1. Tea Shop
2. Chinese Tea Party!
3. Cody fam in a honey shop
4. Isaac loved this puppet!
5. 3 on a bench
6. Isaac just chillin'! (It's a miralce:)
7. I love these pay phones!
8. A walk in the park. There are so many cool plants!
9. Isaac loved this light, so I snapped a pic
10. Chinese shoe store
11. Picking out some hair things for my sister, Phoebe!
12. Five elephant park. Jazz and Annabelle, this is for you!:)
13. View from my hotel window in Nanning

this 'n that

March 29, 2008, 10:30

Hi everyone!

Wow, it's been several days since the last post, huh? I have lots of catching up to do!

After visiting the Nanning Orphanage, we drove to visit Tamsin's foster family at their apartment. We climbed a few sets of narrow cement stairs to the third or fourth story of an old apartment building. The family's apt was very small, and seemed especially small when we all crammed into it!

The family was very warm and hospitable, inviting us all to sit down and stuffing all kinds of snacks down the kids throats and giving tea to the adults. The foster mother especially was very excited to see Tamsin, and kept petting her hair and saying "Anna!" over and over with a huge smile. They used to call Tamsin "Anna" because she looked Caucasian to them with her red hair and light skin. There were several relatives there, I quickly lost track of who was who! Among them was a foster cousin named Windie. That is her English name anyway. She wrote out her Chinese name for me in Chinese characters, and when she said it I knew there was no possible way I would ever be able to pronounce it! Windie is my age, and is also going to school. She is studying to be an accountant, and enjoys it very much. Perhaps you will get to meet her one day as she really wants to visit the US! She is very sweet, and I look forward to keeping in contact with her through email.

After visiting with the family for awhile with the help of our guide who acted as translator, we all went out to lunch. The family treated us to a traditional Chinese dinner. That was an experience. There was a whole dead fish, a chicken complete with a head(they didn't serve the head, but showed it to us to prove that it was a whole chicken), cactus, boiled herb type things, green see-through noodles that had the consistency of chewy jello, pork, rice, and several other things that I think I have blocked from my memory. It really wasn't so bad, I didn't have to consume anything terrible, it was just very different than what I am used to! I sat by Windie, and we spent our time chatting and getting acquainted with each other. She is learning English and is doing very well, but has limited vocab.

When lunch was finished we all walked around this huge park filled with large greenhouses where the restaurant gets their produce. Windie had to leave for school at this point, but the rest of us took our time meandering through the park. Mei mei spent quite awhile riding on David's (our guide) shoulders, giggling almost the whole time. Tamsin hung onto my arm and chatted about random topics, and Isaac ran from person to person, even introducing himself to complete strangers!

On Monday we went to pick up Guo Feng (Justin, the newest Cody). He will be five in April, and definitely acts his age! He is very active and silly, and loves to play with his new siblings! He cried when we first met him, but that was expected, as this is a new experience for him. It is not unusual for newly adopted kids to grieve for their foster family or for the nannies at their orphanage, but Justin hasn't done this yet. He is very excited to have a family, and is constantly giggling, joking, and chattering or singing in Chinese! So cute! The other day we were walking around an outdoor market and he was riding on Bridgets back when he suddenly grinned, leaned over and grabbed my head, gave me a big kiss and said "Ai!". "Ai" is Chinese for love. He is a great fit for the Coday family, and will give Isaac someone to play with besides sisters!

A few days ago I spent the morning watching the Cody kids while Ron and Bridget took Justin to do some final paperwork. I took the kids to the park until it started raining, then tried to keep them entertained in the hotel room. Later that afternoon Ron and Bridget took all the kids to an amusement park while I escaped for some alone time. I wandered around Nanning for quite awhile, just looking at things, watching people and keeping track of landmarks so as to keep from getting lost. I had fun watching the traffic. There are bikes and scooters everywhere, funny trucks and vans, and the usual little sedan type cars. I also had to be careful crossing the streets. You have to understand that a green crosswalk light doesn't mean that it is safe to cross! It simply means that it is now legal to take your life in your hands and dodge your way through traffic! Pedestrians never have the right of way, size does. Even on the sidewalk sometimes! I was walking along, watching people when I turned around and there was a VAN, on the SIDEWALK, driving straight at me! Apparently that is allowed here...

I eventually found myself in a market place. There were tons of little shops selling all kinds of things. A little farther on was this huge open building filled small stands. There were a ton a people there, so I decided to see what they were selling. Big mistake. At first there were just cute little fruit stands, tables full of hair things and shoes, more fruit stands, underwear, fruit, and live chickens. Then, I noticed a strange smell and realized I had wandered into the part where they butcher those live chickens!!!! Butchers were standing behind these little counters with huge cleavers, just chopping away, and trying to sell the dead creatures! I was so grossed out, but had to keep going as there were so many people that I couldn't turn around! It was horrible...After that I left that place, found a park, and took a nice, long walk, alone, without any dead chickens anywhere near me!

