China 2007 Trip Recap
| Author: | Ryan Hale | |||
| Posted: | 2/1/2008; 7:43:39 AM | |||
| Topic: | China 2007 Trip Recap | |||
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Further reflections on trip to China
I remain completely thrilled with the way that the trip to China went. I won't recount each day here, but I will mention a few highlights and some things that I found meaningful, significant, or noteworthy about our time while there:
Spending time with the kids in XinMi
Obviously, this was the part that we were most looking forward to when we went, although I think we were somewhat nervous about meeting them. We had planned some activities, but due to the way that the schedule was jumbled up, we ended up just playing in the courtyard and taking time to be together. I had the opportunity to play basketball with many of the boys while Gina, Genieve, and Kaitlyn skipped rope and played Chinese checkers with many of the other kids. We couldn't have been more happy with this time and the only thing that we regret was that there wasn't more time to spend. These kids go to school from 7am - 6pm almost every day of the week, with Sunday being the exception. We did have a little time with them in the middle of the day on Saturday while they were home for some lunch and then some additional time with them on Sunday which was great.
Meanwhile, the mothers in the homes were obviously very loving with the kids. There are two mothers for each home and they rotate in cycles of living on site for two days, home for two days, then they switch with the other mother. And could they cook! We all thought that some of the best meals that we had while in China were with the kids cooked by the mothers. Amazing!
I think we made friends and are looking forward to going back again. I've posted a couple of pictures of the kids below that I think you'll enjoy.
Gina and I ate with these two little girls, Gu Si yuan (right) and Li Ke (left), the first day we were there. Our group began calling them the pink girls because they seemed to love their pink outfits and stood out as they went around together in them. They were good at Chinese checkers, although I'm told Gu Si yuan would do what she could to get away with some cheating when she was playing the Americans.
Duan Zi heng, or Zach as he liked to call himself, was really working on his English and liked to have us there to practice. As we ate, he pulled out his Chinese to English dictionary and began speaking words to us. He also would look through the encyclopedia that they had on hand and work on saying things to us. I have to say, "Tchaikovsky" was a bit of a stretch to understand, but in context with the other pictures on the page in the book that we were reading, we finally figured it out!
Adelaide went with Genieve on this trip and she was the star the entire time. All of the Chinese people seemed to love her wherever we went. This is the mother in Home 2 where Gina and I ate on Saturday and we thought this was just an amazing picture with the look on this mother's face and captured the joy that Adelaide seemed to bring to everyone we met!
Speaking to the students at Zhengzhou University
The first full day that we were in Zhengzhou, Jane had us on a roller coaster ride! Among many other things we did that day, we were able to go to one of Jane's English classes and we became the content of the course that day! Two of the students, who called themselves Daisy and Hillary as their English names, also walked with us after class around campus and gave us a tour. They were great and I was able to take a picture of Gina with them at the end of our tour.
After the tour of campus, we went to dinner with the Dean and Department Head of the International English School for the University. It was a great meal and a good time, but then it was time to go over and get ready for the talk about Communities of Hope that I was going to give. Now, keep in mind that this was our first full day in China and we hadn't had a break all day, so we were not only jetlagged but just generally tired from the day. Also keep in mind that this was a Friday evening at 7pm and that we were arriving to get ready for the talk 15 minutes ahead of time. The picture below shows what we saw when we arrived! A full house, and applause!
Needless to say, I was stunned as I wasn't expecting this type of crowd, especially on a Friday night at a University. Can you imagine getting that type of response in the U.S.? But these kids were there and the talk went pretty well, I think. It was interesting to speak with a Chinese interpreter, although many of them were English students, so part of their interest in being there was to listen to me speak in English. However, Zheng Jun interpreted for me so they could understand everything that was being said. In total, there were probably about 100 students there by the time we started and it was standing room only. I spoke for about 40 minutes on the idea that communities of hope tend to be formed as people recover from tragedies and brokenness in their lives to be healed, and then determine to offer hope to other people who are going through the same ordeal. There was a lot of great reaction and conversation after the talk as well, so I really felt good about it.
Dinner with the Chinese governmental officials in XinMi and Zhengzhou
Having dinner with these Chinese officials was definitely a new experience for Gina and I, but I think it was very good for us to do it to begin to form relationships with the governmental officials who oversee, from the Chinese perspective, the work with orphans that is happening in their area. On Saturday night, we had dinner with the civil affairs administrators in XinMi and on Sunday we ate with the Vice Mayor and several other important folks for the Zhengzhou area. To give you an idea, Zhengzhou is about the size of Chicago (7 - 8 million people) although that makes it a mid-sized city in China. One of the things that helps Jane and the orphanage, though, is that she works with the government there to help the kids. Having strong relationships with them is, in a way, like being a builder in the U.S. and having a good relationship with the planning and zoning officials in the county office. When you need to get something done, you know the right people to go to and they are typically able to help. It does go a little farther than that in China because of the governmental system that they have in place and because they provide some oversight of the comings and goings of the home, but in this case, Jane has excellent relationships with the Chinese officials and a lot of favor (guanxi - a very necessary thing to do business in China) because of the work that she has done and the commitment she has shown to the Chinese people.
