Vanessa's Journal

Jan. 8

Today started out with me in the Ecology Office taking care of some last minute e-mails.  An issue arose about our metal cages that we hoped to order from the nearest city.  We are a little concerned about the quality of these cages, with respect to whether the cages will be “panda proof” and whether they will be constructed in a way that makes them portable like we need them to be.  The consensus among the team is that it would be better to try to purchase some metal cages from either Beijing or the U.S., as the quality would be much better.  Meanwhile, I got official permission from the Reserve Management office to go forward with our plans of building wooden cages.  So that’s what we’ll be working on in the near future. 

Then I went back to the town of Shawan and got a birthday cake for a local friend who has been supportive of our work by arranging lunch food and other miscellaneous groceries for us.  He is 25 just like me and seemed touched that I thought of him.

I then went to go meet Lao Fan to go up to Wuyipeng.  Due to some complicated circumstances that involve bad planning on my part, we actually did not make it up to Wuyipeng today and I stayed at Lao Fan’s home with the plan of going up the mountain early tomorrow morning. It was actually a nice stay. I got to hang out with his extended family members. They were all so gracious and accommodating for me. Lao Fan’s wife is apparently alive and well. I had thought that she had passed on but I think that was another one of his close relatives.  Anyway, I was very happy to meet her and she was as warm and welcoming as I could have imagined his wife to be.

My favorite of his family members perhaps was his granddaughter.  She is three years old and is so cute and precocious.  Her granddad Lao Fan completely spoils her in a good way. The most poignant image of my visit was of her undoing Lao Fan’s shoe laces and redoing them in a 3-year-old version of a braid. She did both shoes. And he just sat there and let her play away as she wished.  I really feel like I understand and respect him better after today.