Apparently most houses/apt is China don't have refrigeration, so they go out at some point during the day and buy what they will cook for dinner that night. I guess it makes sense then to go get a freshly "prepared" chicken, noodles, and whatever else they eat, but it makes me very thankful for our fridge, and that I don't have to watch my dinner die before I eat it!

On Wednesday our we rented a van and with our guide and a driver drone for five hours to visit Justin's foster family. On the way we stopped at his first orphanage. We couldn't go inside, but left them a bunch of donations. We took our time driving, stayed a night at a hotel, and the next morning drove to Justin's other orphanage, the one that managed his foster set up. Again, we couldn't go in, but the director came out to meet us and receive the donations. It was funny on our way to this orphanage, because our driver and guide were a little lost. So Justin, smart little boy, took over and gave them directions to it!

We then continued on to his foster family's house. They live in a very rural farming village. It was strange because the houses in this place were made of brick that was starting to crumble. Then we got to his house, and while it wasn't fancy by American standards, it was much nicer than any of the others. This is probably because the foster dad is a retired government official.

The family was very friendly, and there were a couple more foster kids running around. At one point I was inside with Mei mei who was very concentrated on the orange she was eating. I was playing with one of the foster kids. He was maybe four, and had trisomy-21, also known as down syndrome. He quickly fell in love with my camera, helping me take lots and lots of pictures. Of the floor. He would just double over and belly laugh with each picture he took! He was also carrying around a toy gun and shot me a couple times. Even so, he was very sweet, and I wanted to take him home!

When we were done playing, I looked up and realized the the rest of the Cody family and David were gone! I tried to ask the foster dad where they went. He didn't understand, and instead gave Mei mei and I a tour of the house! It was very strange, I will have to post some pictures that I took later. The family keeps their chickens on the second story of their house! Stinky! We got to go all the way on top of the roof, the view was pretty cool!

A few minutes later I found the foster mom and was able to ask in very mutilated Chinese where the rest of our group had gone. The mom smiled, put Mei mei on her back and took us on a ten minute walk through the village. I still didn't know if she had understood my question until I saw the rest of our family in the distance. They had gone to see a hydro-electric plant that gives the village and nearby cement factory power. There were also some sugar cane fields just beyond the power plant. Ron took me to see them both while the rest of our group headed back to the house.

When we got back they served us lunch. Chicken, with the feet. We drove back to Nanning that day, and the next flew to Guanzuo. That is where we are now, and I need to go.

Missing you guys, - jube

The Great Wall!

1. Tamsin and Mei mei on the way to the Great Wall
2. The Great Wall!
3. The Great Wall + Ron's head!
4. A watch tower on the wall. The soldiers lived in these as well.
5. Pretty arch over stairs leading down from the wall.
6. Inside one of the watch towers
7. Look how huge these stairs are! They are also very worn from age.
8. Apparently President Clinton took the same cable car we did at one point in history.
9. These are the cable cars that save lazy tourists from having to hike up the mountain to get to the wall.

Pics of the Forbidden City

1. Scary dragon inside the Forbidden City
2. Part of a rockery in the Imperial Garden
3. The Imperial Garden
4. Relief carving in one of the doors
5. HUGE courtyard!
6. Pretty little river thing
7. Tamsin and I in yet another of the couryards
8. Detail work on the corner of a roof
9. These structures are on top on a 40 ft wall!!!
10. One of the gates to one of the courtyards :)
11. Big old lion. Traditionally, these are guardians of the city gates
12. The main gate to the Forbidden City!

Chinese Dolls

March 23, 2008, 8:30 pm

Hello!

Happy Easter! How is everyone? It has been a strange Easter, as it is not celebrated in China.

Our first day in Nanning was pretty relaxing. Bridget and I walked around a while, poking our noses into tiny little shops while Ron took the kids to the hotel pool. I have never seen anything like these shops. Usually lining each side of the street, they are very tiny, maybe ten-fifteen feet square. The entire fronts of the stores are open, as if closed by a gate or garage style door. They are very cluttered with goods, every square inch being stuffed with some gizmo or other. For the most part one shop will sell only one kind of product. That is, one sells shoes only, another fruit, one plumbing parts, one underwear (there are underwear stores everywhere), and still more sell books, silk dresses, or unrecognizable matter that the locals call food.

