Real China

Ni Hao from Real China!

Do not ask why they all give the peace sign when they take pictures, so I did too!

Today we toured the country side, this was a small village outside Nanchang which was said to be a step above where our daughters spent their first years of life. We are humbled by the generosity of these people, their love for their children, yes love! It is not there fault they must give up their daughters, they are a product of circumstances and many, many, years of tradition, and value. We should never judge, this is why we get the reputation as pushy, opinionated, and RUDE Americans. These children are a little behind developmentally, however I am asking myself by whose standards. I think about my my own children and the things I do for them, that maybe when they are parents they will be told oh do not do that, it is bad for the baby, I mean, we do what we know and what we are taught.

The villagers we met were welcoming, this one family bonded with us, the mother took us into her home and was so proud to show us her professional portraits she was able to take of her two children. The thing I have learned from today was humility, and to be so happy for what I have and my children, and yet to remember things do not make you truly happy, family and good health is what matters! Here in china we were told that they recently did a poll conducted by the government to see how people felt and rated their happiness level, the people in the countryside reported 85% were happy while the city people who have more clothes, cars, and apartments reported only 50% were happy. This is what we saw today, yes they have no running water, they have different health standards then us, and it

is different, but they are happy and humble.


We took candy and food for the villagers and the one women you will see was so gracious and told our guide Cindy too much, we do not need anymore! Later you will see her home, which is shared by her two children, her and her husband and her in-laws.

Sorry to go off on my tangent, I am just very touched and realize that all of China is not like the huge fancy hotel we are in, and the Wal-Mart and McDonalds on every corner, this was REAL China, approx. 85% live like what we saw today and worse.
We had our laundry done as you can see from the picture, they wrap your things in plastic like they are brand new, my jeans look BRAND NEW! The cost for Kendall’s clothes was FREE, the total for everything was $10 for a load and a half of laundry and pressing, this was cheap, and all of Kendall’s stuff, blankets, bibs, you can not beat it!

Since You Tube is down we can not upload video on the blog, so the pictures will have to do. At some point the video will be uploaded, may not be until our Sat since tomorrow our Friday is a travel day to Guangzhou.

Ashley: By the way, the picture of me (Dez) standing on the center of the town in Hong Kong i.e. Friday the 19th blog, was taken in Hong Kong’s "Time Square". So yes, Hong Kong is very much like New York, it has so much to offer, theater, museums, shopping, and oh did I say SHOPPING! Every designer label is there, Abercrombie is just as popular with the young crowd as it is in the US, and American Eagle, Louis Vutton is the BIG purse in HK and here in China. The purses in China are knock offs however!

Kendall is again doing amazing, she is very much a schedule baby like Chandler was, she needs her naps and if she does not get them watch out!!! She likes to babble and is such a great sleeper, she went to bet at 9pm and woke at 8:00am! Wow are we lucky!!!!

We are off to the Wal-Mart again, I can not find diapers here in town, the reason you can see from the picture of the split pants they do not use them!

We asked Cyndi why the tushys are not covered and she said that here in China they believe that the babies have fire in their behinds, so no need to cover!

The picture of the older gentleman was a taxi ride offered to us last night, we had to pass, the thought of this frail old man carrying us back to our hotel was a site we would rather not see!

We hope to get the video uploaded ASAP, again may not be able to post until our Sat. night due to travel, I just checked You Tube and it is still down :( hope the pictures help!