We are really hungry and have not eaten much of anything. Yesterday they took us to a restaurant and sat all kinds of salads, fish, rice, and spicy chicken dishes in front of us. We ate rice and chicken. We have been strictly warned off of any fruits or vegetables. Anyways, Mitchell says that I (Cherie) hit rock bottom today….I ATE BEEF JERKY! Never had it before in my life but it tasted pretty American to me today. We cannot understand why no one over here sells Ritchey’s products, but, Andrew, if you’re reading this…we seriously think you need to start selling internationally. We came down from the Great Wall yesterday, walked into a snack shop and asked each other, “Do you think they sell Ritchey’s stuff here?”
Today we flew to Nanchang. Nanchang is the seat of government for the Jiangxi Province. The Fuzhou Orphanage that our daughter is from is about a two hour drive from here. We will be here in Nanchang until Friday. Friday we will fly to Guangzhou and meet up again with the other families in our group.
Today we found out what it feels like to be a minority. We were on a bus (standing room only) bumping around shoulder to shoulder and we were the only non-Chinese people on the bus. A couple from the plane tried to have a sort of sign language-ish conversation with us, but it was amazing how difficult it was. I think that is the very first time I ever tried to communicate with someone when we couldn’t speak the same language. I found myself saying words really slowly and loudly like that was going to help.
As the plane touched down in Nanchang and covered the distance of the runway, we could tell we had landed in a world quite different from Beijing. We unloaded into a little, hot airport, got our bags and were met by our new guide who took us outside into air that is about 98 degrees and 90 percent humidity. The air is so hazy with humidity and so polluted that you cannot see very far into the distance. We got into a very rickety vehicle and traveled forty miles with our eyes fixated on the outside view.
We drove by farm communities with tiny broken down shack/houses with no windows. As we came near the city, the shacks began to turn into apartment buildings still broken down, still with no windows, and just not a clean place in sight anywhere. It’s really difficult to describe. The view from our window baffles us as we sit in a beautiful hotel. I really cannot describe what it looks like or what it makes you feel when you look out at it. We talked about the people who work in this luxury hotel and then go home to that.
Helen, our new guide, took us to an open market across the street to buy bottled water. It was a tiny place on the street - just a man and his wife. Helen said “water” and the woman pointed to her little cooler with individual bottles. Mitch shook his head “no” picking up two cases of water off her pile, and she just lit up. We bought several cases of drink and you could tell they were overjoyed.
While I am writing this, we are in our hotel room waiting to be called to the lobby when they arrive here from the orphanage…
1 comment:
The descriptions in your blogs are reminding me soo much of my trip...in Davao, Philippines, we stayed in a four star hotel called The Marco Polo. It was fancy, like the one you described, as fancy as any I've stayed at in the US. But, surrounding it on all sides were these filthy run-down little cardboard/wood/metal shacks where the people lived. it was absolutely crazy! they would see us on the streets, and of course, we were the minority, and stood out like a sore thumb, and they'd excitedly ask, "Are you staying in the Marco Pole?" Their faces would light up at our answer. They lived in shacks, yet were excited just to meet someone who was staying in the fancy hotel. I can't even imagine what it would be like to live that way.
Laura
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