Chicken's go "bak bak" pigs go - Oliver, what does a pig say?

Since the last post was a little "heavy", I wanted to post something lighter. We've been going out to eat most evenings at local restaurants without our guide. Both Glenn and Steve Ottman are pretty adventurous eaters and not shy about trying order in places where English is not on the menu. The other night we ended up some sort of dumpling place (at least that's what everyone else was eating) and thought we'd try it. No one there spoke English and the menu was only in Chinese characters. My Mandarin lessons didn't get much farther than "this is a dog, this is a cat", and I wasn't going to try that in a Chinese restaurant. Steve Ottman has a little book of "useful phases and idioms" but that didn't help either. Our original waitress eventually fled and was replaced by another who seemed to think it was all a bit of a lark. In the end Steve was reduced to trying to order chicken dumplings by making "bak bak bak" sounds and flapping his arms like a chicken. Somehow that worked because our waitress wrote down something, so we moved on to trying to order beef by mooing like cows. This produced a lot of laughter, but no order and since Glenn was looking for something vegetarian, we were now really stumped (like what do you do for a vegetable?). Finally Steve Ottman started making noises and actions that didn't match any animal I'd ever heard of, so I just looked over at our waitress and we both shrugged. Having now failed order in Mandarin, English and pantomime, we were really at a loss when our larky waitress smiled, wrote something down and left. 10 minutes later we were served a steaming bowl of mixed dumplings consisting of pork, chicken (or perhaps fish) and a really good tomato and egg dumpling. That plus 4 beers, juice for the kids and something that I swear was no different than the deep-fried chicken fingers on any Canadian kids menu - all for 10 bucks Canadian. The next morning Fontana explained that our problem was that in China, animals make different noises - right!

Evil 'baba'

I thought I'd write a little about how Alice is coping with the adoption process. Every child reacts differently and Alice is reacting by blaming everything on me. I think this started when the orphanage director pointed to me and said: "te shi baba" (that's daddy). Our little autumn stone reacted by saying "like hell it is!". The best way to describe her reaction is that it's exactly like Luke's response to finding out Darth Vader is his father " (Oliver: "Alice, I am your father" Alice: "No, it not true". ) It's clear she know what she's doing because she's happy to be picked up by anyone else, but violently shakes her head if I try to pick her up. She's happy to be with Glenn (he's the Obwan figure in this I guess) but would rather go to the hotel doorman than me. If Glenn hands her off to me and leaves to room she gets really upset and responds by whacking me upside the head. She's also given me a good scratch on the nose and on the neck by way of expressing her feelings. I have managed to declaw her, which in the end wasn't all that hard. I just sat Evan down and cut his finger nails and she came right over to have hers done. If no one else is around, like first thing in the morning or late at night, she will allow me to pick her up and she doesn't want me to leave, but she keeps pointing to the door and keeps asking for Grampa (or at least I think thats what "bo ha de lay he" means, since she €says that over and over again with great intensity). She is most interested in our guide, who can at least speak to her. Fontana tries her best and keeps telling her in Mandarin to "go to daddy" or "sit with daddy". Alice responds by shaking her head and making a "bad medicine" face.

So how do I feel about this? Well it's not fun, but unpleasant as it is, it's nothing like what she's going though. Everything in her little world is suddenly gone, and worst of all, the orphanage director and her caregivers were in on it. The very people she trusted most in the world have betrayed her and she's got to take it out on someone. Being a fierce little scrapper (according to the orphanage folks) she's dropping the gloves and going for the game misconduct. And in many ways I don't mind this. Its just like in the Book of Job where, after being dealt a really rotten hand, Job goes out into the wilderness and curses the snot out of God, and I think God respects him the more for it. Alice is not going to go gentle into that good night, and Ive got the bruises to prove it.

Meanwhile, as she works out her emotions in this healthy way, I'm paying extra attention to Grace, who needs it too. Grace draws a lot of attention where ever we go (so do the Ottman girls) particularly because Grace refuses to wear anything other than a short sleeve shirt or flouncy dress when all the locals around her are in parkas. All the mothers of small kids seem to want their children to come up and say high to the English speaking little Chinese girl. Evan has no problem with this and walks right up saying Ni how, wo jieo Evan, like he is running for local office. Gracie is not so sure and wants to know why they just cant talk normal.

So that's where things stand now. I have adopted a bruiser (and with her gap tooth she really does look like a hockey enforcer) and I will have to just wait while she sorts herself out. Glenn has spent a lot more one on one time with her and thinks she a bright little girl who's very pleasant to be with - easy for him to say, hes not getting boxed in the ears all the time.

Victory at last!!!!!!

Alice Loten at last!

