Have you seen this greeting card: “Give a girl the right shoes....

and she can conquer the world?” *** I sent this holiday card to Maria in Shanghai after I returned to San Diego. Inside the card, I pasted a pair of women’s hiking boots, an image I cut-out from a magazine. These are the shoes Maria is using to change the world.

After Lijiang, we flew back to Maria’s home base in Kunming, and stayed at  “The Hump,” a sweet and hospitable hostel that caters to trekkers.  The Hump is the term for the eastern Himalayas, nick-named by the WWII Allied pilots as they flew supplies from India to China where Chinese and US Forces were stationed.  This hostel was large and hosted guests from all over the world. With a bar, restaurant, outside roof deck, wifi service and double rooms for $20 a night, what more could you ask?

Well, western toilets for one.  No kidding. One comes to appreciate the basics in life, like “accommodations,” and having a western bath in our room at the hostel was heaven. There was also a unisex toilet and shower room down the hall, and everyone seemed to have an ease and good sense of humor about it. Especially management, as you can see from the sign.

Maria had come home to Kunming. I stopped on my way back to Shanghai to meet Yangchen, a Tibetan child orphaned at 4 years old in Lhasa whom Maria now sponsors. A year ago Yangchen was a shy girl  remote Shangri-la  living with 52 brother and sister orphans.  One year later, she was dancing in musical production famous throughout China called “Dynamic Yunnan.”  Give a girl the right shoes.....

Shangri-la has come to  represent the idyllic place, a  heaven on earth. I cannot tell you much about it since I have never been, but at 9,500 ft. in elevation I know that the Shangri-la which resides in Tibet 100 miles from Lijiang,  is a  trekkers’ paradise. It was there that Maria stopped in a small restaurant after a week of hiking, and happened to meet Tendol Gyalzur.   Tendol told Maria her story of being a Tibetan orphan in the 1950’s, and shipped off to orphanages in Germany and Switzerland. After marriage and raising her own family, Tendol returned to the Tibet of her childhood. She was shocked to see so many orphan children wandering the streets, and vowed to provide a home for them. Tendol and her husband opened their first orphanage in Tibet 1990 with donations from many sources including their own savings, and then opened a second orphanage in Shangri-la in 1993. See Tendol’s story and foundation.   This was all Maria needed to hear, and after lunch off the two women walked to the orphanage for a tour.

Within months Maria had purchased electric kitchen equipment for the orphanage, and some school supplies. On one of her visits, she was entertained by folk dances performed by the children, and was delighted by their enthusiasm and talent. This performance became a mental reel that never stopped playing for Maria.

While back in Kunming, she attended a performance of Dynamic Yunnan, a theatrical production of dance, music, and spectacle featuring ethnic traditions and costumes including those of Tibet. After the finale, Maria asked to be introduced to Yang Liping, China‘s most celebrated dancer, and the show’s creator and star.

To envision Maria in action, understand that she is Dutch, and a strong, athletic woman of 5’10,” with a hearty laugh that punctuates most of her conversations. It is a bit of an understatement to say that she is a formidable presence among the delicate and reserved Chinese people. When she met Yang Liping backstage,  she invited her to Shangri-la to see the children dance.  Yang Liping politely declined, but suggested Maria video the dancers to her in Kunming. Later, when the famous dancer saw the video of the children, she decided to fly to the orphanage with Maria to see the dancing in person. Afterward, Maria asked her if she would provide opportunity for some of the children to dance in her show, and Liping replied, “yes.” Maria asked “How many?”  “All of them” came her answer.

But few of the older children had the confidence to leave the orphanage, or Tibet, or trade a flower field for a theater stage, with the exception of one -Yangchen who was nearing 18 years old. Maria became Yangchen’s sponsor, purchasing the clothes and dance shoes she needed, taking her to the Dr. to make certain she was in good health, then traveling with her from Shangri-la to Kunming. Maria enlisted the help of her friend Ryan, who also lives in Kunming, to look after Yangchen when she was traveling.

Dynamic Yunnan is an incredible show and watching Yangchen dance, especially knowing her improbable path to it, was a joy. Yangchen lives in Kunming with another female dancer in the production. Seeing Yanchen’s success, another orphan sister, Chiven, has joined  “Dynamic Yunnan,” which is set to tour the US and Japan in 2011.

And one last, little miracle.

Eventually our friend Perry visited the orphanage, and was so moved that he convinced the principals at his architectural firm in Shanghai -JWDA, to get involved.   In November of 2010, twenty architects and designers flew from Shanghai to Shangi-la  and spent a day conducting an arts workshop, drawing and designing with the children. They also brought coats, hats, gloves, scarves and socks for the winter, and for most of the children who were accustomed to hand-me-downs, these were the first new clothes they had ever worn. JWDA has also offered to take on interested children as interns in the architectural firm once they have graduated from high school.

There is a great need for money, food and clothing at this orphanage.

One of the goals of my new accessories company, INDIGENIE, will be to monetarily or materially “give back”  to the country of origin where the products were made, especially to girls and women.  Since China will be my first supplier country, I have designated the Shangri-la orphanage as the recipient of a small portion of my product sales.  If you would like to contribute directly, please contact Maria at Maria-gates@att.net  To read the full story of Maria’s sponsorship of the orphanage, visit

www.canyonlovers.com

*** quote/ Marilyn Monroe