Bethel Orphanage

Yesterday's wake up was a bit abrupt. We piled into a smoky, suspension-less mini-van and sang the two hours out to Lang Fang, Hebei Province. Our host was Guillame (pronounced Gui Om) co-founder of the Bethel Orphanage for the Blind. He was much younger than expected (28).
Our first encounter with the kids was quite awkward. 7 Aussies and I stood around shuffling in massive overcoats as the nannies tried to introduce us as 'Aiees' and 'Su-Sus' (Aunty and Uncles).
The care taken of them was amazing though. 1 nannie to 2 kids, cheerful interiors (even if they couldn't see it) and wooden floors with heating through their whole house, plenty of toys and warm clothes. This young couple Guillame and Delphinne had an amazing story of just kind of stepping out and starting this 3 years ago with no money, just vision.
Many of these kids have been pretty badly abused, just cause they are considered sub-human because of their disabilities. We met a 15 yr old boy who was blind with autism, he had only come this year to this place, before he was shuffling because he ahd never been taught to walk; his meals were thrown to him on the concrete floors; he had cigarette burns all down his legs and he had no decent human interaction. He is learning English now.
One little girl kissed everyone in the team - she was a little kissing machine! It actually took me back at first (I was the first kissed) because this kind of behaviour would be actively discouraged in Aust. due to child protection laws, but for these kids deprived of love for so long, I think it's actually really healthy.
4 of the girls sang an old folk song to us and they had more volume than most choirs! We took the older ones out to have 'Bingqiling' - ice-cream at dairy queen. We had to hold their little hands and lead them on and off the bus. I think they had an increbile amount of trust to let us, who didn't even speak their language, just lead them around. I told my little girl, Fu Ling Ming, that she was very pretty and sat with my arms around her while she scooped from her cup so that she could feel her way to the table and ice-cream.
The little girls were very impressed with our long hair because in other orphanages their heads were shaved so it's a little hard to tell whether they're girls or boys sometimes.
I think I have to support this when I get back.