Changning City, Lydia's Hometown

We said goodbye to Changsha Friday morning and had a long drive of almost 3 hours to Lydia's hometown of Changning City. We passed incredibly beautiful countryside with rice paddies and fields of yellow flowers, the plants are used to make tea tree oil. We had a brief stop for the rest room along the way, but Lydia wanted nothing to do with the "squatty potty." Lydia's orphanage director, Mr. Wang met us along the road just outside of town to direct us to our hotel. As soon as the door to the van opened he said, "Pei Pei!" Lydia's nickname from the orphanage. He was amazingly hospitable, inviting us to lunch at our hotel. At lunch were the Director, his assistant and three aiyi's (nannies), who took care of Lydia at the orphanage. We're still a little uncertain about time in the orphanage v. time with a foster mom, and translation was slow going. We had many unfamiliar dishes, like crispy eel, and more familiar ones like kung pao chicken, all of them delicious. Also--lots of local beer, like 5 or 6 almost quart size bottles. We then drove more than an hour to the even more rural market of Lydia's "finding place." We were a huge attraction to the locals, who followed us around like papparazzi. The camera was a good ice breaker, as many people wanted to photograph us and have pictures taken with us. Lydia even allowed Director Wang to carry her a bit, as there was a good bit of walking involved in the market, which seemed several blocks long and wide. We then went to Lydia's orphanage, where we presented them with clothes we had purchased in a local department store. We learned that they needed clothes, all size 2. We met a dozen or more children, from age one to four, with most around age two. There was one very sweet girl just a few months younger than Lydia named Wen Li. We took many pictures and were so pleased to see how clean and orderly everything was. The children were initially shy, but some allowed us to pick them up and some held up their arms to be picked up. It was heartbreaking not to bring every one home with us. At one point we lost track of Lydia, who went along with the children downstairs for their early dinner. She was having a ball, and was very solicitous of the younger children. When we returned to the hotel, Director Wang invited us to have dinner with him, again at the hotel, with more local dishes--Chairman Mao's favorite pumpkin congee (like soupy rice mixed with pumpkin) and a rice powder porridge with snail meat--yummy! Our hotel was the best the small town had to offer, and very old and rustic. Actually, as we were leaving, the power went out, as it is known to do, and also out in the streets, shutting off power to all the traffic lights. It's hard to explain the commotion on the streets, with cars, motor scooters, and pedestrians all in the street together, with horns used instead of turn signals. We left early this morning for the long ride to the Changsha airport, about 4.5 hours in the car, with another couple hours waiting in the airport for our flight. We got into our Chongqing hotel around 7pm, not having had more than snacks for lunch, and no dinner yet. We've since had dinner and tucked Lydia into her "princess bed" (the small roll out bed). This hotel is the polar opposite of last night. A five star hotel with every known amenity, including a portable air conditioner brought to our room for better cooling. It was 77 degrees when we landed here, and very humid. Wish we had brought lighter weight clothes, and really glad we didn't pack the snow suits after all! (But thank you, Collette). After having been in China almost a week now, and touring Beijing, Changsha, and Changning City, we were somewhat taken aback to arrive to our Chongqing hotel room and find--a crib and a baby bath tub. Two days and counting until we get our mei mei, on Monday afternoon.