Wednesday, April 05, 2006

White girl

In this Chinese provincial capital, I barely rate a second glance on the street, while Zack rates a double take for his white-blonde hair and height. Blanca, however, is a star. Heads turn, bikes and motorcycles stop, people lean out bus windows. Gifts and food are proffered. Sunday we climbed a mountain (we had no idea what we were getting into; it was an 1800 meter staircase UP); people waited for our very slow party for a look at Blanca and even, for two girls, the chance to carry our 30+ pound daughter up the stairs.

Even at nursery school, she's treated as a favorite. She gets milk first and more of it. A little boy is shooed away from the teacher's piano, but Blanca is helped onto a chair to play with it. I have no idea if she recognizes this preferential treatment. She's going to be there a month; I hope they recognize that she's just another toddler soon, or they're in for a rough month and we're in for a rough aftermath. I can understand this a bit; it's as if a character from television or the movies stepped out for them to touch and play with. Even some of the other two- and three-year-olds want to touch her hair. Her blonde hair and blue eyes are starting to look a little surreal to me, too.

Blanca goes to school from 8:30-11:30, though it's an all-day daycare for most of the kids. I pick her up after lunch and before naptime. We are acutely conscious that few of our fellow parents in the US would allow their children to go to this school. The girls' potty is two chamberpots at the side of the room. I believe they are emptied twice a day. There's a bucket for the boys. There are 14 runny-nosed kids for one teacher. There's a TV-watching period. That all being said, there's plenty of wonderful play and songs and dancing. The other day they learned three colors. The other kids are remarkably good at sitting at the table and learning, a trait I hope our American daughter will pick up. They're also all potty-trained, going without prompting and getting pants down and usually up. I have a hard time believing they're two and three years old, but I might be losing something about their ages in translation.

The other day I showed up at 11:15 to see Blanca with a hunk of cake in front of her while the other kids had soup and bao. I conveyed to the teachers that she has to do and eat what the other kids do and eat. If she doesn't want soup, so be it, but she doesn't get cake if they don't. We want our six weeks in China to be a good experience for her, as long as she remembers to eat bao like the rest of the populace.

We second guess our decision to come to China at least once a day, though mostly we think it was a good idea. But we chose this adventure; Blanca did not. We don't know if this is a great idea for her or not. We're guessing yes and figuring she won't catch anything lasting.

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