Last weekend I visited Harmony House Foster Home for the last time, as I will be leaving China in less than a month. It was a chaotic morning as my partner showed up to meet me but looked horrible with a cold, so I went by myself. I felt bad driving for 45 minutes with the driver and being pretty much unable to talk with him as he speaks no English and I speak next to no Chinese, but I passed the drive reading the news. When we arrived I really noticed what a difference even several months can make - almost all the kids recognize me, and only one of them still cries when she sees me - the others have gotten used to this foreign girl!
The kids are so needy, they crave attention and I feel sad that I will not see them anymore. Its also interesting how they react differently to their situation; there is one little boy who is just as sweet as can be despite having no use of his arms and writing/grabbing with his feet, while another little boy is spiteful and ugly, ripping toys from others, hitting them, and intentionally annoying staff and visitors. Both of these personalities are built from a combination of their inherent self and their environment and being an orphan, and the spiteful one needs just as much attention as the lovely one, but he picked the wrong way to get it. And its easy to see how the spiral of bad behavior can happen, its hard to treat him with love and kindness when he hits you or rips the books you bring or runs up to scrawl on the windows with the crayon, and then of course he feels left out and hated and resorts to bad behavior to get attention.
After the visit I was sad leaving, but at least I know that volunteers will continue going to play with the kids every week. And I even managed a rudimentary conversation with the driver on the way back about his own kids, wife, and family!
Wish I could have been there! I Was unable to visit any orphanages while I was there, but I do know that I REALLLLLLLY want to adopt one day from one. Can't believe you have less than a month left. Craziness... but yay for having a conversation with the driver! :D
ReplyDeleteDear Miss Tiggelaar,
ReplyDeleteWe are a publishing house in the Netherlands, currently developing a new product for learning Chinese (language and culture). This new product will be a kind of calendar, with which you can learn a little bit about the Chinese language and culture every day for one year, in a fun and stimulating way. One of the subjects is about Confusius. On your website we spotted this great picture of Tian'anmen Square and the statue of Confucius, which we would very much love to use (http://sarahtiggelaar.blogspot.nl/2011/04/tiananmen-square-sensitivity.html). Therefor we would kindly like to ask your permission to use your picture. I will attach the page on which we would like to put the picture. Of course your name will be mentioned in the references. We hope you can grant us permission and we hope to hear from you soon.
Kind regards,
JJ Roos - Editor - Uitgeverij Intertaal - Almere - Nederland