Nanchang

In Beijing boarding the plane for Nanchang.



Nanchang is like nothing I’ve ever seen before… except maybe on TV. Some places are decent...









But most are very run down ...













The streets are jam packed full of old bicycles that look like US bikes looked in the 1950’s. People wearing big pointy straw hats and pulling carts on the back of their bikes that are piled high with just about everything you can imagine that they are trying to peddle; mopeds with numerous people hanging off them; double-decker buses with no windows; and little cars that honk constantly as they drive fast with no traffic rules among all the bikes, buses, and mopeds. There are no lanes for traffic - everyone just kind of pushes their way through, and we have no idea how they don’t wreck. And it is dirty….so…so…dirty.

We had to cross two wide, crazy streets to get to Civil Affairs this morning and it’s like taking your life into your hands!! We went to a tall office building and the best way I can describe it was like you stepped into a 1940’s gangster movie. First of all, it was hot and dark. (It is so hot here, the humidity is amazingly oppressive and no air conditioning) Everything is gray and the offices were all empty except for a bare desk in the middle, with bare walls and no light except what came in the filthy windows. Like I said…old gangster movie feel. And everything is smoky…everything.

We feel like we are holed up in the hotel hiding away until Friday. But we do have to go out again tomorrow morning at 9am to do more paper work and pay for fees, and then our guide, Helen, is taking us to an ancient pagoda. Helen is sweet and she really knows what she is doing, but I think she thinks I’m totally stupid because I never understand anything.

Yesterday she was upset because I didn’t understand that she was trying to get me to take a picture with the orphanage workers, and I didn’t realize what she wanted. So, this morning at Civil Affairs when she said, “You take picture with orphanage director,” I jumped right to the task!! She is a very young and very tiny little Nanchang native.

There are a lot of adoptive parents in our hotel from all over the world. We met families from the UK and from Holland today, and a couple from Pittsburgh (yes, our Pittsburgh) at the Civil Affairs offices. I miss the other members of our travel group, though. I will be so glad to head to Guangzhou on Friday. I know Faith will be fine. And something tells me that heading out of this place will make the “fine” more of a reality.

We are seeing if Helen can arrange a visit to the orphanage. If she can, only Mitch and Mitchell will go. I really wanted to go but I realize I cannot take Faith back there. Please continue to pray for us.

Matthew says he is working on some home video clips he took yesterday and will try to have them sent to Aunt Lou to post in a few hours. Love to you all back home!!!!!