Friday

We just returned from a visit to a local school. Because it's raining,
our guide was not able to take us to the park as planned, so instead
we saw her daughter's school. I wish the public schools in the U.S.
were comparable.

Pan Pan is starting to practice standing up more. She wants to be
held alot, so we've taught her to first sit up then stand up holding
on to us before we pick her up. This is a huge incentive for her.
Lying on her stomach to crawl is still rather uncomfortable, but we
are told that Chinese kids often walk without crawling first. This
definitely makes sense in the absence of carpeted floors.

My visit to the orphanage added some perspective on her lack of
certain motor skills. Though I was just there a short time, I had the
clear impression from my visit that the kids spend the majority of
their time in the cribs. When you consider that they have two nannies
for every nine or ten kids, they clearly don't find it manageable to
have many of them outside their cribs. That is why Pan Pan is most
comfortable on het back. We think she used the crib bars to scoot
around in.

When they are not in the cribs, the main activity appears to be
playing in baby walkers. We found out that Pan Pan is very good at
this, but unfortunately it doesn't help to develop the core muscles
they need to walk on their own. So we are working on that when she's
on the floor in our hotel. And we are using the hotel high chairs to
practice sitting.

We sent a care package before coming that included a disposable
camera. When we develop those, perhaps we will gain more insight.
The orphanage has three Children's rooms, but only one of them is in
use. There are 19 cribs and most if not all had babies in them, so
they either have new children or the babies were sharing the cribs
previously. (Six of the babies in our group come from the same
orphanage).

I was not allowed to photograph in the room because some of the babies
there have been assigned to families already. But they did let me
photograph her crib when the nannies took out the baby as well as the
baby from the neighboring crib. The room was clean, and though not
bright, it had a window looking out onto the beautiful countryside.

The nannies seemed very fond of Pan Pan and they were disappointed
that I didn't bring her. They talked about her pretty white skin,
about how she likes to dance (for us she usually does this whenever we
change her diaper), and how she cries when she is scolded. (They say
they only scold a child if she hits another child, for example). I
promised to bring her back for a visit in six or seven years.

The nicest room was the play room, because its glass windows gave a
view of the beautiful surroundings, including a small pagoda.

Only about 30 yards away is the medical clinic were Pan Pan was found
early in the morning on March 11, 2009. The orphanage director said
they no longer keep the babies' original clothing, etc. but that
typically the kids are left in a cardboard box with a little bit of
milk powder and with umbilical cords still. People rarely leave notes
these days because it could make it easier to trace the parents.
Abandoning children is illegal.

They think Pan Pan is from the immediate area and that she was left
there because people know there is an orphanage behind the clinic.

Coming from such a quiet environment, I guess her time in Nanchang
and, starting tomorrow, Guangzhou will help her acclimate to city
life. Fortunately the traffic in Chicago is somewhat more orderly.

Sent from my iPhone