City Time, and Delayed Flight, and Rainy Guangzhou

Saturday, May 15 from Guangzhou

Leaving Nanchang yesterday was quite wearing for everyone.  The morning was nice … we walked around some of the local streets (not the kind of dense/intense shopping scene as before). 

Nice to see trees, some with bird cages with very loud musical birds.  Lots of people walking, riding bikes, scooters, and bigger vehicles.  We stopped at a street vendor and Nancy got some nice jade bracelets with the big help of Nadine’s bargaining skills.  One of our group, Kevin has a tiny daughter Marissa who gets very hot, and he holds her very close, so she wasn’t wearing shoes or a jacket.  Many Chinese people came up to him and scolded him for not keeping her warm – custom is to keep babies bundled up against any possibility of cold. 

People are very curious and bold about coming up to our group.  Nadine said they want to know why these people want to adopt Chinese babies – why don’t they have their own?  She told them it was because of their big compassionate hearts to help these babies from the orphanage.

In the hotel while everyone was packing, Ni Shi and Popo had a little visit down the hall with families with babies.  She helped to dress them – she really does like helping.

When we got to the airport, we soon found our flight was delayed due to thunderstorms in Guangzhou.  The noise in the airport was terrible; was pretty stressful for everyone.  Finally we got on the plane, and Ni Shi slept most of the way.  It was POURING when we arrived in Guangzhou.  One family coming from Shanghai wasn’t able to get in until the next day.  Our guide Connie was waiting for us … a couple of the other families in our group coming from other places had been even further delayed.  So she took us to the hotel (which is beautiful) and then went back for the other families.  (Pictures are only up to this time; haven’t copied today’s off our cameras yet.)

At breakfast, the very large breakfast room was full of families with their newly adopted children; clearly some for the second time.  Cher and Popo took Ni Shi to her medical exam – they checked her height and weight, did a cursory physical exam, and ENT exam.  Because she’s older, she had to have a TB test.  Then they all had their visa photograph taken.  She behaved well through all the tests, cooperated with the doctors.  We all had a nice lunch with a couple of other families – one couple has a boy about Ni Shi’s age, and it was very good to talk with them and compare notes.

You might be interested to know that in our group two children have cleft palates, and one had a hole in his heart; those three have had corrective surgery with more to go when they get home.  They’ve all had some surgery already, with more ahead.  We’ve also travelling in parallel with people from other adoption groups.  One couple has a little deaf girl.

The afternoon was spent wandering near the hotel, shopping, exploring the hotel facilities which are enormous, including a playroom.  There’s an indoor waterfall and lots of ponds, bridges, water, plants, fish.  It’s quite noisy and visually stimulating.  Dr. Jerry had made friends with Michael, who owns a shop near the hotel, and his two sons, so we visited that shop, and he gave us good discounts. 

Dinner at Lucy’s, an American style restaurant.  Ni Shi ate well … she loves noodles, and enjoyed Popo’s French fries very much.  After dinner we walked beside the Pearl River, looked at the hotels across the river – a couple of buildings are so lit up they belong in Las Vegas!  We passed a groups of adults practicing tai chi, and a group of children learning kung fu.  It was nice to be outside in a quiet place like this park.

Back to the hotel, and Ni Shi is asleep after a long struggle to stay awake; we see this pattern every night. 

Tomorrow Connie has offered a tour of the city.  We are free except for an appreciate gathering for Dr. Jerry (and for Kevin our group leader, though he doesn’t know it’s for him, too.)