer arrival this time as the place was back to the normal activity and no posters or media to greet us.  We were a bit disappointed to see that our files did not contain much more information than we already had copies of at home.

While we realize that not much is known about these children, as with most of the adoptive parents we were hoping and thinking that there might still be some information that we did not receive when we adopted.  The girls all got a big kick out of viewing their baby pictures one more time.  We took one more trip around the orphanage and then headed back to the van.

Our next stop was at a local strawberry farm to pick strawberries.  We started out thinking we would just pick a few for ourselves but our guide from the orphanage asked if we wanted to pick more for the kids in the orphanage and we all quickly agreed.  

We ended up picking several pounds for them but also saved some for the other families coming back from Gaiyou today.  The old man in the picture was all smiles and was very happy to show me the good strawberries to pick and picked several for me.  He insisted that I try one that he had picked and was very please when I signaled that it was delicious.  It really was!


We went back to the hotel for some much needed rest before heading out to dinner with local Yangzhou families.  They split our two families up and we went to a family of one of the female doctors who worked at the orphanage.  It was a bit nervous at first as we only had one interpreter, whom we had just met and several people there including a cameraman from the local TV station.  Ali and Sue learned how to fold dumplings and they interviewed me about our visit so far.  They had a little dog name chow-chow that helped break the ice as he was very playful.

The apartment was very nice and modern.  It was on the 5th floor in a medium sized compound.  Another extremely good meal with way too much food.  When we compared stories at the end of the evening with the Clements we both commented that there was plenty of leftovers for the upcoming weekend.  There were actually parts of two families at our dinner.  Two school age girls that were cousins ages 16 and 12.  I tried talking  a lot to both of them and one of them was very nervous speaking English but the older one was very eager to speak and spoke well enough to carry a conversation.  She showed me her school books and I was happy to examine her math book where I could actually understand. :-)  The logarithms and equations are all the same.  After some group pictures our family was fading fast and it was time to go.

When we got back to the Hotel we stayed up talking to the Clements for another hour and a half while the girls played up in the twins room and built forts for their new bears.  It was a much need time of reflection for both our families.