Guangxi Museum of Nationalities - March 28, 2014

This is part 5 of our travels to get Isaac in March of 2014.

We spent today getting acquainted with Isaac's province, specifically the various ethnic minorities and rural peoples. Whereas the Little Princesses were from a very large factory city with lots of migrant workers, Isaac is from a rural area - think of our parallel of Native Americans and different tribes. We visited the Guangxi Museum of Nationalities http://www.gxmb.com/eng/ and learned a lot about the area. The "huts" you see models of are what they still live in in these rural areas. Also think rice terraces on the mountainsides...

Looking at a huge map of Guangxi Province.

The Guilin area which is where "An Orphan's Wish" was located. This is where Isaac received the medical care that he wasn't able to receive in his orphanage, and the place that advocated for him to get a family. They were directly responsible for US finding his file, and also for him receiving such an excellent foster care placement once they closed last summer.

This lady was making "love balls". Apparently on a particular day each year the guys are on one side of the river and the girls on the other. They sing to each other - perhaps questions about how many family members the other has, etc. If a girl is interested in a particular fellow she throws the love ball across the water to him. If he returns the interest he catches the ball.

 
 I loved learning about Guangxi Province and if you go to Nanning, this museum is worth your time!

Climbing the mountain to the Buddhist temple

Part 4 of our March 2014 adoption trip, catch up post.  This is put together from emails and Facebook posts from that time.

We climbed waaaaay up the mountain (it was paved) to a Buddhist temple. Like it or not, this is part of the history of the land where some of my children were born, so we wanted to see it.  Isaac and I ended up staying out of the courtyard and temple because so many people were burning incense and it was really smoky. Yup, my kid - bothered greatly by smoke.

Mega smoky!  Incense sticks about two feet long could be purchased, and people were carrying a whole handful of them into the temple yard to give thanks to Buddha.

I didn't go into this area because of the smoke, but Ethan took a picture for me. The guide was trying to give us history on the area and said something about "guards who looked after Buddha." The big gold statue must be one of those guards.

 

We had REALLY used up all of our energy going round and round to get up to this place.  THEN we discovered there were carts, like open air buses, one could ride.  We got on, Ethan held the wheelchair off the back of the thing, and down we went.  I wish we had figured that out for the ride UP!

Visiting Mount Qingxiu, March 2014

Part 3 of our March 2014 adoption trip, catch up post.  This is put together from emails and Facebook posts from that time.

Entrance at Mr Qingxiu

 

 
The park has a lot of statues in it. Some are realistic looking ones, like these which portray the various ethnic minorities in the area. Some are playful and you'll see those a little later.

This was made for a celebration held for the largest minority groups called the Drum People. The thing in the middle is a huge drum.
 

Isaac was amazing in his chair. He went up, down, popped wheelies, etc. And he LOVED zooming down the hills and squealing his tires. I told him that Mama was going to have a heart attack, but you know Baba. He said something to the effect of, "HE IS FINE let him go."  Ahhhhhh!

The building in the back is a monument to the students lost in the war with Japan. In the forefront are statues that have a kid's theme. It seemed as if some of them might be Disney princess stories like Cinderella and Snow White.
 

China seriously must have the best parks system in the entire world! This place was huge. While the rest of us walked, Tikvah made her way around in a series of ropes and other obstacles.

 Fun statues...

Family photo op

Next up - climbing the mountain.