The ride to Taishan was bumpy. Nicholas moved to the back of the van so he could "catch" more bumps. ZoraLin was in her hip hammock and she promptly fell asleep and slept the whole two hours there.
We traveled through 5 "cities" to reach Taishan. Tiffanie showed us on the map which cities we would go through, but the map was in Chinese. I know one of them was Foshan. I recognized the name from the APC list. I have seen babies referred from Foshan.
As we left the White Swan we traveled for about 20 minutes through Guangzhou. The area was very "city like" with apartment buildings and industrial areas. Then we exited the city gradually entering more open areas with farm land. It was sad to see farm land with little shacks that the family's must live in. As this is spring here in China, the farmers had their soil tilled in preparation of planting. We did pass some farms that had many things growing. Those farms also had covers on some of the plants that looked like hot houses or mini green houses.
We also crossed over the Pearl River again about half way to Taishan. Tiffanie said that going north on the river you would be in Hong Kong in about 2 hours. That explains all the boat traffic we have seen from our hotel window.
As we drove nearer to Taishan we went through a very beautiful mountainous area. Tiffanie was telling me that Taishan City is a very beautiful city. It has many generations of people who have left the area and gone abroad to return with money which has helped the city financially. We could see that as we arrived in Taishan. The city has many beautiful new buildings as you drive in. It looked very clean. It is supposed to be a very diverse area and very wealthy.
As the driver did not know how to get to the orphanage, Tiffanie called the director who drove his car up so we could follow him. His car was a Mercedes Benz.
We had arrived at noon. Tiffanie said that the orphanage staff is on their break between noon and half past 2pm. She suggested we invite the director to lunch. This worried Lori! She was afraid to eat somewhere that she did not know what we might have. I said, "Look at all the people here, they are still walking and talking so I can't imagine the food will kill us!"
We followed the director to the orphanage which was very close to where we had waited for him. As we pulled up to the orphanage, I recognized the front gate from the picture we have. There was an older woman cleaning the sides of the street leading down to the orphanage. The streets were very clean.
Tiffanie visited with the director. He accepted our invitation to lunch. We thought that meant that we would go to lunch right away. The director wanted us to go see the facility right away so we would not have to backtrack after eating.
We went through a metal gate that entered into the courtyard. They had it planted with hedges and there were a few playground items. I recognized the playground area from ZoraLin's referral pictures. The area was much smaller than it looked in the photos. The director took us in a metal barred, locked door. This was his office. We walked through to a reception area with ornate wood chairs and couches without cushions. We sat down and the director handed us each a small bottle of water. Tiffanie then said to give the director our "gifts". I handed her the duffel of clothes and toothbrushes and she translated to the director what it was. I then gave her the red bag for the director. She told him it was his and he smiled and nodded to me. The bag has a mag light, Kansas notepad, pen and KS tornado magnet. Of course, they don't open the gifts in front of you. I then handed her the shopping bag that had 4 bags of goodies for the nannies as she explained to him.
We were told that we could not take pictures on the second floor where the babies were. I knew this would happen. We were then taken up the cement stairs at the end of the building to the 2nd floor.
As we walked up the stairs, one of the nannies came around the corner. Tiffanie said that the workers were also on their lunch break. We reached the top of the stairs and turned left where we then turned into the first door on the left. Entering the room, there was more workers and a baby in a little "springy" chair with an IV attached to her head. The IV she was receiving was in a small glass bottle. I figured it was an antibiotic. There was also a little girl of about 5 years old standing there. There was a table with a hot plate and pan with some sort of soup being heated up. To the right of the room, there was a big window which looked through to the next room. That room also had long windows so you could see into the next rooms. It felt like being in a house that was in the process of being built, sort of open without the walls in place, but yet the walls were finished.
We smiled and said Hello to the workers. They all had to come look at ZoraLin and fuss over her. Zora showed no signs of any recognition and seemed content to stay in the hip hammock.
One nanny then took us in and pointed to a crib and back to Zora. There was a baby in the crib so I had Tiffanie ask if that was Zora's crib mate? The worker picked the baby up and said no. Only one baby per crib. The baby was smaller than Zora but she looked just like her in the facial features. There were 4 metal cribs in a cluster. All 4 had a baby and pile of blankets in it. The bottoms were covered with a bamboo mat. To the right of the cribs was an area partially partitioned off with a metal fence that had an opening to the enter the area in the middle of it. The area, as was the rest of the rooms, had linoleum on the floor. There was a TV connected to the wall. It was on, but I did not pay attention to it. Inside this area was 4 older children. 2 boys and 2 girls. It was very obvious that these were special needs children. The older little girl who met us at first turned out to be one of the workers' children. I waved at the children, they just looked at us with blank stares.
I asked the caregivers what ZoraLin ate. They said only formula and cereal. We remarked that we were surprised she didn't eat table food. They told Tiffanie that the formula they used was very expensive and very good. (It was really full of lots of sugar)
I noticed some walkers against the back wall. Their cushions were almost black as they were so dirty. There was a little room back there that looked like a bathroom that was very dirty too. The floors where the babies cribs and the older children were looked fairly clean.
We were taken into the next room where there were approximately 12 babies in cribs. We were told these babies were about 6 months old. Then in a smaller room there were 3 babies that were 1 month and 2 months old. They had these babies all bundled up in clothes and blankets. The babies were so quiet. They just lay there looking at us.
We walked back to the main room where Zora's crib has been. I had been carrying my camera since the courtyard and I couldn't resist turning it on and snapping a couple of pictures! I now regret that I did not take more!
I had seen enough. So we headed back out on the balcony where I snapped a few photos of the courtyard. After going back downstairs we took some more photos of the courtyard and Tiffanie took some of us in the courtyard.
We then took off following the director again. I thought we were going to lunch, but it turned out we went to the place ZoraLin was found. It was in a very populated apartment complex by a building with many plants on the sidewalk. We took some photos and video of the area. Lori commented to me about how sad it was and asked me if I was affected by it? I told her that I was, but I felt it was important to visit the place and know as much as I could so if ZoraLin ever has questions.
We then followed the director to a restaurant for lunch. We were taken to a private room in the restaurant. We had told Tiffanie that we wanted to order conservatively and not things like snake or eel!
We sat down at a large round table that had a glass lazy Susan on it. We were first given moist towelettes to wash our hands, then the food started coming! We were given hot tea and bean curd soup for starters. The tea was good, but I did not care for the soup.
Then the main course arrived. We had cooked vegies with whole shrimp, baked eggplant, sweet and sour pork, a spicy meat entray, fried pork ribs, pastries and fresh fruit. Zora spilled my soup, fortunately. We were given the option of chopsticks or a fork. I tried the chopsticks on my rice and failed miserably even with Tiffanie showing me how! Nicholas, Lori and McKayla did okay with the chopsticks. I was surprised at how much Nicholas tried. Of course, the director was putting things on his plate for Nicholas to try.
The director then left us to go back to work. We shook his hand and said goodbye. It was time for us to head home. Each "family" had to give Tiffanie 200 RMB for the meal. It must have covered everything as we were not asked for more and we did not get any back.
As we were leaving Taishan I tried to to take many photos. I also whispered to ZoraLin that we were leaving her first home, but hopefully some time we can come back to visit if she ever wants too.
Our ride home seemed quicker and we were fairly quiet. Zora slept all the way to the hotel. I was trying to memorize all the sights we had seen so I might accurately describe them to Zora one day.
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