Arriving in Tainan and Meeting David

This morning we tried breakfast outside the hotel. Linda got what she thought was a chocolate pastry, but turned out to be something else, and strawberry yogurt which had lumps of something in it that were definitely not strawberries. I got what can only be described as an omelet in a bag. They took a crepe, cooked an omelet on top of it, added some vegetables and a strip of bacon, then chopped it up and placed it in a bag. It was quite tasty, especially when eaten with sweet chili sauce. We also picked up donuts from the Dunkin Donuts located right next to the hotel. (The other stores next to our hotel in Taipei include Starbucks, Cold Stone Creamery and Seven Eleven!)

After checking out, we traveled to Tainan by high speed rail. The experience was the complete opposite of Amtrak. We left right on time and actually arrived a few minutes early, and there were absolutely no delays. The train went very fast, and each stop only lasted a minute or two. The funniest part of the ride was the three monks who walked on the train with their cell phones and Starbucks cups.

One thing that really struck us as we looked out the window was that from Taipei to Tainan, which covers almost the entire length of the country, there was basically no break in population. There were some places that were clearly more populated than others, but there was no real stretch of uninhabited land. Taiwan is supposed to be one of the most densely populated countries on the planet, and I think that must be doubly true because so far as I can tell one half of the country is absolutely jam packed with people, and then as soon as you get to the mountains and the southeastern coast the rest of the country is only sparsely inhabited.

There also seemed to be very little land that was either undeveloped or not under agricultural production. Every spare piece of land along the railway line was planted with rice, vegetables, fruit trees, or some other crop. Most of the people seem to live in high rise apartment buildings, and the few houses we saw seemed to have vegetable gardens in them.

We were met at the train station by a taxi driver named Steven. He came recommended to us by some other folks who adopted from St. Lucy’s. The orphanage is apparently very hard to find and he both knows where it is and speaks some English. Steven brought us to our hotel, which is right in downtown Tainan. It’s interesting, our room is on the 10th floor, but we have a little balcony and when we open the window there’s so much noise coming from outside that it feels like we’re on the ground floor – construction, traffic, music, and loudspeakers.

Our guidebook listed one restaurant in town that expressly does not put MSG in their food, and since Linda has trouble with MSG we decided to give it a try for lunch. No one there spoke English and we didn’t really understand their menu, so it was an interesting experience. We each took a plate and picked out some raw foods that we wanted to eat – vegetables, mushrooms, tofu, fish, meat. Then they cooked it up in a special broth along with a bowl of nicely spiced noodles. I apparently picked some items that did not go well together and ended up getting three dishes because they didn’t think that some of the things I had picked should be included in my stir fry. Anyway, it was all pretty tasty – though Linda couldn’t have their signature sauce on her dish since it was made with pork. So her food was a bit on the bland side.

After lunch, Steven picked us up again and drove us to St. Lucy’s, which is located down a series of very narrow little alleys. Inside their little compound it was very quiet and peaceful. They have a two story building set up around a garden courtyard with fruit trees and flowers, and there are a lot of open walkways. They have three nurseries, one for the youngest babies up to three months old and two for the older children. David is apparently the oldest child they have there.

When we got there, we were greeted by Jessica, who speaks excellent English. She showed us around and told us a little bit about David. He was still napping at the time, but we were able to get a peek at him and he is huge, much bigger than we were expecting from the measurements we were given.

Eventually he woke up and we were able to spend some time visiting with him. He never cried, which was a very good sign. We’d sent them a set of photographs of us and they have apparently been showing them to him every day. At first he was a bit shy, though that might have been because he was still waking up, but after a time he let us hold his hand, and then he even let us hold him. We took him for a walk all around the grounds, and were even alone with him for a while. He’s already a good walker, and was able to go around with us holding our hand and even walk on his own. He seemed especially fascinated by the stairs, and really wanted to go up them.

We were both able to spend time holding him and walking with him, though he does seem to be partial to his dad! He seems like a very serious little guy, but we did manage to get a few smiles out of him. He’s definitely a cute kid, but I think we’re going to have to go clothes shopping tonight or tomorrow because I’m afraid he may be too big for many of the clothes that I brought. His hair is also very funny. It’s quite thin, and most of it just sticks straight up.

Anyway, we had a good time hanging out with him and will go for another visit tomorrow morning. We should be able to help feed him then. It seems like an extremely friendly place. There were many caregivers and social workers around and they all knew him. As we walked, everyone was always calling out his name, waving to him, or coming up to hold him, so we know that he has been very well loved.

Jessica told us that his birth mother comes to visit him sometimes, and we will have the chance to meet with her on Wednesday. I expect that will be difficult for everyone, but it will also be an enormously important meeting. We need to know who she is so that we can tell David about her as he grows older.

Tonight we’ll go explore a nearby night market and also see if we can’t get a few more clothes for David as well as a pair of shoes – he looked like he was about to burst out of the ones he had on today. They also had some rice crackers that he seemed to really enjoy, so we’ll try and find a couple of boxes of those to bring with us.