The Adventure Continues... On To Wuhan!
- Wuhan, Hubei Province, China -

- Edited by Paula Overend -

June 25, 2000
 
For good or evil, I left Yueyang for Wuhan yesterday, in spite of Mr. Chang's warning about calling the provincial welfare affairs bureau before visiting any institutes.  I could not wait for an uncertain answer, which was, according to my experience, most likely. And what was more it was the weekend.  I did not think I would be able to find anyone in the government offices during the weekend.
 
Ms. Wu, one of the directors of the Wuhan Children's Welfare Institution, was in the office and gave me directions to get to the institution.  We met in the reception office and she did not ask me for any permission from any authorities (neither municipal nor provincial welfare affairs offices). Instead she called Ms. Hu, Assistant Director, to tour me around.
 
Ms. Hu came to the reception office. I presented them the pictures I had brought to them.  Ms Hu had been working at the institute for over a decade and knew most of the children adopted from the institute.  She spoke very fast, had a very good memory, and took a long time talking and making comments about the pictures.  Ms Hu said, "Yao Yan was always pretty with that high nose bridge. She still looks pretty.  The she pointed to one of the other pictures and said, "Wow, I almost couldn't recognize her.  She changed so much, so pretty."  She also showed me how to write Chinese characters with her finger drawing on the palm of her other hand.  I took a picture of Ms. Wu and Ms. Hu looking at these pictures.

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