Beijing Tai Tai: Life, Laughter and Motherhood in China's Capital by McCartney Tania

Author:McCartney, Tania [McCartney, Tania]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography
ISBN: 9781921966156
Goodreads: 13421313
Publisher: Exisle Publishing
Published: 2012-11-02T00:00:00+00:00

The Baby With Only One Arm

How did we walk away?

Yesterday I experienced one of the most poignant times of my life. I don’t even know how I can express it to you here, but I will try.

Let me start by saying that a month ago I was talking with a neighbour about doing something positive for the Festive Season, to raise some money for those less fortunate, or something along those lines. My neighbour said she knew of an orphanage in desperate need of funding. In a country where even the poverty-stricken are poverty-stricken, my friend and I felt compelled to put together a plan.

A short time later, four eager tai tai sat in the office of the head nun of an orphanage two hours from Beijing. A warm, intelligent woman with excellent English, the nun clasped our hands in hers and welcomed us to her foster home. Soon after, she ushered us into a room to meet her kids.

When the door to the room opened, the first thing I noticed was the railings. Then the purpose-built tables with the therapeutic toys, welded tight to the surface so flailing hands couldn’t knock them crashing to the floor. The third thing I noticed was the people. There were lots of people. Carers. Young carers, like uni students or something. And so many of them—one to every five or so kids. It was really quite amazing, and although the rooms certainly weren’t hyperequipped, they were clean and very well laid out. The bedrooms were tidy and spotless and homey. The kitchens were impeccable, and above all, the atmosphere was Love.

When we entered the room, things were quiet. We were asked to remove our shoes and wash our hands, then we were ushered down the purpose-built ramps to meet the kids. And that’s when I saw them. The kids.

The kids.

I don’t know how naive I will sound by saying this, but I had no idea these kids would be disabled. And I mean, all of them. All of them had cerebral palsy, from mild afflictions to extreme. Here were a bunch of kids, from babies to early teens, encased in bodies that spasmed into twisted coils while their minds beamed freshly from perfectly normal brains. Here they were, in wheelchairs, in rocking chairs, sprawled on the floor, strapped to tables, swiping at bolted down objects, loping across the room with limbs splayed, laughing, smiling, grimacing, with all eyes on us, the foreign tai tai.

My breath was stolen from my chest and we four tai tai clutched at each other for support. Then, after some moments, we broke free of each other and began wandering gently among those children and we knelt and we touched and we talked and looked deep into those eyes, trapped in those skulls.

I went straight to the boy strapped into the wheelchair by the window. I’ve worked with cerebral-palsy kids before, so I understood his physical actions and reactions, yet they nonetheless managed to undo me.

When I first spoke to the boy, in Mandarin, he looked up at me and he wailed an awful, blood-curdling cry.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.