At one of these small shops Bridget and I found a bunch of shoes that we bought for one of the orphanages, and later, some pants and small outfits. We only bought boy clothing, as people usually only donate items for girls. This is because the majority of children abandoned are girls. Unfortunately, Ron and Bridget said that they have seen orphanages where some of the boys had to wear dresses. That is pretty sad, so we decided to help those guys feel like guys by buying them things girls would not wear:)

Yesterday was pretty interesting. Our guide came to the hotel at nine-thirty to visit the Nanning Orphanage, and later, Tamsin's foster family. It took about half an hour to get to the orphanage. It is located in an older part of the city where most of the buildings are no taller than four stories. I found the area to be pretty run down and depressing. Even though the buildings are not very old, they were in disrepair and had a tired feeling. This is because things in China are not built to last. China does not have the building regulations we do, and they take many shortcuts in their construction. Consequently, just a few years after being built, the buildings begin to wear out.

I am not sure I can describe how I felt on reaching the orphanage, nor do I know if I want to. I have always been drawn to kids, especially orphans. When I was little my sisters and I spent hours pretending to be orphans and when I was a little older I dreamed about working with them one day. Even now I joke about moving into an orphanage and spending my life there, yet part of me is serious about it.

We drove through the brand new gate to the orphanage, and I saw the old gate where Tamsin was abandoned at just six weeks of age. It makes me sick to think of someone leaving a baby that small, especially when I've seen what a delightful girl she has grown up to be.

After walking a little way we came to the main building. It is four stories tall and looks pretty bleak on the outside. We followed our guide through the main entry where there was water dripping from the roof, and walked down some dingy halls. I could tell that someone had tried to brighten the place up because there were some goofy animals painted on the hall walls. Still it was dirty, the window were barred, and there was a strange smell.

Near the center of the building was a smallish outdoor courtyard with a few pieces of play equipment. Weeds were growing randomly through old cement, and there were a few puddles of mirky water. Suddenly, a movement caught my eye. I felt sick as I realized I was staring at a huge rat. When I looked closer, I saw several of these creatures darting around the playground, all of them large, plump, and healthy. Disgusting.

At first the nannies didn't want to let us in to see the children, even though we had brought donations for them. It wasn't until the director saw Tamsin and recognized her red hair (very rare for Chinese) that we were allowed upstairs to see the babies.

We were ushered upstairs into a fairly large room holding about 25-30 small metal cribs lined up in three rows in the middle of the room. Immediately inside the room were about six babies in walkers, and three nannies, each holding an infant. There were other babies sitting in some of the cribs, and through an open door I could see several more running around in walkers.

The nannies were very friendly, and eagerly brought the babies close for us to chat with. The only word that can describe these dolls is beautiful. One had a cleft lip, and another had an eye that was normal sized, while the other eye was quite small. Yet as they looked up at us, they were all so adorable! I bent down to talk to them, even though they wouldn't understand my English. They were so cute as they looked back at me, not knowing how to respond.

Then she caught my eye. In a nearby crib a little girl maybe six months old, wearing a Pooh Bear outfit was propped up by a pile of blankets. She was staring into space, not even acknowledging the presence of seven noisy strangers is her room. I went over and knelt down to say hi. She didn't even look at me until I touched her hand, and she didn't grab my finger like a baby her age should. In fact, she didn't even blink, she just stared at me. While the nannies are very loving and do their best to give attention to the babies, there just aren't enough of them to go around. In order for babies to mature and develop, they need to be held, talked to, played with. Without that attention they will have a very hard time learning to attach to people, to form normal, healthy relationships. More than anything I wanted to hold that little girl, to talk to her and rock her to sleep, to teach her how to smile. Unfortunately, there wasn't time, and we had to leave.

I still feel overwhelmed when I think about those little kids. Thankfully, there are many families who adopt them, and the Chinese are even starting to adopt there own orphans as they can afford it. I can only hope and pray that all those babies get good, loving homes and that someday I too can take some of them home and give them the love and protection they need.

I am exhausted now, I need to head to bed. I will have to fill you in on our visit with Tamsin's foster family another time. Until then, goodnight, I love you all!

jube

Walking around Beijing! (We were out and about for 8 hours!)

1. This is the most repulsive sight I have ever seen!!!! Bugs on a stick!! People actually eat these...

2. This horse was in a small shop, I thought Mary would like to see it.

3. Yay for Starbucks!!! A bit of home...

4. I laughed when I saw this Chinese parking lot. There are bikes and scooters everywhere in this place!

Traveling Pictures

1. Isaac being a silly monkey!

2. This is where they keep the girls! L-R: Tamsin, me, Mei mei

3.This is the group that saw me off on Sunday! L-R: Justin, Bethany,Leah, me and Jazmine!

