Touring/Culture - Day 4 by Uncle Rob

Day 4

While you rested this morning with your Mom Ella, your uncle Rob went with the rest of the group touring a local park and village that are in your home province. Some very interesting experiences in this unique culture.

Let’s start with dinner last night. We all went to a local restaurant that ended up costing each family around 60 yuan for the entire meal. That is about $10 per family for a lot of food and drinks. You can really get a lot if you venture out a little and are willing to gamble a little – although the guides make it easy for us. You had your first experience with a high chair – and I told the story yesterday of how good you made your Mom feel. (There is no graceful way to eat noodles with chop sticks that I can figure out.)

The park today was very interesting. It is in the middle of the city and roughly 1/2 the size of central park. They had rides, concession stands, pedal boats and a lot of people. They play badmitton (without nets) and exercise all over the place. Some more cultural differences became very apparent (again not good or bad – just differences). People in China think nothing of staring and commenting to you/about you right in your face. Especially if you have children.

It is kind of weird to be stared at and talked about so openly – even if you know it is coming and it is not considered or meant as rude.

For those that don’t know me – I am about 5’8 and around 205 pounds. I lift weights quite a bit – so despite being smaller than average in America - by Chinese standards I am pretty big. I have had several people come up to me and just start touching – which is a little strange. And several references to professional athletes – like yesterday someone told me I was built like Mike Tyson and started shadow boxing. This would have been strange enough, but it was the attendant in the locker room who stands over you and grabs all you cloths from you while you change. So I also had no clothes on (sorry for that visual). This went on for about 5 minutes before I just grabbed the towel from him and went on my way. (I would like to see someone do that to real Mike Tyson…..)

After we left the park, we visited a local village. According to our guides, about 75% of the Chinese population live outside of the major cities. Normally we were told that the Chinese government does not want outsiders to see the villages – and as you can imagine in a communist country, you need permission to do things that they don’t want you to do. We were told that since we were adopting children, we were treated differently – more like family.

Family is key in China. They started restricting population to one child to help control the overpopulation. And you all know they want men – because they are considered better providors – and the families all live together. Thus the large number of girls available for adoption. We were told that many people in China do not even really understand how large foreign adoption is. It is something that is not talked about – in one way because they do not want a lot of people giving up more kids for what many here assume would be a better life in the West.

As we drove to the village, our guide explained that she wanted us to see it for a few reasons. First to understand where most of the babies were coming from. Second – to see what life is really like for most of the population and why some of the girls may have been given over. She warned us about the poverty and that we could stay on the bus if we wanted.

The village was about 5 minutes outside the city and consisted of a group of houses that line unpaved streets. Some of the houses were newer – some very old. Most had one sitting room, a kitchen in back and bedrooms on either side. Many simply stone with very little furniture. They are typically passed down the family line until they save enough money to build a newer one. It felt weird walking around with a $1000 camcorder and probably more money in my pocket than most of these people make in a ½ year.

Streets were mud. Chickens and ducks roamed around along with a few cats and dogs.
It certainly made me and the others I talked to from our group appreciate what we have been blessed with from a financial and lifestyle in the U.S. – although we all know those challenges as well. And that certainly is not meant to say we do it better or that our values and lifestyle is better.

In China – there appear to be few secrets – which you can imagine in a communist country where things in a large part are open in terms of dictated by the government. As an example – here they talk about everything more openly – it is normal for someone to ask someone else what salary they earn, how much money they have, etc…We were told not to be offended by any questions – they are not meant to offend.

You seem to be feeling better Ella. Look forward to the morning. Sweet dreams angel.

Uncle Rob