Friday, March 23, 2012

Visiting Shane's "Finding Site" and Yunnan Ethnic Village

Shane has been sleeping well. Susie prepares him a daily evening bath that seems to be the highlight of his day and after a quick book--quick because he shows more interest in turning the pages than hearing the story and seeing the pictures--and then prayers he seems to go down rather easy...of course with our daily bonding adventures we have probably pushed him to the point where he's glad to have e refuge of a port-a-crib.

Today was a new day and after a quick breakfast of fried noodles, yogurt and watermelon (the only foods that Shane seems to eat) at the hotel restaurant, we were off on another adventure with Eric, our Chinese guide. Of course Eric is his American nickname to help us avoid slaughtering his real name. A quick note about Eric--he is currently a graduate student at one of the many the local universities in Kunming. His school has over 90,000 students. He is studying International Relations and plans to enter the construction industry when he graduates this spring. He has a wonderful disposition and we have enjoyed his company throughout the trip.

Today's adventure began with a visit to the site where Shane was found when he was abandoned. He was actually found at the edge of the city slightly above the foot of a mountain. It was quite an adventure getting there...our 30 min taxi ride was well over an hour and a half. The taxi driver only knew the general location and we depended on consulting locals until we finally arrived at the location. It seemed that everyone our guide talked to knew where it was, but either they were wrong or their directions were bad. Actually, the ride was quite fun....Shane likes to ride, the air was cool and refreshing so we could ride with the windows down, which is great since AC is not included in the taxi ride. After several trial and errors we finally arrived at a location that the locals concurred was the sight identified in Shane's abandonment notice. We had driven through some very poor sections of town only to end up at the entrance of a resort-like restaurant and road that leads to a Buddhist Temple at the top of the mountain. We stopped, took pictures and took in a nice view. It was probably a warm day when he was found at the approximate age of 2 months. It is hard to imagine a child being abandoned on the side of the road...but we are very thankful he was rescued and cared for.

Next we were off to Kunming's Ethnic Village. The Yunnan province has over 52 ethnic groups and several of these groups culture (architecture, song, dance and history) is displayed in an Epcot style village. Due to the size of the park we chose to pay the $30 for a 9 seat golf-cart with driver to get us to most of the attractions. This made for a nice relaxing afternoon with plenty of song and dance...some how I was volunteered to dance. The men and women in the beautifully colored costumes grabbed me and a few other Asian tourists to join their circle dance...seemed rather low key with a few shuffle steps and gentle kicks until the girls on each side of me started bumping my rear with theirs...it was kind of like doing the "Bump" dance from the 70's but these girls could hurt someone the way they were dancing. It was all for a good laugh-- thank God I held on to my video camera or Susie would have posted the video. After 2.5 hours we had our fill and we were off to the hotel to unwind and get some dinner.

We had Eric preorder our dinner and again it was amazing...we feasted on an amazing spareribs dinner very similar to American ribs, only smaller, hotter and piled on a delicious pile of peppers and garlic. We also has some delicious Chinese cabbage soup, tofu and fired shoe string potatoes (Shane's favorite). There was more than enough dinner for 4 and it cost only $20...with no tip...they will not take a tip...we left one and they came out of the restaurant to return it. Pretty amazing.

Shane is slowly showing signs of adjustment, he babbles a little bit more and sometimes try to communicate. He can be quite whinny when things are not going his way...which is most of the time unless we are walking him outside. Friday is travel day for Guangzhou...where we have a medical appoiment and wait for Shane's Visa. Thank you for prayers. This has been an amazing journey but we are ready to bring him home.

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