Views from on high

Hello all, here is a long overdue update!

We have been very busy while in Beijing.There is so much to see and do! I am now on an airplane headed south to Nanning. It is about a three and a half hour flight and we have about two and a half hours left. I am sitting between Tamsin and Mei mei. Mei mei is on my left eating cabbage salad and spilling orange juice on herself. Tamsin is on my right next to the window doing needlepoint work. She is sewing a picture of a horse, it is pretty cute! She's doing pretty well, only occasionally asking for help. Mei mei is so funny cause every time I Tamsin asks me something she wants to ask a question too. To get my attention she pounds on my shoulder until I acknowledge her.

We went to the Great Wall yesterday, it was so cool! Our guide (who doesn't speak English) drove us two hours outside of Biejing. We went through a lot of farm land and fruit orchards before finally reaching the mountains. The mountains were so pretty and oddly shaped, many of them tall, narrow and pointy, and all of them very jagged and rocky. It was so exciting when we were first able to see the foggy outline of the wall on top of the mountains in the distance!

Once there we walked through an outdoor market at the base of a mountain. I was funny because there were many booths, but they had the same merchandise, with very little variation of product between them!

After we made it past all the vendors shoving goods in our face and saying "Look, lady, one dollar! One dollar! You buy for one dollar!" we took a cable car to the top of the mountain. It was fun, and the kids had a great time squealing and pretending to be scared!

It was so cool to climb the stairs up to the great wall! (We were literally climbing, as the stairs were very tall, about the height of my knee) Once at the top we were able to look out and see the wall rambling over the mountains literally as far as we could see before both the wall and the mountains disappeared into the fog. I would love to go back someday and spend some time backpacking a section of the Great Wall.

I am looking out the window now, we are above the clouds. It is so fun to look out and see the horizon where the clouds meet the blue sky! The clouds are so fluffy, and I've even seeing some that stick straight up out of the rest like busy pillars!

I need to go now, I'll write more later! - jubilee


March 20, 2008, 10:25 pm

Hello again!

I am now sitting at the window of my hotel room in Nanning. It has a beautiful view of a river and the city around it. I am not used to being in the city 24/7, so I find it a bit odd that I can sit and write by the light of the city while all the bedroom lights are off.

Speaking of the hotel, I was surprised upon arriving to find out that the place we are staying is five stars. I feel a little outclassed!

Tomorrow is a day to relax, we have no agenda. Yay! I plan on exploring the hotel a bit once the girls are awake in the morning so they can come with. It's kind of funny because our room is down the hall a ways from Ron, Bridget and Isaacs.

I hope you are doing will, I think often of you and my family. Goodnight! -j

Pictures

We are having trouble getting pics on the blog, but will figure it out as soon as we can! Sorry!

Greetings from Beijing!

I hope this letter finds all of you well!

The last few days have been very busy, with much running around and plenty of sightseeing! Before I get into that, however, I will tell you about the trip over here. On Sunday morning, March sixteenth, I was dropped off at the Sea-Tac Air Port by my friends Bethany, Leah, and Justin, and my sister Jazmine. I was very glad to have them along. I have never traveled outside of the U.S. before, and while I wasn’t really nervous, I felt just a bit of tension on my way to this new adventure. My friends helped me to stay engaged in conversation and plenty of laughing. It was nice to have their support!

Once our goodbye’s had been said and there were hugs all around, the Cody family and I went through security. It wasn’t as bad as I had apprehended, and we were not required to leave anything behind.

The first flight went very well. It took ten and one-half hours to fly from Seattle to Tokyo. I sat between Tamsin and Mei mei, in the center aisle of the plane. The girls watched several movies, but I did not have the concentration to finish either of the two I started. I wasn’t the only one without an attention span. Mei mei would start a movie, and about half an hour into it, ask me to start a new one for her!

We landed in Tokyo with just enough time to go through security and find our next plane with a little time to spare. We boarded the plane and it taxied out to the runway. Usually when a plane gets to a runway it accelerates and takes off into the sky and goes somewhere. Not this plane. We waited and waited and it didn’t go anywhere. Apparently there was some sort of computer glitch that didn’t have a simple fix. So, everyone climbed off the plane to wait for a later flight. The kids were exhausted. They had been very well behaved, but by this point had been awake for about eighteen hours. We sat on a bench for about half an hour before wearily boarding or replacement jet. This time it managed to get off the ground and fly to Beijing!

