The Adventure Continues... On To Wuhan!
- Wuhan, Hubei Province - Page 3

Ms. Hu took me quickly to the third floor where there were two dorms.  One was full of wooden twin beds painted blue for the boys and the other, for the girls, was full of wooden twin beds painted light green. Several normal, healthy looking boys were standing by the double doors of their dorm.  This was the first time I saw that many school-age boys at an orphanage and this surprised me.
 
I did not see any older girls until we went down to the second floor.  About ten girls, aged approximately 10 - 16 years, were dancing in a dance room that was equipped with all the facilities needed for this dance. Ms. Hu asked the girls to perform for me.  The tape recorder played some music and all the girls started dancing to the music.  They kept waving their fans trimmed with red silk.  After getting permission, I took my second picture here.
 
The girls came to the door to wave goodbye to us after I took their picture.  One of the girls asked if I came from Taiwan. I asked her, "How did you know?"  She answered, "Because you are wearing those kind of sandals."  Ms.Hu said that the people from the Taiwan charity organization had been coming to visit every year since the building was founded.
 
It was the weekend so the classrooms were empty and the children were all in their living areas upstairs.  I asked if the older girls were talking about international adoptions since there had been hundreds of children adopted by families in foreign countries.  Ms. Hu said that the girls did not fully understand adoptions but they were talking about families and wanted to have their own parents.
 
As we were walking out of the building, we saw a boy standing at a huge porch waiting for a nurse to come to pick him up for a physical check-up. I took a picture of a Mother statue in front of the Rehabilitation Building and waved good-bye to Ms. Hu.  I had only taken 3 pictures total here at this institute.  I had to be very cautious about picture taking and every time I asked permission before actually taking the picture.
 
Ms. Hu had also told me of a family that had been visiting the institution every year.  They were from San Francisco and had a 7-year-old daughter who was adopted in 1994.  The staff of the institute welcomed them. I mentioned that I would write to the institute.  Ms. Hu told me to "write to the office and they will pass it over to me."
 

INDEX          1    2    3