ltr from Maoming visit to SWI 7 July Visit to the Maoming SWI The visit was very fine, different from our first visit to the orphanage when the director was away. The man who was at the orphanage last time is now at a different orphanage and this time we were given a tour of the place and met Bao’s doctor and special “ayi” or nanny/auntie who looked after her until she was 17 months. She has been working there now for 28 years. I gave her a hug and immediately burst into tears. She has a very gentle loving face and Bao was visibly touched by her meeting giving her a hug. For the fist six hours en route from Maoming to Guangzhou, she cried for her ayi calling her “Mah” so I’m especially grateful to her for giving my daughter the generous loving care that mothers share with their children. The doctor who was there when I adopted Bao also visited with us and looks very devoted to her work. The social welfare institute is very well organized and maintained. The special needs children receive special individual therapy sessions on the first floor. One of the physical therapists was the woman who held Bao when I first saw her. I remember my first meeting with my daughter, calling out her name “Bao Bao” and hearing a woman call to me as she walked up the stairs in the government guest house. When I saw she was carrying the beautiful child I had only seen in a small photograph, I reached out for her and the woman instinctively drew back so I just grabbed the baby! No thought to this, just eager excited thrilled mother energy. Our friend Ms Ke came with us to the orphanage along with Li’s mother. By the end of our hour and a half, I was so emotionally exhausted I felt like collapsing. I took photos and video all the way along. We visited two kindergarten classes filled with children, almost all boys. These children were attending school and live at home with their families. The orphanage director observed ironically that all of these children would be in need of wives just like Bao when they grew up! In the two baby rooms at the orphanage, the abandoned children were almost exclusively girls. When we go out for dinner with friends, the children are usually boys though I notice that many families on the street have girl children. Director Zhong said that there are fewer babies abandoned each year. Last year police brought about 125 children to the orphanage. She is very eager to have a foster home system set up for her special needs children. She herself recently adopted a special needs boy who has mental developmental issues. He couldn’t open his hand a while ago and after physical therapy is now able to hold things, including M Zhong’s telephone that he accidently threw on the floor! Bao played with him on the slide and gave him a stuffed piggy she bought in a local market. Rose had given her a blue piggy stuffed with tiny Styrofoam pellets that she carried everywhere and loved. It became her pillow on the plane and her comfort at night. But we inadvertently left it in the revolutionary writer Lu Xun’s museum in Shanghai. I hope a revolutionary child is enjoying it now! I’ve been trying to get in touch with Jenny Bowen of Half the Sky to find out about fundraising for the Maoming SWI but our schedule is very hectic here and I know she is going back to Beijing today. I’m hoping they will administer the program for those of us with children from the orphanage. M Zhong is in one of the photos we have in the hotel room when we adopted Bao. At that time I think there was another director who is now retired I guess. We're very grateful to the orphanage for the care they give these children. We bought some gifts for the older children who live somewhere else (not quite certain where they live) and also some pens and paper for the special needs children. About twaelve or of the children with developmental delays about 13 and under sat on a long bench and sang a clapping song for us. They were very sweet and the two nannies energetically conducted them with a lot of smiles and cheers. The smaller children with physical problems with feet, legs or hands, about 7 of them in one room, were playing with four caregivers who were also very cheerful. It made me sad to think of these children living their life in the orphanage without hope of adoption or fostering. There were about 25 babies and toddlers in the two rooms, one larger, one smaller with about 10 children, and two or three nannies with each room. *Aug 11 update --Good news about Half the Sky....spoke with Jenny Bowen in Beijing while I was in HK and she said Half the Sky is visiting Maoming in Sept. They hope to set up several programs in Guandong beginning spring of 2006 with training in Guangzhou for all the caregivers involved in the new program......priority working with children who remain in orphanage. She said Maoming had a good program for fostering adoptable children so ongoing fosterin...