I was so excited when we finally landed in Beijing after twenty-four hours of traveling! I have wanted to go to China since some friends adopted a little girl from there when I was eight. My parents told me that in China families are allowed to have only one child, and that boys are preferred over girls. I couldn’t understand why that would be. Ever since then it has been a dream of mine to go to China and help these “extra” kids in some small way, but it always seemed like something that would only happen in the very distant future. You might understand then the feelings of excitement and disbelief that I was actually on a plane landing in the place I have so often longed to go!

After getting off the plane we had to walk through a scanner that was checking to see if we had fevers. Once we made it through we had to have our passports checked before going to collect our luggage. We were very relieved to see that our guide/driver was waiting for us at the end of all this. After being delayed for so long, we were afraid he wouldn’t wait for us! He was there, however, ready to help us load our luggage into a van and drive us to our hotel.

We are staying in the Lu Song Yuan Hotel. It is such a pretty place! Called a Hutong, it is a place where rich families used to live three to four-hundred years ago. Hutong are large buildings built around a central courtyard. The decorations are very ornate, with much detail.

Once we finally arrived and were able to climb into bed, it was one in the morning, and we had been awake for well over twenty-four hours. Needless to say we were exhausted, and the kids were pretty much walking in their sleep.

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel. I am not a fan of eating dinner foods for breakfast, but that is what they do here. Think about eating dumplings, pork rolls and noodles for breakfast! It will take some time for me to adjust to this…I should also mention that the hotel did serve some fruit and pastries as well as dinner.

The Codys and I left the hutong around nine in search of a Starbucks so that Bridget could buy a mug that said Beijing. She has started sort of a tradition where she buys a Starbucks mug from some city every time she comes to China. When leaving the hotel the first thing I noticed was the smog and the heaviness of the air. The other thing that hit me was the smell. The Chinese like very strong potent flavors, so with all the tiny little food stands everywhere, the car exhaust, dust, and sometimes fresh sewage, breathing there is quite interesting, and sometimes repulsive.

There is a lot of restoration work being done on the city partly because it just needs to be done, but also because the Olympics are being held here this year. Buildings are being refaced and updated, flower gardens are being readied, and parts of the sidewalks are being repaired.

As we walked a really, really long way to the Starbucks, one thing that cracked me up was the traffic! On the main road, there are five lanes of traffic traveling in each direction! The inner four on each side are for motor vehicles and the outermost lanes are reserved for bicycles and scooters. The sidewalks were crowded with people, occasional bikes, and once, a parked van!

The morning passed pleasantly as there was so much to see! After stopping at Starbucks to pick up the mug and have some cocoa, we poked around in a few small shops. The kids were well behaved, but still very tired and because of that, prone to being a little fussy at times. They trooped right along in spite of their exhaustion taking turns riding in the stroller and holding hands with us adults. Speaking of which, I no longer own my handsJ. At almost every moment we walk there is a little hand tugging at mine as the children alternately skip and then trudge along. If I let go for just a second to get my hair out of my face or some such thing, they are pulling at my arm, trying to grab my hands! I am glad for this though, because the city is so busy it would be easy to lose sight of them in the crowds or let them wander into the traffic.

Later in the afternoon we found our way to the Forbidden City. What an amazing place! You wouldn’t believe the size of it, or the incredible detail put into it! First, there is the huge main gate. And I mean huge. The wall is about forty feet tall, and on top of it is a structure about the height of a two-story building! After passing through this gate there is an enormous courtyard, then another gate just as bit as the first, then another courtyard, gate, courtyard…you get the picture. It just keeps going until it finally reaches the Imperial Garden. The garden was pretty and very well laid out, but as it is winter here almost nothing is in bloom.

For awhile I just stood staring up one of the huge walls at one of the palaces on top. I tried to imagine what it would be like, hundreds of years ago to be one of the people living in this Forbidden City. I felt so small next to these huge structures. It must have built to make people feel exactly this way, small and insignificant. The rulers and there families could parade around up there, separated from and above everyone else.

After the visiting the Forbidden City we caught a couple taxis and went back to the hutong before walking to a restaurant for dinner. I can’t say that I am in love with the food, I am still getting used to the different flavors.

Well, I will continue this later. I need to give Ron a turn with the computer, and get to bed. Soon I will tell you about what we did today, it was so much fun! Until then, I hope all is well with you, and I would love to hear any comments you might have!

Much love,

jubilee

By the way, my blog is set to China time, it isn't really 12 am;)

Good morning!

We leave on Sunday! Our flight departs from the Sea-Tac airport at two in the afternoon. After a ten hour flight we should end up in Tokyo, and from there we will fly to Beijing.

Right now I am trying to get some packing done before heading to work, so I will type some more later!

-jubilee