November 16, 2005 Day 9 in China
A trip to Tonggu County
Yesterday was in many ways one of the best days we had in China, but also one of the more difficult days. We boarded a bus at 8:30 a.m. to head to Tonggu, where Lilyanne was found and spent the first nine months of her life. The bus was not very new and lacked creature comforts such as shock absorbers. It was not an easy drive. Tonggu is in a pretty remote mountainous area.
Normally, the trip would be about three and half hours. In rural China, there’s generally one main road through each town. As we were traveling through one of the rural towns, we ran smack into market day. Lina, said that market days may only occur once a month and generally the entire population comes out. There are stalls set up selling clothing, food, tools. You name it. Traffic pretty much comes to a standstill as you are traveling not just with other cars, trucks, buses, but an entire population on foot plus bicycles, oxen, cows. It was pretty amazing. It probably took us an hour and a half to travel maybe two miles.
The interesting thing about it was that all eyes turned to us as we inched our way through the town. Crowds would form to watch us. Children followed the bus. Most had probably never seen a non-Asian face. We felt a bit like caged monkeys at the zoo. Roy said he now knows how Ringo, Paul, John and George must have felt. People would stare, wave and smile. Lina got off the bus to purchase Chinese calendars for us and some of the other families traveling to Tonggu (there were about ten of us on this trip). She did not recommend us getting off because we would immediately draw a crowd around us.
As you travel into more rural China, the children you see are predominantly boys. I saw many, many boy babies, but very few little girls.
About five and one-half hours after boarding the bus, we arrived at the Tonggu County Social Welfare Institute (SWI). It’s an orphanage as well as a home for the elderly. Because it has been under construction, all but a very few children (eight children with special needs) have been in foster care, as was Lilyanne. The Director of the SWI said all the fostered children will be back at the orphanage at the end of this month. While they are in foster care, orphanage officials visit them twice at week at the foster home. The foster parent does not work.
When we stepped off the bus, we were directed into a room where we were served no less than ten dishes of foods prepared by the staff in their homes. We were their honored guests. It was truly very touching. We then went upstairs into a large meeting room and we were served hot tea and we were permitted to ask the director and the nanny’s questions about the orphanage and the babies. We took many pictures. All thirteen of the families adopting from Tonggu made a donation to the orphanage for the purchase of a water heater, and the Director wanted to make sure that we saw it, so we treked in the mud around back to see it. They were very grateful.
As we walked outside the orphanage gates, several women came up to our baby and said “Min Jia”. They obviously recognized her and they seemed very happy to see her.
We then boarded the bus and we were taken to the spots our babies were found. Lilyanne was found at the gates of the Civil Affairs Governmental Hotel on a cold February 12, 2005. One of the nanny’s at the orphanage showed us the exact spot Lily was found and said she was probably left at that location because it was well-known that many of the workers for the Civil Affairs Bureau lived there and would know what to do with a found baby. It’s hard to imagine this precious baby we call Lily left alone like that.
As we traveled from finding spot to finding spot, we again drew crowds of onlookers, all very friendly, seemingly happy about the fates of our baby girls.
We arrived back at the hotel last night, very exhausted and not feeling so well (me), but grateful that we made the trip and, of course, grateful to all those in Tonggu who cared for our daughter.
Market Day in the town on the way to Tonggu.
Market Day in rural China.
Gate outside the orphanage.
Director of SWI serving us lunch.
Lily at her finding place with us and a nanny from the SWI.
More pictures from our Tonggu Trip will be posted on Nov.17 Entry.
