Today has been a journey of finding every detail about Laina that we can. Our 4 family group had to divide into 2 vans and go separate ways to seek out our daughters' abandonment sites.We were met at our hotel by Mary, a very sweet, soft-spoken woman and a smiley bus driver that came up to about Nancy's waist. Our agency guide, Pat came along as well. The city of Laibin is about 2 1/2 hours from Nanning, so it was a long ride. Mary told us that Laibin is not a big city, and much poorer than what we have seen so far. It was actually more modern than we expected, online I had seen streets with water buffalo and dirt roads, but inside the city was fairly bustling. There were a lot of motorbikes, as there is everywhere here, and in Laibin there are a ton of them with little green roofs that act as taxis. We are not allowed to go to the orphanage, or even to get get out of the van near it. Our driver pulled over across the street and we had to take pictures through our open windows. A man in uniform came up to our window and said "what are you doing?' and then spoke to the driver so I think we were in trouble, but mission accomplished, we continued on to explore the area. We went to the hospital area where another baby had been found and many people come right up and stare at us until we smile and say hello. Woman with their babies often come over to smile and coo. Some very cute elderly women came over and Mary told us that they had never seen foreigners before. Laibin is not exactly a tourist spot! We had a great time with the locals.Jimmy wandered a bit and found a baby store where I bought a beautiful quilted, silk outfit for Laina, red with blue dragons, it was 60 yuan, or about $7.50. We went next to Laina's spot and were both moved by the enormity of how we will be changing her life. After taking pictures, we decided to go to a restaurant for lunch and Mary found a hotel that looked fairly clean and decent and the food was delicious. The waitresses and patrons obviously enjoyed watching us and Laina got passed around as usual. After a lunch of 'congee', a sweet sesame pork rib dish, some steamed pumpkin, a platter of sizzling beef with peppers and some steamed pork, and rice,and some small custards, we asked to go to a local outdoor market. This was a market for food and 'commodities', there were rice stands,sugar cane, nuts and beans and spices, and also a rather unsavory, and unrefrigerated assortment of meat, and I'm talkin' pig-heads, snails,all kinds of fascinating things we never think to eat. We often had school children say hello and run away giggling. The elderly people are as interested in us as we are them, they shyly stare until we speak to them.The entire market was buzzing, all eyes were on us. Aman tried to sell Jimmy some live chickens. Mary and the driver seemed anxious to go so after lots of picture-taking, we started back to Nanning. The other group wasn't back yet, so we decided to change our usual routine and go down to Pizza Hut. Yup, we really needed some American food, and it turned out to be a really great night. The square of eateries,a neon blazed shopping and gathering area of about 6 blocks square, including McD.'s, and KFC, was a large area totally crowded with teenagers. A group of about 6 kids came up and told us it was one girl's birthday and asked us to sing, which we did. We had to wait 20 minutes for our table so we stood outside the door. Suddenly we were surrounded,the people were crowding around us, at least 4 or 5 people deep, it was so funny. Felt like a Rock-Stah! All the kids want to practice their English, it was really fun. Jimmy took some pictures and they ttok some of us and the birthday girl,and then we went in and thoroughly enjoyed some pizza and beer. All the time, Laina and Isabella are being cooed over and patted. Luckily, they don't seem to mind. Laina loves riding in the stroller and puts her little feet up and kicks back to enjoy the scenery. It is now about 10:00 p.m., my family is quiet and soon I will be too. Tomorrow is our last day here in Nanning, we will be sad to go. This is an absolutely beautiful place. No pix tonight, the other group has not returned and so I can't ask to use Peeps'laptop. Hopefully tomorrow! Heard you are having sleet and rain, and maybe a storm back home, glad to miss it! Maybe we'll stay a while....
No comments:
Post a Comment