Wednesday, October 16, 2002

On Wednesday, I stayed in the room with Malia in the morning, while Kevin and Evie went to a department store and grocery store. I just wanted Malia to have some calm time, and stores in China are definitely not calm. Kevin and Evie bought diapers (yes, they have Pampers in China!), Kleenex, a bowl to mix formula, chocolate (YAY!), and a little silk bib. They said the stores were extremely chaotic.


In the afternoon, Kevin stayed in the room with Malia and I went on a tour of the Lily Orphan Care Facility. This is an orphanage that was started by Lily and Josh, the founders of CCAI. They are using the orphanage as a model orphanage, to be an example for other orphanages in China. They teach the nannies and foster parents about child nutrition, development, health and psychology. It was extremely clean and cheerful. The children were all outside when we walked up and seemed very happy. They are doing an outstanding job.



On the way to the orphanage, Daphne was trying to teach us Chinese nursery rhymes. She was singing one called, "Jia Yanzi"---which means little swallow. Since Malia's Chinese name is Jia Yan, I'll need to get a videotape of Daphne singing that song.