Continued from part 1...

After the paperwork, we gave the orphanage directors our gifts of blankets and knitted caps, and at least these two sweet women didn't tell us to send money instead like Benjamin's orphanage director did. They were very appreciative of what we gave them and gave us ideas for future gifts from families who have adopted from Yichang. When we left, they told us that Caleb had been a very popular and much loved child by others in the orphanage and we can see why, because he is quite the clown when he wants to be. He will have to be reigned in a little tighter because he thinks he can grab whatever he wants whenever he wants, such as Jeff's
laptop computer or Taylor's I-pod. He thinks when he is told "no" that people are just kidding and needs to understand better that no really means no.



One of my complaints after being an interpreter myself is that our travel
guides don't really interpret. They are not trained to be interpreters, so when I ask them repeatedly to please interpret everything that is being said, they just don't do it. They will chat with Caleb, ask him what he ate for dinner, how he is liking our family, etc., and he answers and they don't interpret any of it unless I ask again and again. I am beginning to feel like a broken record when I ask them to please let us know what is being said. It was even more important to me yesterday to have his conversation interpreted between him and his orphanage officials, but our adoption guide just sat there and smiled.

Our other guide who is handling our touring continues to go above and beyond in her guide duties. She stayed with us all day yesterday
even though she wasn't on our itinerary to even be with us. We were supposed to be with our adoption guide to just handle paperwork in the morning and then have the day to ourselves. Instead, she took us clear across town to a shopping area closer to her home. It was exhausting as we had to do a lot of walking, but when I told her that we wanted to be as frugal as possible, she has really come through. We took a bus for a total of 7 yuan across town instead of taking taxis. Since we weren't supposed to have guide services yesterday we didn't have a paid driver.

On the way across town, a woman held her 2 year old child down and let her
urinate on the bus floor. That provided some entertainment for my children as the urine ran in a stream down the aisle and we had to dance around it each time the bus would lunge forward or hit its brakes.

My two teenagers are starting to tire of being stared at and I had to tell them to stop yesterday because Taylor is looking at people and saying "WHAT??" when they continue to stare. My kids think they are pretty funny, but I don't want to offend anyone and just because people don't speak English doesn't mean they don't understand it or my children's body language.

My children have noticed that unlike Americans who stare and then look away if you stare back, Chinese people will continue to stare. Micheline continues to draw the most stares and comments and we have muttered "why don't you look somewhere else??" under our breath a few times as it does get worrisome to me how she is feeling about it. Most of the time she is just hopping or bouncing along and doesn't even really notice, but we have tried to place her with her back to the window when we go in restaurants so she isn't quite so visible to passersby. We went to Pizza Hut today with our guide and if Micheline is visible, passersby will stop and gather at the restaurant window.

Continued...