Thursday, May 24, 2007

The Future of Deaf Orphans in China

I can't say whether this article speaks for all or even most of China, but someone once asked me what kind of future Charlie would have had if he had stayed. In China, unadopted children age out of the international program at 14, which means they can only be adopted domestically at that point. They age out of the orphanage entirely at 16, out the gate and on their own to survive with whatever skills they've gleaned to that point. Charlie was well taken care of in the orphanage, but they can only protect them for so long.

I think this person was a little shocked when I answered that deaf orphans in China have pretty much two future paths: begging or crime. And my own personal feeling is that Charlie is too smart to beg. So I think, even despite his strong sense of ethics at this point in his life, he would have ended up a criminal. With his charm, probably a con man of some sort, but a criminal nonetheless.

Okay, so maybe that statement was a little harsh? But then today I got the text of an article that was published through Reuters News Service. I decided to copy that in here, just so y'all know I'm not blowing smoke here.

Enjoy, if you can.


Deaf-Mute Children Sold to China Pickpocket Ring **
Principal of School for Deaf Charged With Selling Kids

Chinese police have detained the vice-principal of a
school for deaf-mutes and other special needs children
for selling 10 students to a ring that trained them to
become pickpockets, the Guizhou Metropolitan Daily
reported.

Police rescued the victims, the youngest of whom was
12, in Jiangxi and Henan provinces this month, the
online edition of the newspaper said.

They went missing from their school in Liupanshui city,
Guizhou, last month, the newspaper said, adding that
the ring trained and required each person to steal and
turn in 500 yuan ($65) per day.

Zhu Xiangyu, 52, vice-principal of the school and
vice-president of Liupanshui's Deaf-Mute Association,
and four other suspects had been taken into police
custody.

Hundreds of deaf-mute students had gone missing since
2005, the newspaper said.

China has about 1.8 million deaf-mutes aged 18 or
younger, many of whom are unable to obtain an education
or steady work.

Police vowed this month to crack down on gangs that
exploit deaf-mute youths, highlighting the hardship
of disabled people in a society that gives them little
state support, especially in poor rural areas.

Earlier this month, the Legal Daily reported that
police in Hunan province broke up a gang of
gun-wielding deaf-mute robbers who police said were
behind hundreds of armed robberies across the country.

SOURCE: Reuters News Service (Published 5.24.2007)
Credited to a publisher for contributing to this story
from Beijing, China.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

Somewhere Over the Rainbow


We were heading home from some running around this evening, and as we pulled into our housing area, it started to rain. On the other side of the car, though, the sun was shining right in our faces, so brightly it nearly blinded us.

Charlie, our budding scientist, remembered that if you see both sunshine AND rain, there's gotta be a rainbow SOMEWHERE. Of course, I didn't see that running through his mind. There was a cool song on the radio, and I was in the zone. Suddenly I hear a shout, and Charlie starts babbling and jumping around in his seat like he'd been stung by a bee or something. I look over at him (nearly running off the road in the process), and he's got his neck craned halfway around, pointing and dancing and babbling. He found a rainbow. He's definitely his mama's boy--I love rainbows, too.

I have never seen him so outwardly excited. He had his hand on the door handle, and I thought he was going to jump out while the car was still in motion. He starts gathering up the stuff that he has to take into the house, and puts his hand on the door, ready to open it the second I stop the car, babbling away the whole time.

I barely got pulled into the driveway when he launched himself out the door, had his keys out, got in the house. As I walked in, he barrels into me, on his way back out again, camera in hand.

It's pretty hard to get a rainbow to show up well on film, but I think he did okay.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

A Pain in the....Ear

05/15/07 - A pain in the.....ear
Charlie decided he wanted an ear piercing. He asked me which one. My suggestion, since I find him sleeping on his left side every morning, was that he pierce the right one so the earring wouldn't bother him when he sleeps.

My mother, God bless her, advised that I check with my older son, Rick, to make sure that was socially acceptable because she happened to know (which I didn't) that one ear or the other had a meaning that Charlie might not intend. (Have I been hiding under a rock all my life or what, that I didn't know that???)

According to Rick, the easy way to remember which ear to pierce (for a straight guy, anyway) is "Left is right and right is wrong." So I had to convince Charlie that mama was wrong, and he should pierce the left ear instead.

This was about a week ago, and we kind of dropped the subject after that. I have no clue where to get ears pierced. My mother took me to a doctor when I was 13, and when I asked Charlie's doctor about it, I got a rather funny look, so I didn't push the issue.

Tonight we had some running around to do (another whole story for later) and on the way home we passed through downtown Odenton, which is the little boomtown neighboring the local military base. What does one find in the vicinity of all military bases? TATOO PARLORS!!! And there was a sign outside of one that said Tattoos/Piercings. Aha! I asked Charlie if he still wanted to pierce his ear, and he got a big grin on his face, so we turned around and went back. It was nice and clean inside. They were currently working on someone's tattoo, so I got to see their set-up and that they kept things neat and clean in the work area. They said they sterilize their instruments. So I signed the forms and Charlie sat in the chair.

When the doctor pierced my ears eons ago, he used a little gun thingie that loaded the earring stud and put it in all in one fell swoop. It hurt, but not for long.

This looked brutal in comparison. They used what looked like a railroad spike....I'm not going into any more detail than that. Charlie sat stock still, but the look of pain on his face pierced my heart. And when the piercing was done, they still had to insert the earring. Eeek.

He sat through that fine, too, and seemed okay until we were ready to stand up. Then the sweat beaded up on his brow and his eyes rolled a little, and the dry heaves started.

Thank God we hadn't had dinner yet.

They gave him a popsicle and a wet paper towel on the back of his neck, and that straightened him out after a few minutes. We finally left.

Over dinner, I asked him what was next: Eyebrow? Lip? Nose? Belly button? Shook his head violently, and signed, "NO, NO, NO!!!"

His earring does look pretty cool--he wears it well. He's not planning to tell the other kids about heaving afterwards.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Squirrel (in a) Stew


I still can't believe it. When I got home from work today, Charlie had a big box sitting over his contraption with a weight on top of the box. Told me to get my camera. Then he took off the weight, took off the box and revealed his catch. The picture says it all, folks.

That poor squirrel was so upset that he had peed all over what little bit of flooring was under him while he waited. Charlie said when the basket first came down on top of him, he was in such a tizz that he kept running around like a hamster in a ball, spinning all over the deck inside of this basket. Charlie got pictures of the whole thing, from the time the squirrel starting nosing around the basket until it trapped him.

After I got the pictures, I told him to let it loose, so he picked up the flower basket. His big mistake was to be in between the flower basket and the side of the deck that faces the woods. That squirrel damn near knocked him over trying to get away. When he hit the edge of the deck, he didn't even bother climbing down the support posts like he usually does (our deck is one story off the ground). No, he just jumped. Flew across the walking path and didn't hit terra firma until a tree got in the way.

Now I know why they call them flying squirrels.