The next morning we went down to the Civil Affairs building to finalise the adoptions. We waited in a room with a whole bunch of Dutch couples who were adopting infants and then were finally told that it was our turn. Jane Ottman and I were asked to go with our guide, Fontana, to the bank next door to the Civil Affairs building to pay the fees. Banks in China are run under very different lines than those in Canada. In China, or least in Wuhan, the tellers are behind glass shields and speak though a microphone, so that everyone in the building knows what going on. There are no lines and everyone just pushes up to the a teller window and shoves the money or forms into the slot at the same time. While Fontana pushed her way to the front, Jane and I waited at the back. While we were waiting, a guy with a big ID badge wearing a blue suite started making small talk in English with us. I thought he was with the bank (he looked like the bank manager type) and chatted with him for a bit when he suddenly said "I have to be getting back to work now" and left the building! Turns out it was just some guy practicing his English. Eventually Jane and I were called to the front where we shoved our money over ... and that was it - I don't think the teller even counted it. He handed Fontana a receipt and we were done. So much for needed new bills. Back we went to the Civil Affairs building where the Dutch families had all left with their new kids and the Ottmans and I were then called forward for our interviews. Things seemed to go quite straight forwardly for the Ottmans, but it seemed the lady doing the interview was not all that impressed with me. She kept pointing to the place on the form where "farmer" was listed as my occupation and eventually Fontana asked me if I owned the farm where I worked. I said yes, I owned over 500 acres of farmland, at point the registration lady become very nice and even laughed once or twice. I guess she thought I might be some sore of Canadian peasant. I had to sign a bunch of forms, place my fingerprint over my signatures, Alice was footprinted and that was that. She is now officially Alice Qiu Loten. I've included a picture of all of us on the steps of the Civil Affairs building (I don't think I mentioned it before, but the young Caucasian lady in some of the pictures is Jennifer, the 22 year-old niece of the Ottmands who it travelling with them and helping with the kids.

I was able to talk to Alice's caregivers and got some basic information from them. Her favorite food is meat, although she likes all sorts of food and is not a fussy eater (we've noticed this, her whole face lights up a meal times). They describe her a 'fierce' and we've noticed that too. Her cleft palate will need further surgery and in the pictures you'll notice that it looks like she is missing a tooth. The tooth is there, but back and off to the side. There's a noticeable ridge in the inside of the top of her mouth so more work is definitely required.

"Shi Zi Qiu" - I asked Fontana about Alice name and finally got a complete answer. Fontana grew up in Wuhan and naturally is familiar with local ways of speech. "Shi" can mean the number 10, but in Hubie also means "stone" or "rock" and is a common sir name. "Zi" is an honorific often used in the names of philosophers or other respected people. "Qiu" means autumn, which is the season in which she arrived at the orphanage. So her name literally means "Honorable Stone of Autumn".

Still no email access for some reason, so if anyone is trying to email me, I'm not ignoring you, just can't get to your message. Internet access is spotty in China, with some sites blocked and others only partially available.

More story details

In this post I'll take a break from all the pictures and fill you in on some details. I wanted to make sure I got some pictures of Alice up for Sarah and it is taking longer than expected to post the images. It's also been very busy looking after everyone and on several nights I've just crashed. So the story so far ........

With the last post we had received Alice for a 24 hour "bonding" period. During this time we had to promise to look after her and care. So naturally within 20 minutes of playing in our hotel room she tripped on a toy and bopped her head on the window ledge receiving a huge goose egg in the process. Great I'm thinking, do we end up in jail now? Thanks goodness for Evan though. While Grace has been doing her best, Evan has made it his job to make sure his sister is happy. He picks her up and flips her upside down while she laughs her head off. This is harder than it sounds because to get Evan to pick her up, Alice pinches and bites him. Another "fun" game is for Gracie and Alice to bean Evan with plastic fruit while he performs antics. Basically Evan is taking a lot of shots for his sister and is bearing up really well. He told me that it sometimes hurts but he doesn't mind because he knows his sisters needs him now - what a guy and thank goodness we brought him along. Gracie is doing her part too although she more or less plays along. Alice follows Gracie's lead so if I make Gracie do something, Alice will also wants to do it. This whole thing would be a lot harder without the kids along.

24 hours of Alice

Here's a few pictures of Alice playing in out hotel room during the "bonding" period. I'll be posting more text later, but it is taking some time to update the pictures. Still no email from Storm, so for now I'll only be able to communicate though email. More later ...

Alice at last!!

We first meet Alice at the Civil Affairs building in Wuhan for a 24 hours "bonding" period. We took severl movies of this which are too big to download, but here are some pictures. The man with Alice on his knee is the director of the orphanage - she is very attached to him. The two ladies on the right are the caregivers who have been looking after her. They describe Alice as "tough" and during the next 24 hours we learn why! Alice is certainly no pushover.