HALF-WAY THROUGH OUR TRIP

Our guide Coby, Perrie, and Cathy in LuShan.

Land of Mist and Cloud

June 21, 2009

We are at the half-way mark in our trip, and I wish I had been able to journal about everything that has happened here. Of course I can't to that, so I'll mention a few things that I haven't talked about. The agency that is handling our travel is Always and Forever Adoption Homeland Tours, headed by Michael Han. Michael used to be an adoption facilitator, I believe, and he is sensitive to the issues that returning families face. He will create a trip just for your family (as in our case), or you can participate in one of many tours that are offered.

Paul is ready to board our van/bus for the trip down the mountain.

My daughter Hannah was born in JiangXi Province, so we asked Michael to create a trip that was based right here in the place where Hannah was born, and where she would have grown up if things had been different. JiangXi Province is hot and humid at this time of year, but our guide understands that we are not used to this kind of weather, and he provided us with lovely air-conditioned vans and buses everywhere we went.

If you are going to undertake a trip like this, it really helps if you have travel companions with whom to share the ups and downs. Another family who is similar in personality to you sure helps In this regard we have been blessed to travel with Marilyn Cleeff and her two daughters. I a feeling a bit down because this is our last day with them.....late this afternoon they will leave for BeiJing, while we will finish the last five days of our tour right here in JiangXi. I will miss them terribly.Marilyn is my age (we are 57 and 58), and she has the kiind of easy-going personality that makes it a joy to be around her. There have been times when we laughed until we doubled over and had tears streaming down our cheeks.

Cathy and Marilyn taking a break.

In the small town of KuLing the traffic is wild....crossing the street means watching for a break in traffic and running for your life. I was momentarily distracted and I missed it when the rest of the group crossed the street. When I looked up and saw them on the other side I started forward to join them, then saw a car barreling toward me. I was so startled that I shouted "Oh SHIT" and sort of sprinted across the street, ending up in the midst of my travel mates, who were as surprised as I was to hear that expletive in China. We all burst out laughing so hard, the local people stared at us and must have thought we were crazy.

On another occasion Marilyn came into our hotel room with an infected splinter in the sole of her foot. Paul performed "surgery" on her with hand sanitizer, a pocket knife, and a tweezer, and he got the splinter out, but it was still painful. So that evening we walked to town for dinner and poor Marilyn was limping along, and then a blister on my toe burst open and seeped fluid onto my sandal, and I started limping. Our teenage daughters stared at us and rolled their eyes.....which made me and Marilyn start to laugh again, and we hobbled around town referring to ourselves as "the Gimps". Like I said, your travel companions make all the difference.

Last night I got so sick....I was running a fever, aching all over, and of course I had the worst diarrhea. I don't know what I ate or draink, but Marilyn came to my rescue. She shared her Cipro with me, and offered to give me the whole bottle. After an awful night, I am feeling somewhat better this morning.

Before I got so sick, we ate at the FuZhou City/LinChuan KFC....we were hungry for Western food, and the greasy, salty chicken tasted so good, not to mention the fries and ketchup. Funny thing: There was a little boy wearing the traditional Chinese split pants, and his mom just stood him up right in KFC, whereupon he peed all over the floor. Apparently this is fairly common, and out came the mop and bucket brigade to clean up the floor. Now you don't see that every day.

FuZhou is the city where my daugher was found, so we are staying here for three days. Today we will meet with the orphanage vice director and the director of children's services from the FuZhou Social Welfare Institute. We brought gifts from home for them, and we will be taking them out to lunch. We originally had been told we could go inside the orphanage, but due to concern about the H1N1 flu, we will not be allowed inside....we can only look at the building from outside.It's time to go, so I'll tell you about our visit with the SWI staff when we get back.Cathy========