We started the day by going to Dexter's orphanage. It was about a 1 1/2 hour drive to Dongguan City. You really couldn't tell the difference between one city and the next because there really isn't much for rural area. There are some agricultural spots but they are mixed in with the housing. Guangzhou, where we're staying has about 13 million people. Dongguan City has 6 or 7 million.
We are very glad that we got to visit the orphanage. We didn't know for sure if we would get to go because of the swine flu scare but we were able to visit and spend time in the office and reception areas of the building. It is a very nice and clean building and they seem to take good care of the children. We were able to talk with the Vice Director and get some more details on how things are done there. We were also given more info on the surgery that he had to repair his cleft lip. It is all in Chinese, but our guide translated it for us.
On our way up to the offices, we got to see some children doing a therapy session with some nannies. They said it is for the children that are a little behind in their mental and physical development. They said that Dexter is a very smart child and did not need to be part of these sessions.
A couple of the nannies then brought in two of Dexter's friends that he slept next to. It was really interesting to see him interact with them. A nanny brought a couple of packages of M&Ms for the kids to share. They all seemed to love chocolate!
One of the more interesting parts of the visit was being told how to take care of him. They are not shy about giving their opinion on how things should be done. They also gave him a bottle while we were there, which was kind of enlightening. The feeding position was kind of interesting, but it seemed to work, as he sucked it right down.
We also got to spend some time on the front grounds taking some pictures and video and got to see the playground area. It was nice to get a first hand look at the building and grounds rather than just seeing them in pictures. Thankfully, Dexter did really well while we were there. It didn't seem to be traumatic for him, which we were initially concerned about. The nannies and the Vice Director were also glad to see us. They really like seeing children placed with good families.
After we arrived back at the hotel, we had a couple of hours to rest and cool off. We then met the rest of our group of CHSFS families and were taken to a shopping mall in the city which also had the Pearl Market. There were a bunch of stores with all kinds of pearls.
Our night continued with going to our agency rep (Molly's) home for an authentic Chinese meal. It was very interesting to see how the Chinese people live. Very few people have actual houses, they all live in apartments. Our rep's apartment was very small. It had a tiny kitchen, a small sitting room, one bedroom and a bathroom. They had a small dishwasher in the kitchen that looked like a toaster oven and they had a small washing machine that sat on their balcony and was the size of a dorm fridge.
The meal we got was excellent. Molly's husband, Joe, made all of the food. We got fried rice, spicy bacon, spicy pork, tofu and chicken, cucumbers and soy sauce, spicy chicken, broccoli and watermelon. The Pearl River draft beer was good too. He must have cooked for hours. It was definitely a great experience.
When we got back to the hotel we were all exhausted and went to bed. Sorry for the delay in updating this. The following posts will be pictures from our day.
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