SWI Day

This was the big day that we visited the SWI (social welfare institute). We were supposed to meet our guide Macy in the lobby in the morning after breakfast. She said the SWI director was supposed to meet us and guide us to the SWI location. We were ready a little early so Jason and Wren went to the plaza across the street to take pictures of the people doing their morning tai chi. Jason said they had just started on their way back to the hotel when a woman came up to them and he recognised her as one of the women who brought the babies to Wuhan 4 years ago! She asked if Wren was Si Hui and when Jason said yes he said she picked Wren right up and toon her back across to the hotel. Jason said she was so happy to see Wren!

I had been waiting for Wren and Jason to come back to the room and didn't know they had already met the SWI lady so when Wren and Jason knocked on the door to the room I was surprised to see the lady with them but I also recognized her right away and gave her a hug.

Then we all proceeded downstairs and got into the van and drove to the SWI. When we arrived, the staff was lined up in the driveway and the drive was also lined with decorative flower baskets. They had also hung a banner over the entrance to the main building that said, "Welcome Chong Si Hiu back to your home town!". I'm pretty sure the use this banner for each child who returns as it looked like the Chong Sui part that all the children have in their names was permanent and the Hui part was changed depending on who came to visit.

When we got out of the van all the staff wanted to hug and pick up Wren. Then they took us on a tour of the main building and afterward we went upstairs to a meeting room. The room had a long conference table and it was set with fruit platters and bottled waters where we all talked with Macy translating for us.

We learned that the woman was the SWI dean. We already knew the man who who came with the babies the first time was the director and he was with us some of time on the this visit. There was also another woman they called the manager and she seemed pretty important whatever her job was.

We did learn a new thing and it was that Wren only lived with the foster family about a month or two and actually lived with the Dean woman most of the time - for about the first 8 months she told us. This made sense to us because when we met Wren that lady stayed with us and held Wren and we could tell that Wren knew her. The dean also told us she had a 15 year old daughter who was 11 at the time and that her daughter played with Wren quite a lot.

The staff told us that there were only special needs babies at the SWI at the present. One of them, a 1 year old boy with a repaired cleft palate, would be going home with an American family next month. I had actually emailed with this family before we left for our trip.

Wren sang a few of her Chinese songs and that was a big hit. Then, after chatting, we then went outside where the elderly residents of the SWI were being given a special treat. They were visited by some young cosmetologists who washed and massaged their feet and then some high school students from the nearby school visited with each if them for a time. This was being done for a local festival celebrating the elderly.

The high school students also came over and talked to us for a bit. One funny teenage boy did a magic trick for Wren and then he demonstrated some Kung Fu.

We were also introduced to a sweet 11 year old girl from the SWI who lived with a foster family. She stayed with us most all of the time we were visiting. Also a very sweet 15 year old mentally handicapped SWI girl spent quite a lot of time with us.

After all of this, the Dean (along with the 2 girls and Macy) walked us down the street to the bridge to look at the river. The name of the river meant something like "mother river of Chong Yang.". While we were down there the Dean told us that
she had worked at the SWI since 1989 and that all the children meant meant so much to her.

Next we walked back up to the SWI complex and loaded into 2 vans and went into town to a restaurant for lunch. It was HUGE! It was about 4 stories tall and the first floor had 2 big halls that I think were having wedding banquets while we were there. We went up to the 2nd floor to a private room. There were 11 of us in total - the three of us, Macy, our driver Mr. Jio, the Dean, the 11 year old, the director, another man that was a staff member, and there driver. Although we had asked to pay, the SWI payed instead. I think maybe they always pay for the first meal but if we go back for more visits then they will let us pay.

They ordered all kinds of food and did quite a few toasts. Luckily, we were able to do it with coke! I made Jason do a toast also. :)

Wren was quite a trooper trying most of the dishes. One dish was fried shrimp and small fish - all in quite a natural state. They asked Wren if she would like some fish and she said yes. Jason put some of the little fish on her plate and she looked at it and said rather emphatically (hand gestures and all), "I do not like eyes on my fish! Can I just eat up to the eyes?". Everyone laughed at this. :)

After lunch we said our goodbyes and headed the 3.5 hours back to Wuhan. Macy had promised to play poker (really just cards) with Wren so the played a couple of games of memory and go fish before they both took a nap.

Wren really liked Macy and even though we had said goodbye to her and Mr. Jio at the Wuhan hotel she didn't realise that we wouldn't be seeing them again.
As we were getting ready to go out for dinner, she drew a picture she wanted to give to Macy but I told her that Macy had gone home and poor little Wren just cried and cried. :(

But I told Wren that we would email Macy and maybe see her in Missouri one day if she goes there for grad school. She was okay with that so we were able to go out for a nice dinner.

Location:Zhongshan Ave,Wuhan,China