Day 2: Getting everyone’s act together.

Mission: Second Honeymoon

Day 2:  Getting everyone’s act together.

 

MilliCharity is a Dongguan charity group currently celebrating it’s 25th year of sponsoring poor children’s education (and occasionally building houses and school buildings).  For the last 15 years, the areas in and around Feng Huang have been part of that mission.  This was the 100th trip to Feng Huang by our founder, Uncle Zhang.

The basic plan is usually the same.  Load up a ton of candy and some clothing and other items for the kids,  Then travel to the schools (together or else separating into subgroups to cover more territory more quickly).  Keep any members of the press as happy as possible.  Make sure individual sponsors get a chance to meet their kids.

The one drawback I’ve noticed in things from Dongguan is that Cantonese people love to discuss, contemplate, rehash, and reschedule just about everything.  It’s endearing knowing that I’ll be entertained for at least 2 hours if I visit a neighbor for a quick cup of tea.  It’s also just a tiny bit less than efficient.

So, off we went to buy candy.  Happily, this wasn’t as bad as it could have been. Uncle Zhang knew exactly where to go to have crate-loads of candy delivered to the hotel.

 

 

After a quick (Cantonese definition of quick: not really quick ) lunch, everything got delivered to the hotel.

Since there were more than enough people to fill candy bags in a maelstrom of sweet and chewy chaos, and most of them had been there before, my darling wife and I shirked our duty and slipped away to wander the local neighborhood.  One thing I noticed about a small, but surprisingly significant percentage of the Hunan girls – they were . . . top heavy. VERY top heavy.  To get the image, start from the bottom and slowly pan upward – pretty petite Chinese feet, lovely slender legs, beautiful, yet modestly curved hips, a perfect narrow waist, and then . . . YOWZA!!!  WHERE DID THOSE COME FROM?!?  I was wondering if there was a Chinese version of a Dolly Parton impersonator convention going on somewhere in town.   Sadly, my wife smacked the camera out of alignment when I tried to get documentary evidence of this interesting situation.

Later, we ended up hooking up with a few members of the charity group in the evening.  The destination – one of the schools inside of Feng Huang’s old town.

There was an issue.  Someone in the local government seems to have caught the greed infection from theme parks and decided to apply theme park ideas to raise money for fixing up the old town.  There are gates and guards all around the perimeter of the old town and one is supposed to spend 148 RMB for an annual pass.

The result – far fewer tourists.  A later interrogation of a local restaurant owner indicated that business was way down ever since the gate fees were added.   (Edit:  Making the old town in Fenghuang a ticketed zone only lasted a year or two.)

The good news – boldly stride past the guards like you know what you are doing and most of the guards won’t bother you (seemed to apply equally to the few other foreigners there as well as to local and non-local Chinese).  You can also ask a local tour guide to point out some unguarded entrances.

 

 

So, we all plowed past the guards without our passes and headed to the school.  We met with the sponsored children, gave them candy, money from sponsors for the new term, and a few other odds and ends.

 

 

Then there was a group photo.  The advantage/disadvantage of being the only foreigner in the group is that I often get asked (and if that fails, dragged) to be in the front and center of each pic, usually right next to Uncle Zhang.  This kind of makes me feel a little guilty sometimes – He’s been doing this for 25 years and has sponsored hundreds of children and donated uncounted piles of money.  I only started helping out the group in 2009.  I sponsor 4 kids (Edit – as of mid 2015, I sponsor 8.  Edit 2:  As of the fall of 2017, I’ve sponsored 11.  9 are active and 2 have graduated. ) and have made a few donations for other projects.  Ah well, if showing off my pretty foreign face helps get more attention for the cause, I’ll do what’s needed.  Plus, I long ago admitted that I’m a whore for attention. 

 

 

After the school, a few of us separated, with a local tour guide.  She was not just a tour guide.  When she was a student, she was sponsored by Millicharity.  Now she is a member of the organization and sponsors other children. Seeing those who were sponsored actively sponsoring others gives me great hope for the future.

Feng Huang’s old town isn’t that complicated – if you have one of the little tourist maps and if you aren’t running around for the first time in the dark.  Later, it would all make sense, but at the time, I was completely lost.

Like all good tourist traps, there were tons of shops.  I held off on buying anything other than some water, since I wanted to learn my way around first and to get some clue about the prices.  I did manage to get some reasonably adequate photos of some beautiful artwork that was obviously out of my price range.

 

 

One unusual sight to see was standing across the river from Bar Street (I’m beginning to think a “Bar Street” is automatically installed in all Chinese city above a certain size).  It’s dark.  Both the right and left hand views include majestic bridges, and directly across are what should be excellent examples of classic Chinese architecture – except that all are brightly outlined in glowing neon, have bright, flashing lights and loud, pulsating music pouring out of every window.

 

 

On the way out of the old town area, I spotted the strangest little creatures in small cages outside some of the restaurants.  They looked like extra-large, semi-fluffy gray guinea pigs.  When asked what one was, the restaurant employees all said it was a kind of rat.

 

 

I decided I’d skip ordering the rodent du jour, at least on this trip.

 

<– Back to Day 1          –> Day 3. Awards and some amazing little girls –>