What a Long Strange Trip It's Been, pt 7
2005-09-26,

The Rest of Day One

So we got in some Firsts - First Bath, First Bottle, First Cuddle, First Time Falling Asleep In My Arms, etc. We also scheduled with our guides an appointment for a visiting doctor to look at Laurana's heat rash, which she and her roommates developed at the orphanage. Luckily for her, she had it the least out of the five of them; two of the worst actually needed to go to the hospital for an IV of antibiotics. Sad, but true. The reason they had the rash was because A) they were in a south-facing room that got a lot of sunlight, and B) the caretakers wanted to keep use of the air conditioning to a minimum, to keep them from 'getting a cold'. Ack. To try and prevent a malady (and one that really doesn't happen, anyway, not caused by air conditioning at least) by causing another: smart thinking. It's evidence of Jiangxi's lack of quality education - I heard that the average education level in the province is around grade six.

Anyway, we also got some basic paperwork done that evening, mainly so we could get it processed as soon as possible, notarized and sent back to us. Waiting for paperwork was the main reason we were staying in Nanchang for six days. Not that I minded; we wanted to spend as much time as we could in her home province, because who knows when (not if - when) we'll be back? We had a ton of pictures to take.

Our Week in Nanchang

Our first full day was pretty low key and mainly spent bonding. Our first breakfast together was an experiment of congi (rice porridge) and other soft things mashed up. I think there may have been a banana involved (thus starting Laurana's deep affection for the banana which continues to this day). We also discovered that she loves to play with placemats. We were (until they magically disappeared) constantly trying to keep dishes in place on the table and/or keeping her from gnawing on the paper. I'm sure they were clean, but ink's not the best breakfast for anyone, let alone a baby.

We did have one trip out to talk to a rep from Jiangxi province and get our adoption papers from them. Mainly it was our travel group sitting around worried about saying what we needed to say (not to say that it was a make-or-break moment for the adoption - unless we told them something like, "we're not going to feed her until she gets a job at the salt mines and works her way out of staying in the doghouse we've built for her;" then they might be reluctant to validate the process) and signing in the right place. H and I passed some of the time playing our new favorite game, Spot the Characters We Know and Say The Out Loud Like Idiots: [point] Big! [point] Mountain! [point] Mouth! "Wait-- Mountain + Mouth = 'Exit'! Yay!!" Such it was. There was something pure and therapeutic about being completely immersed in a place where you knew almost nothing of what you were reading or hearing. Our minds were constantly in Learning Mode, in ways that they hadn't been in a long time. Certainly it built major empathy for the plight of the baby: all that input on a constant basis was completely exhausting. And it made the days seem twice as long as they were. I believe that some might call this 'living'. I should really look more into this concept. Perhaps the exposure to new and interesting things is good for you, after all.

The rest of the day was more bonding time. We got our First Midday Nap in, which was awesome and made an opportunity for a great picture of her in cozy napping position. We took the opportunity to go to the nearby grocery store and pick up some fluids, snackies and baby things. As we were in a foreign country, we wanted to take some chances on trying new, interesting and/or mysterious things. One item we got was a sport-drinky looking drink called Scream. One was green, one was blue and one was red. H got green and I got red. We set them to chill in the mini fridge and then headed off to dinner with one of the other families.

We went to this place called 0791, which I understand is the equivalent of a zip code for their area. The place seemed pretty ritzy - big round tables, lots of twinkly lights, and a huge conical fish tank in the middle of the lobby. We get a table and the challenge begins to figure out what exactly it is that we can or should be ordering. The entries have pictures and very brief English 'descriptions' of each plate. Everything seemed to be served 'family style', as in good for 2-3 people to share. Some things were colorfully described as having a 'flavor explosion', or having the meat of the dish 'smashed', even though it was obviously a vegetarian dish. But we managed to find enough items to satisfy the mainly vegetarian group.

I'd been warned that Jiangxi food is generally spicy and greasy (making it pretty much heaven for H, especially since the country is 40 percent Buddhist, a religion whose members are primarily veggie), but I had no trouble here. Sure, there were some things that were somewhat pinchy, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. There was a soup made from multiple kinds of mushrooms, a couple of tofu dishes, some fried, spicy eggplant and some kind of dish that involved stir fried pumpkin. All was quite good. And this was our first real chance to test out some table food on the baby. After some preliminaries, she took to the eggplant and the pumpkin like a magnet. And she downed almost a whole little bowl (about 6 oz) of mushroom soup broth. It was almost as if she was interested in eating something other than congi and formula for once in her life! Go figure. All of this went over with little fuss, and we realized again that our baby was pure and good and perfect.

The check came, and we expected to be working out between the lot of us how to pay for what turned out to be a rather large meal that fed five adults, a three-year-old and two babies very well. I was the first to look at the bill and, after figuring out how it worked, saw that it was for 88. Immediately in my head I read 88 dollars, which wouldn't have been terribly unreasonable or a posh place and a big meal. But then the currency converter in my head turned on, and I realized that all of this was going to cost us a whopping 88 Yuan (or RMB, depending on how ass-kissy you're feeling about the government), or $11 US. I don't think that any of us had really gotten a feel for the cost-of-living difference between China and the US until right then. It felt almost criminal to pay so little for so much. But it definitely eased my worries about how far our spending money would go while we were here.

Next morning, we decided it was time to venture out into the city with the baby ad do a little actual sight-seeing. It wasn't too terribly hot and it was cloudy, so the sun wasn't hammering us with every step. (And it this point, I was tired due to lack of sleep due to pain in my wrist. I was really starting to consider asking about seeing a doctor, but I wanted to give it another day. You know, because I'm a guy.) Our first stop was a Buddhist shrine down the street and caddy corner from the August 1st Memorial Park (which we'd visit another day, when the sun had its hammer out). It was partly going under some renovation, but it was still accessible to be worth looking into. We paid a tiny donation of an entrance fee and entered a courtyard that was dusty and had remnants of renovation here and there, including a patio covered in small statues of various gods and historical figures that I imagine were temporarily displaced from their original locations. As we made our way toward the temple, a monk who was doing some daily-type shores in an alley off the courtyard began to sing, looking our way. I had no way of knowing, but I had the distinct feeling he was singing some sort of blessing on us, as we were obviously adopting parents, soon about to carry one of his homeland's children off to America and to the proverbial Better Life. I think that I was as touched by his blessing as he was appreciative that we would think to bring her there to gain the gods' blessings for her. (And thinking about it now makes me desperately miss being there.)

Inside the temple was a grand Buddha, as well as a few other gods. One was female and looked the angry mother; another was a fierce warrior demanding respect in return for protection; yet another was a laughing minstrel. I'd like to think that we gained their blessings for Laurana in some small way. At the next building in was a surprisingly massive bronze Buddha, which must've stood a good 40 feet tall. The building from the outside didn't seem like it could hold something so tall, but there it was. I regret now not taking a picture, even though it was out of respect for the temple.

Also in the room was a Laughing Buddha, pack on his back and a very round belly. When we were in Japan, NS mentioned that touching the Buddha in a given place and then touching the same place on yourself was said to be a curative, or help you be smarter/wiser/whatever, depending on the location, of course. He mentioned this in the vein of rubbing the Buddha's bald head and then rubbing your own head, to boost your wisdom. With this in mind, I figured that it wouldn't hurt to rub his wrist and mine. Time would tell if it did anything.

More Later.

-- End Transmission --