Orphanage Adventure

Today my parents left to return home, leaving me with an empty apartment once more.  In an attempt to stave off the post-visitor blues, I decided I was going to go see an orphanage named Harmony House where we will be expanding the Magic Hospital Storytelling program.  I had quite the adventure getting there, as I didn't really know quite where I was going, managed to find the long distance bus station, get a ticket, get on the bus, and then realized that I didn't have my phone to call the orphanage director upon arrival at the bus stop as I was directed.  And then I realized I didn't actually know the name of the stop I was getting off and it wasn't listed anywhere on the bus.  And then instead of leaving at the time listed on the ticket, the bus trawled for passengers in one gas station after another...for 20 minutes...then 10 minutes...then 15 minutes...as it got slowly later and later, past the time I was supposed to meet Lily.

Eventually, I managed to get the nice girl next to me to lend me her phone, called Lily, who picked up after a frightening 7 rings, who then exclaimed that she'd called me 3 times and sent me an email trying to cancel my visit!  All of this, of course, just after I'd left my apartment, with my phone sitting on the desk.  She very graciously told me to come on, and sent the orphanage driver to pick me up at the bus stop.  It wasn't really a bus stop actually, more like a corner, and I spent a scary 10 minutes wondering where the driver was, but he showed up eventually, and I made it to the orphanage at last.  

 I've never actually seen an orphanage, even in the US, but after recently reading Jane Eyre, my experience today was reassuring.  There was a cozy play room with oodles of toys, a rack of coats hanging up, and upstairs 4 rooms with cribs and beds and a nannie in each room.  Lily seemed very fond of the children, picking them up and playing with them during our tour.  And she is determined to get volunteers to play with them; after expressing concern about my 2.5 hour journey to get to the orphanage, she offered the services of her driver every week to pick up the volunteers in Beijing!  Her dedication was really inspiring, she has already adopted one of the children from her orphanage and was obviously very involved in providing a warm, happy home for them.  I am looking forward to returning to play with the kids!

ps. pics from "The Tiggelaars in China" coming soon...