I think that we were really able to get things started on the right foot, express our intentions, and be understood about what we are wanting to do in the area. The officials, especially in the dinner on Sunday, were complimentary of our plan and I think that it will be good to have started those relationships now as we look into the future.
Below is a picture from the dinner on Saturday night with the heads of the civil affairs office in XinMi. 
There were so many more things that we were able to see and do, people and relationships that I could speak of, and much more, but this post should end. I have posted some additional pictures on my picture gallery that may be of interest. Feel free to take a look there. Otherwise, I want to write here soon about our hostess, Jane Marcum, and her wonderful assistant Zheng Jun and say a little more about them, so stay tuned!
Posted by Ryan Hale on October 30, 2007; 10:15:38 PM.
Update picture and video of trip to Jia li
The previous post discussing the trip into the mountainous countryside to find Jia li provided the narrative and some pictures from that day. I received some updated pictures of her since she has come to live in the home that we are working with in Xinmi, one of which you can see above. I think you'll see, as I do, even in the short time that she has been there, an incredible transformation in the look in her eyes and her general demeanor.
We also took quite a bit of video that day trip into the mountains, so I put together a series of several clips that we took during that time to help provide a better sense of that trip. You can see that video below.
Posted by Ryan Hale on October 28, 2007; 5:53:22 PM.
First reflections on trip to China
We returned back from China after six days of a very busy schedule there. This trip was, from the beginning, an assessment, to understand more about the work that our partner there is doing there and begin forging deeper relationships with them, with the kids, with the governmental agencies that affect the work there, and to generally understand more about the Chinese culture. This was a significantly different trip from our adoption trip from last year as we were able to interact with the Chinese people on a much deeper level this time, as opposed to last year where I think we were treated by our organizers with the 5-star version of China.
On this trip, we had several experiences that I will write more about soon. Some of the highlights for me included having the opportunity to speak at Zhengzhou University to about 100 students, seeing where Jane lives in Zhengzhou, visiting and playing with the children in Xinmi, eating the incredible food prepared by very loving mothers at the home, going to the countryside to see where the children have come from and taking supplies to the people, and having dinner with the governmental officials in Zhengzhou. However, I think the highlight of the trip for me was the trip up into the mountains to find a little girl named Jia li who would then come to the home a day or two after we made the trip.
On Saturday, we had taken a couple of cars out into the countryside and drove on some pretty bad back roads in a taxi as we toured to see some of the most deplorable living conditions for people that I think I have ever seen. Quite literally, people were living in caves dug into the side of a hill, living on the hope that the rains wouldn't collapse their home in on top of them. I'm including a picture of one such home that we took on this day, although I have several other example pictures!
On Sunday though, we were going to places where the roads were going to be even worse. In this case, we were going up into the mountainous areas where the roads were such that we needed to have greater clearance and that we would need to have a van to take us there. Our plan was to go see a little girl named Jia li who had lived at the home in Xinmi 3 years ago when she was 3. Now, she was 6 and was living with a single man who had proven at the time through paperwork that he should be her guardian, although he was not a relative to her. Mom and Dad were no longer around and she had no other family around, but Jia li was living in the home with a 51 year old man. There were significant concerns about her living conditions, how well she was eating, and whether the man would be able to care for her in the future. It was time to find out if she would be able to come to the home to be taken care of under the guardianship of the orphanage.
As we were traveling up this difficult road into the mountains, we were encouraged by how well the van was traversing this path, but we soon found out that we weren't going to be able to make it all of the way there. The men in the area were working on paving the road, crushing the stone by hand, creating concrete on the spot, and rolling it out into a road on this path. There wasn't another way around, so we decided to get out and walk. We hiked around the road block and up the road for another half-mile to a mile where a man from the local village offered to take us in a van that he had, on to the 3-self church (the "official" church in China) where we were to meet this little girl, the man who was taking care of her, and the pastor of the church who had been willing in the past to provide good information about the real condition of the girl's living situation. Jane Marcum, who runs the home, was able to immediately ask the man who was Jia li's guardian whether or not he would be willing to allow her to come to the home and he agreed as he didn't feel that he would be able to take care of her, especially with winter coming soon.
We ended up walking back another half-mile or so to their home where he produced the papers showing his guardianship and other information and finalized the agreement where she would come to the home the next day. The suspicions about the living conditions were confirmed and it became clear that this was the right thing to be done for this little girl.
Below, I'm including several pictures from this time with a little narrative about each. Enjoy!
This was the roadblock! These guys were working really hard to pave this road. Unfortunately, we saw the condition of the road a mile or two down the road and it was already beginning to degrade badly because of the traffic, dirt, and washout that was happening over time.
This is Jia li when we first arrived at the church. Jane had given her a new backpack and we were getting ready to head down to the village where she lived.
Jane and Jia li at the church.
This is a cave home in the courtyard where Jia li lived.
A second structure built into the side of the hill in the courtyard where Jia li lived.
This is a picture of Jane and Jia li at her home.
Posted by Ryan Hale on October 28, 2007; 9:06:11 AM.
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