Nihao
From Nanping - Page 4
- Touring The Yanping Social Welfare Institute -
Wang Fen, a young
girl with the titles of bookkeeper, storekeeper and secretary, is taking
me on the tour of the Yanping Social Welfare Institute. Quietly
following us, are the three children cared for by more than one caretaker,
two 3-year-old girls and one 4-year-old boy.
We first walked
into a room, similar to a living room, where six children around the age
of one year old were seated. (The children look younger than their
actual age.) They were each wearing a thick diaper and were seated
in bamboo chairs located against two of the wall.
All of the children
looked healthy and normal, yet they didn't show very much facial expression
or body language, which the children in the Shanghai Children's Welfare
Institution had shown so vividly during my visit there. Mrs. Tian
and I are touching each one of the children by their heads, hands, toes
while asking questions about their individual stories.
We turn right
into a bedroom with 3 big wooden beds and a tall cabinet holding all the
clothes and cotton diapers. Two young children are sleeping under
a quilt in one bed and another two children are rolling on one of the
other beds. The furniture was arranged in a small circle.
When I stepped
into the next room, Mama Li was feeding an infant who had just come into
the orphanage today. Mama Li said the baby came into the orphanage
without anything except the clothes she was wearing. They do not know
her age or any other information about her. She looks like she was
born within one week.
Mama Li is a happy and short woman in her sixties. Wang Fen told
her that the picture of Xiao Yu, Little Jade, is in the office, "Go to
see it when you have time." Little Jade was cared by Mom Li
before she went to the states the same day as Tie Mei. I took a
picture of Mom Li, and told her I would send copies of it to her and to
Little Jade. Wang Fen wrote down the institution's address and Mom
Li's name. I put the sheet of paper carefully in my backpack.
Before leaving
for another room, I walked over to see the baby now laying on the bed.
I cried for help when I saw the infant spitting up milk. Mom
Li tried to comfort me, telling me the infant is OK, as she wiped the
milk from the baby's mouth which had been applied with gentian violet,
a purple-color liquid medicine used for preventing children's lips and
tongues from getting infected. Mama
Li followed us to the living room, leaving the infant behind. She
started talking loudly to the children in chairs, while lifting two of
the children from the chairs and putting them on her lap.
We stepped into
another bedroom to the left of the living room. The setting was
similar to Mama Li's bedroom. This mama, in her forties, was changing
a little girl just over one year of age. She starred at me with
her dark, oval-shaped eyes, and smiled at me when I touched her hair which
was standing on end. The other two babies were lying in another
bed quietly, dressed with several layers and sharing one quilt. This mama,
unable to speak but able to hear, is grinning all the time. She showed
me each of the children she cares for, by rubbing their or stretching
out their clothes, with her gestures and loud wordless utter. Wang Fen
played with children, while telling us which children will be leaving
for Spain to meet their new adoptive parents in just ten days.
After saying hundred
of good byes to the children sitting in the chairs, in the two mamas'
arms, and the little girl who was still following us, I walked quickly
back to the reception room by the gate, where another 8 children are being
cared for by a mama. We had said hello to her and all the children
when we had first arrived, but we had not stayed, feeling hesitant to
begin our visit before we received permission to do so from Mr. Lin.
The third mama
Xiuyu, "pretty jade", is in her late twenties. She was
bathing a little girl, while her husband was watching four other children
sitting in chairs who had already finished with their baths. Pointing
to one of the children, Wang Fen told us that this little girl had become
very ill, right before her adoptive parents had come to pick her up. Due
to her illness, she was not allowed to go to the states along with her
other 18 little friends in February of 2000. Her case has since
been withdrawn, as her situation is not clear, even though she is not
under any medical care right now. Mr. Lin said the American couple
did write and call several times for additional information about the
little girl and insisted on adopting her.
Mr. Lin stated,
"We have to be very careful about international adoption. Otherwise
our (the orphanage's) reputation would be damaged and the Ministry of
Social Welfare Affairs would not trust us any more, nor give us more quota
for international adoption, (additional children allowed to be adopted
internationally), if something happens to the girl after the adoption.
We can not afford to take this risk." I rub her little
fingers, she bends down her face on the chair.
An infant is crying
in a foam box that is sitting on a big wooden bed. I walked over...
and I could not help but hold my breath! The baby had a very, very
serious clef palette. Mama Xiuyu said the baby was sent to the institution
two weeks ago, within hours of having been born. "She can not
be fed with any utensils; neither bottles or spoons. She must be
fed with droppers, (the process of dripping thinned rice gruel from a
spoon into the back of the baby's throat), otherwise she would get badly
choked.", said Xiuyu.
I took a picture
of Xiuyu, and asked her to write down her name for me. She asked her husband
for help since she is not able to write. I bent down to rub again
on the little girl's face who would otherwise be some American parents'
dear baby now. The little girl remains so quiet without eye contact
nor any other response to me.
It was now 6:00
p.m. and we had to leave. Mr. Tian's wife uttered, "It is like
that! We've never been inside before." "Even the
time when I brought the little girl to the orphanage, I didn't get a chance
to see any children at all." added Mr. Tian.
- Continued
On Page 5-
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