Local Adoption in Rural China
During our trip in early 2006, when we were visiting a remote mountain village in China's Yunnan Province (just to the North of Vietnam), we were invited to be the dinner guests at a local taxi-driver's home for the Chinese New Year celebration. Before dinner, we visited with his wife, who was busy chopping up some kind of veggie, which I thought was part of our dinner. To my complete surprise, the veggies were used as feed to the family's three pigs, who are constantly pacing back & forth in three separate concrete pens just outside the house.
During dinner, the conversation turned to our pending China-adoption. This couple promptly pointed to their healthy, happy, 5-year old daughter, and shared with us a story: This little girl was found along the roadside, left forsaken, in a cardboard box with a $5 Renminbi (the Chinese dollar, $5 Renminbi amounts to about 80 cents US). She couldn't have been more than 2 days old. Their son, who was 11-year old at the time, pleaded with the parents to keep this tiny infant as his sister. Subsequently, the family had to post a declaration of the finding in the village square. After a 30-day no-claim period, the family was then allow to keep the infant as their own.
The little girl was somewhat embarrassed by her parents' storytelling of her history. As an attempt to save face for herself, she had this to say,"my brother was born by my father; and I, by my mother!"
This 5-year old girl then proceeded to put on a show of song & dance for the guests. We were also told that she can actually speak better Putonghua (or Mandarin, the official dialect of China) than her parents, thanks to the national TV programs via satellite dish. We'd noticed TV satellite dishes, and cell phones are commonplace in rural China. The reason: Since there wasn't any other infrastructure in place, and in view of the sudden technological leap forward, the installation of satellite dishes and cell phone towers made much more sense.
This was a first-hand look at how local-adoption is done in rural China.
The father of this little girl, the taxi-driver, jokingly offered to take us for a ride around town and see what we can find along the road; for it might shorten our long waiting period!!!
Visitors to this blog are encouraged to leave a comment, as a mutual exchange of good cheers and blessings. If you have an adoption blog and wish to share, leave us an URL.
During dinner, the conversation turned to our pending China-adoption. This couple promptly pointed to their healthy, happy, 5-year old daughter, and shared with us a story: This little girl was found along the roadside, left forsaken, in a cardboard box with a $5 Renminbi (the Chinese dollar, $5 Renminbi amounts to about 80 cents US). She couldn't have been more than 2 days old. Their son, who was 11-year old at the time, pleaded with the parents to keep this tiny infant as his sister. Subsequently, the family had to post a declaration of the finding in the village square. After a 30-day no-claim period, the family was then allow to keep the infant as their own.
The little girl was somewhat embarrassed by her parents' storytelling of her history. As an attempt to save face for herself, she had this to say,"my brother was born by my father; and I, by my mother!"
This 5-year old girl then proceeded to put on a show of song & dance for the guests. We were also told that she can actually speak better Putonghua (or Mandarin, the official dialect of China) than her parents, thanks to the national TV programs via satellite dish. We'd noticed TV satellite dishes, and cell phones are commonplace in rural China. The reason: Since there wasn't any other infrastructure in place, and in view of the sudden technological leap forward, the installation of satellite dishes and cell phone towers made much more sense.
This was a first-hand look at how local-adoption is done in rural China.
The father of this little girl, the taxi-driver, jokingly offered to take us for a ride around town and see what we can find along the road; for it might shorten our long waiting period!!!
Visitors to this blog are encouraged to leave a comment, as a mutual exchange of good cheers and blessings. If you have an adoption blog and wish to share, leave us an URL.
posted by akwxACT2 at 4:49 AM
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