Our twice daily feedings (we were there for lunch and dinner feedings) occurred in the baby rooms. Bowls of porridge (?) were brought around to each room, one for each child residing in the room. The lunch porridge consisted of a rice like mixture with eggs. The dinner porridge was very similar but was green in color and included bits of meat. I fed Lovey and she made it very clear she liked the egg and meat pieces the best.
We initially had a chaperone in the room with us. Presumably to help us translate but I think they were there to keep an eye on us as well. I felt honored that by the end of the week, I was allowed to do feeding time all by myself....just my big old American self and the Chinese speaking nannies. Smiles go a long way in communicating!
Our chaperone was a staff member (higher than a nanny but lower than the assistant director) named Candy. She was determined to learn how to say my name, which is quite difficult for native Chinese speakers. She seemed to enjoy practicing her English with us.
One funny story about feeding. On the first day I was feeding Lovey, Lovey said something in Chinese to Candy. Apparently Lovey wanted soy sauce in her porridge! The nannies kept a bottle and often added it to her meal, which I found endearing.
I did take these pictures on the first day. I wish I would have stood at the gate and taken a picture of the full compound, but I didn't think of it while I was there.
This is the side that spent the most time in. The baby feeding room I was assigned to was on the 2nd floor and the baby room Lara and Miranda were assigned to was on the 3rd floor. This is in the area on the right side of the building. They multi-purpose room where we did our painting, wonton making and our final tea ceremony is in the the area that appears to adjoin the two buildings.
This is the middle section of the compound. The canteen is housed on the first floor and therapy rooms for the children are housed right above it.
The rest of the compound houses elderly. We never saw any of the elderly. I don't know if the elderly here are disabled or not. And, we didn't think to ask as we were so focused on the children. The director is in charge of the whole facility.
This gate protects the compound. And, sadly, I suspect is the finding location for many children.
I did take a picture of the hallway. You can see rooms on each side with metal gates at each room. That is to keep the children in, although Lovey certain knew how to open that gate. :) There are also larger doors that can be shut for privacy and quiet. If you look carefully, you can see Rosemary on the left, Miranda on the right and a child returning to his/her room from therapy in a wheelchair.
These carts were all the place. Children were often transported in them. In our room, they were also used for feeding. Although since Lovey was much older, she just sat on a chair. I actually have pictures of Elise at her orphanage in one of these strollers.
We did sneak in this one picture. This child was on AWAA's list so we were allowed to take the picture. All the rooms had metal cribs like this. They all appeared to be stainless steel, not painted, and all in good condition.
My room had an assortment of cribs. I saw different babies in the room each time but I believe 7-9 babies live in the room. It has windows all along one side of the room so it gets lots of natural sunlight. The windows overlook the courtyard so I imagine sounds of children playing float up into the room.
Some cribs were kept closer to the nanny station. In those cribs were the babies who appeared to need the most attention. Sweet Baby Girl was often in one of those cribs, as was a baby who had recent cleft surgery. Often babies were in the farther section of the room but that section seemed to be reserved for sleeping babies. The babies all appeared to rotate and never appeared to have simply been left in a crib.
The cribs. Oh my! The beds in China are HARD. So hard you think they forgot to put a mattress on the bed. I seriously think I have bruises on my hips from sleeping on my side on my hard hotel room.
The crib mattress...a board. That surprised me. But, while we Americans like our soft fluffy beds, Chinese prefer a harder surface. It's just a fact. So, the "mattress" makes perfect sense given the culture. And also explains why some of the babies' head appear to be flat.
Because it was hotter and more humid than any weather I've experienced recently, there were very few sheets on the bed. Each room has an air conditioning unit but those are often set at higher temperatures than we would find comfortable. While our team was sweating buckets, the heat didn't seem to bother anyone else. I think they get used to it.
Back to the room. In our baby room, there was a separate room with a bed and some personal items of the nanny (this is where she stashed the soy sauce). We were told the nannies alternated every 24 hours but the same nannies were in the room each day I was there. So, I might have misunderstood or perhaps other arrangements were made while we were visiting.
The room also has a wash room. I so wish I could have taken pictures of this little inner sanctum! The nannies use this room to wash the babies but it also contains a neat little row of starter squatty potties! Little toilet training seats over a squatty. It was strangely adorable! We were shocked at first to see babies in buckets, but it was actually quite ingenious. The nannies put a pot in the bottom of the bucket and then rested the babies inside so they could go. No baby was every tied to a potty or left there too long. The babies in the buckets actually looked quite comfortable, it was just shocking since it's not a sight we'd seen in the US.
The walls were all brightly decorated and included pictures of babies that had been adopted and pictures of foreigners from a previous trip. I'm not sure if they were from one of the previous ACT trips or from another organization.
Each child had a laminated card that had their picture, name, DOB and date they had arrived at the welfare house. I so wish I read Chinese to know what else it said. The cards were displayed in pockets by the door. Lovey was quite proud to show me her card.
The one thing glaringly missing from my room were toys. I didn't see any. There were storage lockers along one way in the corner and it's possible toys were stored there. But, when feeding time ended and we were allowed to play with the kids, we basically just walked around the room, sang, danced, and made do with only our imagination.
I'm sure we've all seen the footage from the expose in the 90's that painted Chinese orphanages in an unflattering light. True, they are nothing like our children's rooms, but they are bright and cheery. The nannies clearly cared deeply for the kids and did the best they could to care for those in their rooms.
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