The day began with a 2 hour drive to Lu’an, a once small town 8 years ago when we first got Kailyn. Now it is a rapidly growing metropolis, the skyline dotted by China’s new national bird… the crane. (That pun courtesy of our guide Ming). Beyond clever puns, we had a very engaging discussion with Ming for most of the 2 hour trip. We learned a lot about the new China in the process.
Things at Kailyn’s orphanage got off to a better start than Ciana’s, in that I at least recognized the buildings as the ones that the other Dads had stared at through the closed gates 8 years ago.
The actual visit was so different than the Nanchang SWI. Nanchang was formal. One got the impression that our route through the orphanage was planned, with nanny/child interaction choreographed throughout. We were moved expediently from room to room, in a formal, professional manner.
In Lu’an, it was much more casual. We visited a number of rooms with children in them, and were given as much time as we wanted to interact with the children. While Maureen and I tended to scare most of the kids, Kailyn got along just fine with them.
In Lu’an, it was much more casual. We visited a number of rooms with children in them, and were given as much time as we wanted to interact with the children. While Maureen and I tended to scare most of the kids, Kailyn got along just fine with them.
She really took the time to interact with the children, and had a lot of fun doing so.
After quite a visit with the children, we headed over to the office to meet with the overall director for the SWI (Social Welfare Institute). He was very accommodating, and did his best to answer our questions. This time at least the actual “file” arrived at the meeting, and we were able to look at all the forms in it. Again, we did not learn anything new, but one didn’t get the impression there was anything more to learn.
There was one comical moment. It had been raining fairly heavily all morning, and there were several leaks in the ceiling of the room we were meeting in. It was also quite warm. At one point the director got concerned we were uncomfortably warm and turned the ceiling fan on. We were all immediately cooled by a sudden shower as all the rain that had leaked onto the fan went spraying around the room. After a good laugh we headed off for lunch.
We had offered to host the director and a number of his staff at a local restaurant for lunch. Ming assisted Maureen and me in ordering lunch. Fortunately, this was another one of those restaurants that displayed all their dishes under glass, so we had a reasonable sense of what we were getting. We were being overly Caucasian in our ordering until I asked Ming if ordering bullfrog would be appreciated by our guests and he heartily agreed (it was actually very good – like chicken, as they say, but sweeter so it worked very well with the spicy sauce it was served with).
Now any other parents planning a homeland visit to Lu’an need to be aware of one important thing. The Lu’aners really like to drink! And I’m not referring to the local tea. Lu’an is known for two beverages. The local tea is prized by many Chinese, but seemed rather bland to us. Regrettably for yours truly, one of Lu’an’s other major industries is a supposedly well known rice liquor distillery. Further, Ming advised me both that it is bad form to not drain your glass when someone toasts you and equally bad form to not propose a toast back.
One look at Maureen’s contorted face after her first toast told me that I was going to be the one holding up the family’s honour. And boy, did I “take one for the team”! The lunch got more and more boisterous, and at one point it appears I acquired one or two concubines… but they both happily acknowledged Maureen’s place as “first wife”. Despite the increasing challenge of communicating (Ming was receiving as many toasts as I was, and translation was taking longer), it was a truly warm and friendly lunch. Ming’s translation of their comments told us what we could already feel – the staff were truly happy that Kailyn and her family had come back to meet them and were participating in a typical Lu’an celebration.
The kids thought that lunch was never going to end, and happily retreated to the TV over on one side of the room. We had to refuse multiple offers to attend a dinner they wanted to host in our honour that night. Judging by how much liquor they poured for lunch, sticking around for dinner would have been suicide. We were able to talk our way out of dinner by promising to let them host us for dinner the next time we visit. Eventually, as host, I was able to claim the right to make a last toast, and we escaped just before another bottle of rice liquor was opened.
Fortunately, neither our or the orphanage’s drivers had been the recipients or initiators of any toasts, so they were fine to take us out to Kailyn’s finding spot after lunch. We knew that Kailyn had been found at the gates to a nearby village, and I somehow pictured one of those three part Chinese village gates, set on a dirt path with rice paddies and water buffalo one either side. Sadly, we pulled up in front of a building supply yard on the side of the highway. The village were Kailyn’s recorded personal history had begun was gone, bulldozed to make room for building supplies. I guess it is somehow disappointingly fitting that Kailyn’s history had been swept away by the same drive for modernisation that has swept away so much else in this country.
Like Ciana, Kailyn was disappointed not to learn anything new, but took it in stride. We toured a bit more of Lu’an (new construction everywhere) and made a brief stop back at the orphanage, before heading back to Hefei. We departed Lu’an having made a bunch of new friends, but not having learned anything more about Kailyn’s history.
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