We were up at 5:30am, on the coach by 6:00am and well on our way by 7:00am. We were on our first journey to the orphanage in Chengde. I don't know what to write here because we've been told not to put pictures of the orphanage up on the internet because they don't want to attract any negative attention- e.g. from foreign newspapers or something- but I really want to share with you what we did and what we saw.
We arrived at the orphanage at 11:00am- 4 and a half hours after we left the Centre! We were due to arrive at 9:30 so we'd lost an hour and a half. We were given a quick tour and got to see some of the children before lunch. The orphanage was part of a complex with a wing for children and a wing for adults and elderly people. There was also a wing that used to be used as a hotel to generate income. But since the orphanage teamed up with Care For Children they've been getting government grants and don't need to do that now. It was not in a bad condition- it was definitely not like the pictures I've seen of Romanian orphanages with bare rooms and children tied up in beds. The childrens bedrooms were quite nice with proper beds, duvets, and pillows. There were 6 beds in each room I think. There was a shower in one of the rooms. The nursery where the babies slept had loads of cots lined up next to each other. When I looked in the cots there were lots of babies with only cleft pallates. The room where they ate was basic- white walls and a table where they'd dish up food. Upstairs there was also a classroom with a colour TV. Downstairs there were 2 courtyards- one with a slide and childrens toys, the other empty. The babies were kept in a therapy room. They had special walkers and foam matts on the floor. Everything was basic, yes, but not awful conditions. And much better than I was expecting.
We walked to a local restaurant for lunch which the orphanage had booked for us. They ordered us so much food! And it was all lovely stuff- lots and lots of different dishes and everyone was so full and we ended up taking more than half of the food back with us to give to the orphanage.
Afterwards we were split into 2 groups- one group would leave at 1pm to go back to the Centre and halp serve at the Jackie Pullinger dinner, the others would stay until 3pm and meet the first group at the restaurant for dinner. I offered to stay until 3pm. We all helped do some digging for some plants and then we were taken to play with the children. There were about 15 children which I'd say were aged 3-10ish, and about 10 babies. There were also teenagers and young adults but I only saw 2 of them. Some of the children were mentally handicapped but I'd say most were in the orphanage because they were physically handicapped or deformed in some way. Even if it was only a cleft pallate- something which can be corrected with (as I understand) a fairly simple operation as a baby. It was heartbreaking.
Jo stayed in the therapy room while I went outside to play with the older kids. I think they loved the attention once they got used to all of us! It was a cold day but the kids were still wearing crotchless trousers, their bottoms must have been really cold hehe. I thought it was bad at first, but after visiting Tiananmen Square and seeing kids there, I realised that it's quite normal in China. Means they can just squat and do their business (in potties) without taking their trousers off. Someone had bought balloons so we were blowing them up and giving them out to the kids. There were red balloons everywhere and it was windy so they kept blowing over the walls. Someone (or the orphanage staff) had also bought stickers for the kids so they loved sticking them on their hands or faces, or giving them to us. Because I don't speak or understand any mandarin it meant I had to rely on facial expressions and body language to communicate but I didn't find it too hard since I'm used to it at school, and once I found one child I could play with for a bit it gives you more confidence to play with some of the others. I really enjoyed it!
I think we left around 3:30pm and must have arrived back at the Centre at 8:00pm to pick up the others. We then went to the same restaurant we'd been to before, not far from where we were staying, and had another good meal. I think we all slept well that night.
