Day 12

My grandmother has passed away.  I am the saddest I have ever been.  I know she tried.  She told Cassidy a couple of days ago, the last day that she was speaking and awake, "Tell your mother that I am sorry I couldn't be here when she came home".  Thank goodness for technology so that we could see and speak to each other during this trip.  Facetime allowed her to see, hear and meet Phoebe and allowed me to tell her that I loved her every morning and night.

It was difficult to get through this day.  But I had to.  I came here with my grandmother in my life, but no Phoebe and in 2 days I will go home with Phoebe in my life, but no Mother.  I hoped this morning that maybe she had come here to China to be with me today, as she told me she had wished she could have been the one to travel here with me.  So, I did get up and got ready and dressed Phoebe beautifully for our appointment with the United States Consulate because maybe my grandmother would be with me.

No cameras were allowed inside the Consulate as there is no photographing the meeting or oath taking ceremony. 

After our appointment, Kelly took us to the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees Buddhist temple. 

It was a lovely, calming place.  It was filled with the smell of the incense visitors were burning.  I was looking at a statue and an elderly woman came up to me smiling and showed me how to bow.  I did and she said "Blessed" and seemed very happy.

It was explained that we could light incense to show honor and a wish could be made.

Kelly took us into a building in which no pictures could be taken.  The walls were filled from ceiling to floor with small papers with photographs of faces on them.  Thousands.  Kelly told us that it was a place that families could pay to place an "obituary" and come to honor their lost loved ones, parents and grandparents.  I spent an extra moment in there.

I had Phoebe blessed by a Buddhist monk

After leaving the temple, we were taken to "old" Guangzhou, to see the expansive market area.  There are all these little nooks in which anything and everything is sold.  We saw some very interesting, some surprising, things.

 Grilled scorpion or beetle on a stick

 Live fish, reptiles and animals of every kind for sale

 Roots, plants, seeds, nuts, fruit, herbs for medicine or food

 Lizard on a stick

 Dried snake

 Turtle shell

 It's boring work sifting through live scorpions with chopsticks to pick out the slow or dead ones

 Giant centipedes

 Dried fish

 Dried seahorse

 And, finally, rat on a stick

We wandered through another section of old Guangzhou before ending the day

 Sculptures of all the animals in the Chinese Zodiac surrounded this structure

 Phoebe's Year of the Rabbit

We were exposed to so much Chinese culture and history today, our last day of tours and sightseeing.  I made myself go out to experience today because I know Mother would not be happy if I chose to stay back crying and miss it.  I promised her.  My heart is broken and I wanted to be able to tell her all about this trip.  I hope she was here with me today.