Wed, Aug 11
Today is Steve's birthday which we probably won't be able to celebrate as we leave the hotel at 8am to catch the train to Xuzhou. Lili, our guide, is taking us there on the fast train which takes 2 1/2 hours and travels at speeds up to 324 KPH! There are several stops but the train only opens its doors for 2 minutes at each station so it's a mad rush when we finally near Xuzhou. Lili takes us to the doors about 10 minutes early, where I then have to balance myself and Zong on the speeding train while we wait for it to slow down, stop and open its doors! The excessive heat outside the air-conditioned train hits like a sauna as we make our way through the crowds, up the escalator and outdoors.
We are greeted at Xuzhou Train Station by Ms Tang, the orphanage director. She walks us through a carpark and over a road to another section of the train station where our little boy was left on Oct 31, 2009 as a newborn. We take photo's of this area which is his finding site. The heat is overwhelming which only adds to the enormous emotion we are feeling. Ms. Tang tells us Zong was found by a cleaner about the same time we arrived - 12:20.
We then drove to a local Xuzhou restaurant where we had lunch. The food was very nice and over lunch we asked Ms. Tang some questions. She told us there are 400 children in the SWI including those in foster care, there are more boys than girls and 95% of the children are special needs.
We drove to the orphanage where they had a sign out front welcoming Zhizong back home! We went into a reception/waiting room which was lovely and cool and waited there until the children's nap time had finished. A man photographed us and asked us a few questions. He seemed very interested in the gifts our friends from Australia sent with us for the orphanage and he photographed Ms. Tang with them. We learned he was a journalist/reporter from the local newspaper. Before we knew it, there were 6 or more reporters taking photo's and asking us questions! They were particularly taken by Anrong and the poem she recited for them in Mandarin. They said she had perfect Beijing pronunciation which her Mandarin teachers at home will be very pleased to hear! They were also very taken by Steve changing Zong's nappy and took a few too many photo's of that! Lili told us the reporters were from the Xuzhou Daily, Xuzhou Morning and Xuzhou Evening Newspapers and that we will be very famous in Xuzhou! Now all we need to do is find one of the articles!
Ms. Tang took us on a tour of the orphanage. We saw the kitchen, baby rooms and one or two toddler rooms. We met Zong's first carer and took a photo of her with him. We learned he was in a room with her for one month, then moved to a second room where he stayed two months, then to a third room where he stayed 3 months and then to his last room where he stayed another 3 months - they showed us his cot in this last room...
Before we left, Steve asked if someone could show us what they have been feeding Zong at the orphanage. They took our bottle to the kitchen and brought back a very thick grey mixture which looked like cement! We were told it contained a mixture of formula, cereal, grains and nuts and is very nutritious. It was so thick they had to cut the top of the teat off our bottle! The head nurse fed Zong and he loved it!
On our way out, we were shown a poster board of the new orphanage building to be constructed this year and a photo board of Xuzhou children and their forever families including Aussie family The Gribbles! We were then taken outside to the beautiful new Chinese garden on orphanage grounds and then driven to the train station for our journey back to Nanjing.
