Chapters 89-90 Making Connections

Chapter 89

The Fruit Lady

That title should get people’s attention. When I first got to Luoyang in August of 2002, I would go out for walks to learn the area and how to get around. Sometime in September, I was walking down Xing Xu Lu which is the street north of the school. When I went out the north gate of the school, I would turn right and at the end of the street there were some little stores that sold fruit. I decided to go in one and see what they had. I got a few things, the lady was really nice. Even though we couldn’t talk to each other, it worked out. I would point at what fruit I wanted and how many.

Eventually I learned the names of the fruits. She had a small calculator and would type in how much the things were that I bought so I could see the price. Whenever I bought fruit after that, I would go to that place. When I left in 2004, I had a friend go with me so she could translate what I wanted to tell the lady. I wanted to thank her for being so nice and say goodbye. By the time that I left, we could talk a little.

When I went back to Luoyang in 2010, I went for walks to see what was in the area around the Number 19 High School. It was about a twenty minute walk from where the place was that I had gotten fruit from the lady the first time that I was in Luoyang.

I went back over to the Number One Foreign Language School where I had been the first time and walked around that area to see what it was like. I decided to walk down Xing Xu Lu and see if the fruit lady was still there. I was hoping she would be there because I didn’t know if I would recognize her store being there were about five stores in a row that sold fruit.

I got closer and there she was, sitting on the step in front of her place. She saw me and we both smiled. It was so nice to see her. So for the three years that I was there, I always went to her place to buy fruit. I could have bought fruit on the street where I lived but I wanted to give her my business. She would always put in some extra little fruit items when I bought something. I just wanted to be nice back to her and show her my appreciation.

When I left in 2013, again I had someone go with me to thank her and say goodbye. She and her family ran the place. Sometimes her daughter would wait on me also. Her husband was there at times. They all knew who I was and treated me so nice. A very good memory of being in China.

Chapter 90

Luoyang Orphanage

The actual name of the orphanage is Maria’s Big House of Hope. Maria died in an accident at the age of five. The orphanage opened in Luoyang in 2009 and is named in loving memory of Maria.

My colleague Mary had been to the orphanage and talked about it. I wanted to go along sometime to see it so she and I and her Filipino friends went one day. The orphans that lived here all had cleft palates. There was a doctor that lived there and he would perform corrective surgery on the cleft palate and then the children would be put up for adoption.

An American woman ran the orphanage. There was also an American man there and he would go between the orphanage and Beijing to get supplies and whatever was needed. There are 128 beds with 190 nurses and nannies on staff when at full capacity. The orphans in the facility are five years old or younger, representing some of the neediest orphans in China.

This is a brief description about how the orphanage got its name. The Christian singer/songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife, Mary Beth, had three children of their own and also adopted three Chinese girls. Maria was one of them. When Maria was five years old in 2008, there was an accident in the family’s driveway in Franklin, Tennessee and Maria died from the injuries. The orphanage opened in Luoyang in 2009 and is named in memory of Maria. Her full name is Maria Sue Chunxi Chapman.

The orphanage is located just out of the city. There was one thing that I thought was kind of strange about the location. There were two other institutions there also. One was a prison, the other was a mental facility. It just doesn’t seem right to have an orphanage by those two institutions.