Goodbye Zhengzhou, Hello Guangzhou

Yesterday was a travel day for us. We said goodbye to Maddie's hometown of Zhengzhou and traveled by airplane to Guangzhou.  It was Maddie's first trip on an airplane, but like everything else on this trip, she took it all in stride and had fun.  Arriving in Guangzhou was quite a shock.  It's very humid and hot, and our local guide told us we're lucky to be here in September.  It's sort of like going to central Florida in the middle of July, but I wouldn't know anything about that ; )

Today (Sunday) we opted out of the official city tour in hopes of making it to Mass at the nearby cathedral.  We were on our own in terms of getting there and back and so we were a bit anxious about the trip.  We asked the hotel concierge to translate the address of the cathedral into Chinese, and to give us a Chinese business card of the hotel so we could hand it to a taxi driver on our way home.  The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Guangzhou is the seat of the Archbishop of Guangzhou and is situated on the north bank of the Pearl River.  We arrived just in time for the 10:30AM high mass and were quickly ushered to our seats.  This mass would be in Mandarin with earlier masses in Cantonese, and the 3:30PM mass in English.  It was a very gothic-styled church with magnificent stained glass windows and intricate carvings all over.  Sure, we couldn't understand a word being said, but you can still follow along and know where you are in the mass at any given point.  Two interesting notes:  1.  The Homily was MUCH longer than we've ever experienced.  I think perhaps it went on for about 30 minutes.  I'd like to think the Bishop was preaching a fantastic homily.  2.  The exchange of peace was very interesting.  The norm in China is to bow to each other, not shake hands.  You could have probably guessed that, but it was still interesting to see.

After mass we decided to explore a bit.  We made our way down a narrow side street with tons of vendors hawking their wares.  It was quite an adventure.  We saw some crazy health code violations along the way, live animals, and a lot of food items that were completely foreign to us.  We stopped at a little toy store so the girls could pick out something.  They decided to go with masks.  I think they were a bit uncomfortable and wanted to hide themselves.  After spending ~30 minutes trying to hail a cab, we finally made it back to our hotel room in time for a quick nap before our evening festivities.

The whole reason we're in Guangzhou is so Maddie can get her immigrant visa to the U.S.  The U.S. consulate in Guangzhou is the only consulate in China that permits U.S. immigrant visas.  So, here, we'll do a bit more paperwork, get a medical exam for Maddie, and prepare for our trip home.  It's sort of apropos that we'll be in the US Consulate in Guangzhou on September 11th where we will take an oath, on Madeleine's behalf paving the way to her U.S. citizenship.  I doubt we'll be able to take pictures there, so we'll just have to describe the scene at a later time.

Getting ready to leave Zhengzhou

Inside the Cathedral

Cathedral Altar with the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Side altar for Mary.

Exterior of the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Posing in front of the Cathedral

On our way to explore

Darlene thought maybe we should pick up a few steaks and grill tonight!

Or maybe we could have Chicken or Pigeon for Dinner

Keegan and Regina with their "Dollar-store" find

Welfare Institute of Zhengzhou

Today we toured the orphanage welfare institute where Maddie spent some time before she was placed in foster care.  (When we called it an orphanage, we were quickly corrected by our guide that it's not an orphanage, it's a welfare institute.)  We also brought with us a suitcase and a half of donations given to us by our family and friends.  About 2/3rds of the donations will stay at this orphanage, and the other third will go to the other orphanage in Zhengzhou (on the other side of town).  There were mixed feelings going on throughout our trip.  On the one hand, the conditions are poor.  It's situated on the furthest outskirts of town, near the garbage dumps and some industry.  The roads leading to the orphanage were in horrible condition.  From afar, the building itself looks pretty good, and (as with much of China) they were doing a lot of construction on the building itself.  However, once you go up to the building and in the buildings, you feel like you're in a third world country.  On the other hand, I'm sure the people who are working there are doing their best with the resources they've been given. With roughly 700 orphans to take care of, any institution that depends on charity and government subsidy would have a difficult time keeping up.  Everyone we met there was very nice and greeted us with a Hello.  We went to a specific wing of the orphanage that is occupied solely by CCAI staff and children who will be made available for adoption through CCAI.  There we held some babies, and talked with the caretakers a bit.  In all, it was good to see and have the experience.  I'm sure, with plenty of notice given to the director and a limited tour, we were treated to only the best parts of the orphanage, but regardless it's a decent place that I'm glad Maddie didn't have to spend much time in.  Oh, and in case you're wondering, it's a balmy 80 degrees in the rooms and all the babies are in full onesie pajamas with a blanket over them all.  Auntie Kelley would be going nuts!

