Our Wanzai Trip

Tonight we are in Guangzhou. Tommorrow

we meet Ivy. Thanks to everyone following

and commenting. I wish you all could be here

to experience this.

I was going to do a long and short version of

our Wanzai, but my short version is getting

long. So here is the one.

When we adopted Emma we were offered a

trip to Wanzai but we decided against because

we were told it was a long bumpy ride. I was

having back pain and we were told we would

not get to go inside the orphanage. So we

opted to not go.

Yesterday we started our drive. It was

three hours of seeing all types of vehicles

on the highway, but mostly scooters. How

many people can a scooter carry? Atleast 5

but more when you tie a rope and pull a

second one. Little kids sandwiched between

adults. No helmets. It is interesting to see
little kids playing within 30' of the highway.

I guess if you don't learn quick
you don't stick around long. We saw so many

things we think are hazards but
when you have to worry about food everyday

you have a different perspective. There were

factories along the way and a few times we

came upon a city/factory area that had alot

of tall apartments and many more being

built. It is just amazing that in a rural area

you would see so much housing. One of them

we were told had 300,000 population.

Once in Wanzai we went to the orphanage.

We waited on the director. She at first
seemed a little cold, but that soon went away.

We did not get to see inside where the
babies stay, but we had already asked and

gotten so much that we did not want to ask
for anything else. I will explain more about

this in private and especially to those from
Wanzai. There have only been 6 kids

adopted from Wanzai this year and 30 babies
are there now. We of course did make a donation

to the orphanage and to my suprise got a reciept.

They insisted we go to eat with them. So we went

a small restaurant that only had private rooms for

dining. I found a dried beef that I could eat, Caprice

ate noodles, and Emma ate alot. I left the room

before anyone else and went outside to walk

around and see the river that flows through town.

We drove to the civil affairs building. A crowd

quickly formed. It was hard to do anything
because of the noise and constriction of the

people around. We stayed only for about 10
minutes. I had tried to explain to Emma

here and at the orphanage that she was here
for a little while when she was a baby.

She kept asking to play with kids or go to a park.

We all failed to acknowledge how the actions of

one person in that spot just a few years ago

had changed our lives. We started to walk

away but the crowd began to follow so we

got in the car and rode to the other side

of the town center. I didn't care if they

followed us but our guide seemed less

comfortable with strangers. We found

a park area. There were electric cars
that kids could pay to ride in a courtyard.

It looked dangerous and fun. Emma loved it.
I played with a couple of girls at the park.

Emma just loved being there and approached
alot of kids and played with them. There

were a line of young girls there that would
say "hello, how are you?" and then laugh

when I replied in there same coached manner
"I am good. How are you?"


Our guide was ready to go, but I always

want to see where people live and work.
We walked around the street markets

there. It seemed that the middle age people
were less lookers, but the older and below

30 were very interested. There were
alot of young kids walking along, crossing

streets without any adults. I was suprised
when I noticed that the two girls from the

park were following us. They followed us
a long way. I would stop and play with them.

We could not speak the same language
but we still had fun together. We walked

until it was time to leave and then our
guide could not give our driver directions

to where we were. So we waited. While
waiting, I made some new friends at a hair

salon. I wanted to do free hugs in Wanzai
(look it up on youtube) but no time. So

when a girl at the salon said hello, I did my
version there. Everyone had a good time.

They all stood outside and watched
us until we were gone. When we were

getting in our car two little girls went by
and I said hello, they ran away.

Unexpectedly, one of them came running

back. I held my hand out and she touched it

as we were pulling away. That moment
was priceless. I hated to leave, but

everyone else was ready.

On our way back we saw a fatal motorcycle

accident victim. Then it got darker and
harder to see. Cars ride in the left lane

and bikes and scooters in the right. Sometimes
drivers cross the double yellow and pass

sometime they pass in the right lane. Alot
of scooters and bike didn't have working

lights. Two little boys ran in front of our
car when it was dark. It was kind of scary.

We made it back late and ate with our

guide. We flew to Guangzhou this morning.
We ate lunch at Lucy's came back and

fell asleep and order PaPa John's.
Our suite and service at the Victory

is the nicest we have had in China.

Thanks for suffering through the long post.
This link may work for a few photos we have:
http://picasaweb.google.com/abouttheallens/ChineseIvy?authkey=snk_9LTml44
greg