November 30

Today (11/30/12), Gianna slept through the night!!!  I couldn’t sleep past 4:30am.  My whole body ached from the brick bed and from carrying Gianna around all day, every day.   Gianna woke up around 7:30am.  She was famished, so we fed her a bottle and then we headed down to the café for breakfast.       

       After breakfast, Evelyn and our group met in the lobby.  We hurried to the bus that took us to the countryside/village.  We arrived approximately 45 minutes later.  The countryside was unlike our rural area that we call country.  Evelyn told us before we got off the bus that this village is similar to the area Gianna’s orphanage was in, a city called Yugan. We got off of the bus and the first thing we saw was a pig being slaughtered outside of a fruit/vegetable market.  There were chickens running around everywhere.  Trash and vegetable peelings lined the sides of the small, narrow streets. We bought local candy for the small children in the village. All the kids and adults were very appreciative of the candy.

                We saw one house that had a Christian cuplet (Chinese banner outside of the door. You change these every Chinese New Year to wish good luck upon your household).   The houses were mostly made out of bricks and concrete. The bricks from older buildings are recycled and used again to build new houses. In this village, people want to have more stories to their home than anyone else. It is almost like a competition. 

Everyone in a village has the same last name. Outside of the doors to the houses, you sometimes see a single or double Chinese happiness sign. A double happiness means a son is getting married. It is double because he still gets to stay at home. A single happiness sign means a daughter is getting married, it’s only single because she has to move out and live with her in-laws according to Chinese traditions. Daughters have to move out of the village because you cannot marry anyone in your village since you are all related.  Most of the middle aged people from the village have moved to the city to buy an apartment and get a job. The life savings of a parent in China goes to buying their child an apartment or house as a celebration.

Women’s bathrooms are very unique compared to the western-styled bathrooms we are all accustomed to. There is no seat on the toilet. The bowl and flushing pipes are still there, just in the ground. You have to squat to use the bathroom. This is pretty good for your leg muscles. We saw a bathroom site that is hundreds of years old, a simple brick shack with two sides and no door.

On our return to Nanchang, we stopped by Starbucks to buy a cup of coffee and some souvenir cups. It was just like they are in America, except the words are in Chinese on the menu, and they do not know what a “Carmel Macchiato” is. It was so nice to have a good cup of coffee.

When we returned to the hotel, Brittany and I decided to go to the pool for the first time. We found it very refreshing. Brittany jumped in without feeling the water, as I eased myself in to the pool, trying to get comfortable to the cool temperature. One of the employees came out and gave us swim caps (they are required in the pool, which we didn’t know). After swimming for a bit, we headed back up to our room, got dressed, and went down to the café for a bite to eat.  Gianna ate fairly well.  We returned to our room and started packing up for our flight tomorrow to Guangzhou.  Joel and Brittany have made some headway bonding with Gianna.  We are seeing her open up a little bit more each day.  She is saying “mama” pretty consistently when she wants me and she smiles frequently showing off her little teeth. We are hearing her babble a little more each day.  We just can’t wait to get her home and introduce her to her big brother, Justin.  We miss him so much!!   It has been a long, but pleasant day.