Darlene says:
To me, this was more emotional than when we met Madeleine on Monday. 700 orphans, I can't even wrap my mind around that. We saw the "adoptable" babies...the ones that will more than likely have families in the near future. Moms and Dads like Ryan and I that will travel across the world and make a contract with the Chinese government to love these children that have been abandoned. But, we also caught glimpses of older children, kids that have been passed over for adoption. Some seemed completely "normal" while others were obviously low functioning and very special needs. What is going to happen to these children? In a city of 9 million people, and a very elementary social welfare program, it's anyone's guess. Who is going to take care of these children???

Distributing our donations to be divvied up between the two orphanages in Zhengzhou.

The orphanage director (middle, white shirt) doing the paperwork for the donation.

The playground.

This room is for ~6 month olds.

Maddie with one of the caretakers.

I guess it's always Christmas in Zhengzhou

This room was for infants.

A nice sentiment

Uh-oh, Darlene's found a little buddy.

Sleeping quarters for some of the toddlers.

Keegan and Regina testing out the playground equipment.  They give 1 and a half stars.

Shaolin Temple

Most people think of monks and kung fu when they think of Shaolin, but all I can ever think of is one of my favorite movies of all time Shaolin Soccer, but I digress. What we saw at the Shaolin Temple was quite a bit of the former.  We drove by a few Kung Fu schools - boarding schools for boys where half their time is spent studying Kung Fu while the other half is spent learning the schooling basics (Math, reading, science, etc...).  Our 2-hour bus ride terminated at the Shaolin Temple grounds where we walked up the various stages of temples built into Mount Song.  Our tour guide (Tim) showed us the various historical sites including a tree blanketed in bullet holes, which was turned into finger punching bags (literally holes that they "punch" with their index fingers to turn them into hard, deadly weapons).  After we finished in the temple, we walked down the road to the Pagoda forest - essentially the burial grounds for the Shaolin Monks.  Apparently, the more stories (levels) of the pagoda over the monk's ashes, the better the life he lived.  We walked up into the forest a bit to see the oldest standing pagoda there, which was built in 791AD and belongs to a Master Fawan.  I added a few random shots at the end, so make sure to scroll down to the bottom.

Girls are ready to go!

Entrance to the Shaolin temple area.

Kung-Fu school. Sort of looks like wrestling practice. 

I guess Shaolin Monks are fine with using cell phones and whatnot.  I must say, this sort of ruined the ambiance a bit.

Bullet holes turned finger punching holes.

This Monk (or Buddha, I'm not sure) chopped his arm off to make the snow red.  A request of his master before he would train him.

White girls rubbing the Buddha belly is an attraction for everyone.

Mommy and Maddie.

Darlene making friends with the natives.  I spent a lot of time talking her out of taking a puppy home too.

Master Fawan's Pagoda built in 791AD

More pagodas.

Best family photo yet.  Everyone is at least looking somewhat in the right direction.

The girls love the hotel pool, although we're relegated to the 2ft kiddie / warm tub.

Maddie double fists her pizza.  Although, to be fair, she pretty much devours everything.

The meat section of Walmart is pretty disgusting.  Slabs of meat sitting in the open, not wrapped up or anything.  This is why Darlene has been a strict vegetarian this trip.  

On the right are chicken parts and whole chickens lying out in the open.  Whole chickens  = whole chickens, heads, feet, the whole bird.