Blue sky in Beijing whaaa-t!

I'm sitting in the living room of my apartment, enjoying the company of five other girls, three of whom are leaving for Baoji, in Shaanxi province, a 15-hour train ride south-west of Beijing. Anna, Joan, and Erin (a volunteer here from Harvard, not an intern) are following a few of the babies back to the orphanage they originally came from. Many of the babies going back have their adoption papers ready, meaning they have the opportunity to be adopted. I'm still a bit unclear on how things work exactly in terms of foster care and adoption and what the chances are for each child once they have their papers written up, but as I find out more I'll try my best to make note of it.

In response to some of the comments that were posted! (Hey Caitlin, this one's for you) ... The children that China Care takes in are all disabled in some way. Most of the ones I've worked with have physical disabilities. Because of the one-child policy, parents will often give up a child whose disability is obvious at birth and then try for a second one, either because of financial inability to pay for the child's required surgery, or because of the social stigma attached to having a disability.

As for the gender ratios, there are surprisingly a large amount of boys here in the homes. I think it's a common Western assumption that most Chinese orphans are girls, but that doesn't seem to be the case with the children I've met so far.

So the couple days of manual labour I mentioned in my last entry as turned into an everyday project that we must get done by this Sunday as it turns out. WHAT! We have been returning to the new house almost every day to paint the walls, scrape, sweep, and mop the floors, all in time for the babies to be moved in on July 6th. Have we ever got our work cut out for us. Oh my. In addition, Jane, an English teacher/China Care staff member (not exactly sure of her position) has designated us the task of organizing the warehouse here on the compound that is used to keep all of the donations China Care receives. Two days ago we brought garbage bags and boxes full of children's clothing and bibs to one of the apartments turned classroom and spent four hours separating the clothing into separate piles ready for storage. There is still lots to be done. The warehouse is more of a shack with rather cramped shelving, but we've been given a large deadline so it'll get done.

Given these projects we've ad to take on, we haven't really been left with too much time to hang with our little ones. I'm finding that an hour to two a day in the nursery is really exhausting. Yesterday morning, I went in and went straight to Liu Fa, which seems to be the routine I've established, and she was all smiles once we started playing. I got to speak to Lily, a China Care staffer who speaks English quite well, and was able to find out a little more about Liu Fa's medical issues. I found out that her adoption papers have been written up, meaning she has a chance to get the surgery she needs if adopted and brought to a country where they can perform the necessary operation. I'm knocking on lots of wooden tables. She's a gem.

We spent the weekend exploring the city. They've revamped the metro system here, and it's air conditioned! Wow! We took the very long ride into the city (Yuxiang Gardens is in Shunyi district, quite a ways from downtown), and visited the Forbidden City and Tian'an men. It was a whole-day excursion. It was a lot of fun being back in the crowded Beijing core, though I'm excited to explore areas I haven't yet been to. On Sunday night I took a few of our friends who were leaving the next day (some volunteers from a school in Connecticut) to D-22 and we stumbed upon this AMAZING Mongolian folk band who were just starting to play as we arrived. Amazing. I bought their album to share with a couple of the other interns. D-22 for those to whom I haven't yet raved about it, is a wicked little bar near the university I studied at last year, that is the epicenter of the Beijing underground music scene as I know it. My friends really enjoyed the performance and it was a great way to see some of them off.

Callie, Ysabelle, John Speed and I have been teaching a pre-school class, which I'll write more about next time. Gotta share some deets about the kids I've met. They're so lovely.

Happy summer and thanks for the messages!! Keep sendin' 'em my way. I LOVE YOU ALL and am thinking about home lots and lots. Time for bed, another long day of warehousing/painting/baby time tomorrow. Shui jiao ba!

Much love,
lauren.