Today and yesterday at the orphanage

Ben on baa-ba's lap on the bus

One of the directors of Ben's orphanage (holding Ben) and a nanny who stepped in the picture...not one of Ben's nanny's so I'm not sure why or how she came to be in the picture....ha ha...

A market on the main street outside of the orphanage:

Walking to Ben's abandonment place:
He was left near Dapuji Bridge:
A woman and her daughter also walking down the road to the bridge...Notice the hanging ducks and clothes on the tree branches of someone's home:
On the way back to the orphanage:
Standing in front of the gate to the orphanage

With three of his nannies in his room at the orphanage:
We brought candy and Ben handed out a piece of candy to each child in his room:
Ben sits on the bed that he slept in:

Ben with the section chief and his teacher in the classroom:
Ben hands out candy in the classroom:
Ben sits near where he used to sit in the classroom:
Playground outside at the orphanage that foreign volunteers made possible:

Administration staff members have lunch for us, our Nanjing guide Linda (next to Bob), and our driver, not pictured:
The orphanage is part of a government complex that also houses the elderly. Here is a garden area in the complex:
Building where we had lunch:
Residences along a river in Nanjing:


Ben eats dinner with Baa-ba at the Mandarin Garden hotel in Nanjing:
He feeds himself; he doesn't want anyone to help him:

I woke up to Ben babbling and giggling this morning...he's doing really well so far today and as usual, he was really happy in the evening yesterday.

We went to the orphanage yesterday. When we got on the bus to go, he was not wanting to be by mommy, I think because he came to us on a bus...Perhaps he thought we were taking him back...I hated to see him upset, but I felt we should visit, take pictures and gain information for him...something he will appreciate later. He was a little upset as we got closer to the orphanage, but then perked up when he went around visiting the orphanage staff, his old nannies, and his old classmates and roomates. He's very outgoing. He was fine when he said goodbye to everyone and was better on the way back. My guess is that he now thinks we are living in this hotel room from now on and going to make visits back to the orphanage.

We visited the place where Ben was abandoned...Dapuji Bridge. It was a small bridge...not for cars...fairly close to the orphanage. The path to it was a very narrow winding dirt road...only for walking and bikes. The walk was very third world...the poorest part of China that we've seen yet...actually, the poorest area we've ever walked through in our lifetime. First, we went down a main street a little ways. There were small open markets and everything imaginable was going on in the street...a man killing chickens on the ground, a child relieving herself right by the stall of fruit her parents were selling...the smells were pungent.

Then we turned left to walk down the narrow path to the bridge. There were tiny dusty stone houses no larger than one room in our home with a few items inside like a mat for sleeping. On the other side for a little were apartments. They opened up onto the dirt path littered with old garbage, like pieces of tile and dishes. Dead ducks to be eaten hung on rusty barbed wire alongside clothes that were air drying. Women sat outside their doors making things like shoes, probably to be sold at a market somewhere. They smiled at us, ironically much more friendly than some of the cold stone glances from women walking in furs and go go boots on Beijing and Nanjing shopping streets. A man was washing linens in a small plastic tub in the path and old men sat on the side chatting with each other and yelling "hello" at us. We passed a girl with a young boy who looked way too young to be a mother...perhaps, hopefully she wasn't mom. All the way there, I was wondering if any of the women and men we encountered could be one of Ben's birth parents. If Ben came from the area he was abandoned in, I highly doubt his mom had proper nutrition and can understand why children could come out malformed in some way.