3 / 11 / 2004
We were to catch the shuttle bus back to the airport at 6:00am for an 8:00am flight to Fuzhou. We were concerned about making it to Fuzhou in time for our train connection to Guangze. The airport is about an hour away from Fuzhou. Dan hadn’t had any luck reaching Richard, our AAO guide that morning or during the previous night, but he did reach Dave at our agency in Seattle that morning. Dave made contact with Richard while we were on the plane from Beijing so that Richard could confirm that someone from the hotel would pick us up as soon as we landed at the airport. We learned by phone during the taxi ride from the airport that Director Zheng at the orphanage would welcome us to visit. This was huge news! We were going to meet Ruby!! Schell met us at the hotel where we stored our luggage, put valuables in the safety deposit box, and had about 20 extra minutes before heading to the train. We had hoped to fuel up on a good hotel breakfast buffet, but donut-like pastries had to suffice. Schell had pre-purchased the tickets so that we could be sure to get soft-sleeper spaces (4 berths to a room w/locking door). We packed light for this trip, only taking daypacks with a few clothes, all of our adoption paperwork, and camera gear. It was warm and sticky in Fuzhou, a big contrast from Beijing. Schell got us a taxi to the train station where we waited in a separate “soft sleeper” waiting room. As the train was not crowded, it was only the 3 of us in our room on the train. We talked, ate our lunch of pastries, and then napped some. It felt good to get on the train and know that we would make it to Guangze albeit in a little more disarrayed fashion than planned.
As we moved south to Fuzhou, the number of dialects spoken increased. There should be even more in Guangdong province, our last stop for the US Consulate piece. Given the variety of dialects, it’s common that people in rural areas are only able to communicate with people in the neighboring one or two villages. Written language is the way that people of different dialects can communicate. Schell, who traveled with us from Fuzhou to act as our guide in Guangze, said that he was able to speak with the Director of the Guangze orphanage because both spoke Mandarin – but slightly different dialects. Schell had previously facilitated one adoption from Guangze - although he is not facilitating our adoption of Ruby - so he had previously communicated with Director Zheng. However, he had never traveled to Guangze.
We arrived in Guangze at 9:15pm. Director Zheng met us at the train station which was very gracious of him. He got us a taxi to the Guangze Hotel and got us checked in. We paid Y400 (approx. $48) total for both rooms for the night. We’re thinking we were put into the best room in town. It was a suite-like setting with a room with wooden benches & chairs that resembled a waiting room, a squat toilet room that luckily we didn’t have to use (the squat toilets on the train had been far less than pleasant), a Western-style bathroom, and a bedroom. The bed was large, but once again the mattress was rock hard. We thought we had experienced a hard bed in Beijing, but this was just like wooden planks covered by fabric. Again, this setup didn’t make for a good night’s sleep. Since we were going to meet Ruby Jia Le in the morning it didn’t really matter. We had a lot to think about!
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At the start of the train ride the river was filled with huge piles of sand probably used in making concrete. |