The Children's Institute

Sunday, March 15. Another beautiful sunny day, like yesterday. It is in the low 70s and the forecast for this week says there will be a few days in the low 80s. It's hard to imagine that we will be warm again when we have been so cold for so long! (I know - soon I'll be complaining about the heat.)

Today, we are invited to Xiao Du's apartment for lunch (Xiao Du is our singing custodian). Juju called yesterday to invite us, and we are very excited. So we meet Juju at about 11:30 and go to his apartment which is on the fourth floor of the white tile building (all the other buildings on the campus are gray brick). Before we even get to his door, there are wonderful smells floating down the hall. His daughter, Daisy, is also there with one of her friends, Lily. They are both Junior 2 students and are in one of Tiffany's classes. Lunch is fabulous, with some special dishes from Hubei province, where Xiao Du is from, including some homemade bacon. It always amazes me how much trouble Chinese people take over their food/cooking. And Xiao Du is one of the nicest people I have ever met. It's frustrating not to be able to talk to him without a translator nearby!

At about 2 p.m., we walk up to Yandi Square and then down to Tai Shan Lu to meet Sandi. We are taking the number 17 bus to the "orphanage" in ZZ, and Sandi will be our Chinese-speaking guide! We take the bus all the way to the end of the line, which is downtown, then it is about a 10 minute walk to the orphanage. Amazingly, we run into one of the Senior English teachers, Jenny, and her 6 year old daughter, Sandy. So they decide to accompany us. Jenny refers to the place we are going as the Children's Institute. We have been trying for months to get here because we would like to be regular volunteers, but we have had a hard time coordinating schedules. At first, they told us we had to come during the week (between 9-11 or 3-5) to register as volunteers, and we could never find a time when we could all go. Then, in December, we were all set to go but when Sandi called, they said that some of the children had the flu and that they had cancelled all activities. Finally, they said we could come on Sunday afternoon. But we really don't know what to expect.

We arrive at the front gate (it's on Tai Zi Lu), Sandi explains why we're there, the guard makes a phone call, and then lets us in. We go into what looks like an administration building and are met by a lovely young woman, Miss Wu, who actually speaks quite good English. She takes us over to the building where the children are. The grounds are lovely, with grass and trees, and the buildings are attractive (for China) and well-maintained. One thing I especially like are the decorated tiles that are along the walls and up the stairwells, all at child-eye-level. There's a ping-pong table in a big space right as we go in.

We go upstairs to the second floor and the children are in a light-filled and sunny corridor along the side of the building. There are windows all along the outside, but it is only about 6 feet wide and is crowded with children, staff people, and maybe some other volunteers. At this point, we aren't quite sure who everyone is. Some of the children are in wheelchairs, some are completely ambulatory, but it is obvious that all of them are mentally and physically handicapped in some way. The children on this floor range in age probably from about 8 to 18. Well, they are very excited to see us, and I am just swept along into the middle of them. We've been told that we can't take any photos inside but, of course, everyone is taking pictures of us! It is a beautiful, sunny day, and there is a wide door with stairs down to a part-grass, part-paved area, but get this: THERE ARE NO RAMPS in this place. And of course, no elevator. When it's time for the kids to go to bed, one worker carries the child upstairs and another the wheelchair.

Later we go upstairs to see the younger children, and some of the older children come with us! They are very cute and sweet and friendly. Some of the younger ones are in chairs that provide support so they can sit up. But there are maybe a total of 15 children in two separate rooms who cannot even sit up. These kids, some of them as old as six, seem to just spend their lives in little beds, staring at the ceiling.

The entire facility is airy and light-filled; it is not a gloomy place at all. Moreover, it is spotlessly clean, and the children are well-dressed and clean. The comforters on the children in the beds are bright and colorful. There are many care-takers who seem to genuinely care for the children. (Miss Wu, who has accompanied us from the main office, is a teacher at the school.) In fact, one little boy starts crying when he sees one of the caretakers take off the pink "housecoat" that they wear and put on her regular coat! So she spends a lot of time comforting and talking to him.

Sandi tells us later that the school gets 200 yuan per month per child from the government. Of course, we don't know whether that is just for food/clothing/medical care or what. Certainly, that amount would not pay for the maintenance of the facilities or the salaries of the workers. Apparently, there is also some private money. In fact, when we first walked up the stairs, I saw a sign above an office door that was in both Chinese and English. It said something like "Zhuzhou Social Serices" and underneath "Thomas Perkins Fund." So I'd like to find out more about that.

We stay for a couple of hours, then take the bus back to Sandi's school and walk home from there. I'm exhausted, but it has been a satisfying day.