Professional photographers took pictures of the hospital contract signing. I hope to get some of those pictures to post to the blog later. After lunch, a hospital van and driver took us to Chengsha, a two-hour drive. Judy, our co-worker, went with us to spend the next few days with a relative before returning to Shanghai and on to Atlanta. The college-age daughter of the hospital administrator's assistant also rode back with us after spending the weekend with her parents.
We arrived at the train station about 4 p.m. and checked our bags with a service near the station so we could be free for the next four hours. We met Jim and Jane Self and walked around the city to find a restaurant where we could eat and talk. Jim is a graduate of Freed-Hardeman University and a friend of David Langley's. (He was so much like David, they could be brothers!) He has been teaching English in China for the past two years. I believe he had a previous assignment here a few years earlier. Jim met Jane a year ago and they were married last month. They will have an official big ceremony in June when Jim's parents can travel to China. Jim is also from Columbia, Tennessee, and knows Bo Pugh, our youth minister, who also went to school at Freed-Hardeman University and is from Columbia. Jane is a very pretty and sweet Chinese girl. She spoke excellent English.
We left on the train at 9 p.m. heading to Shen Zheng. (I hope I have spelled that city correctly). It is near Hong Kong. Aida, one of our Chinese workers in Atlanta, used to work in this city. The train was especially noisy and stopped many times along the way, so we did not get more than five hours of sleep. We arrived at 8 a.m. the next morning.
At the train station, we met with Joe and Crystal, a Chinese couple from Hong Kong that has been in correspondence with Ron for some time. Crystal presented me with a beautiful fabric bag with note cards and other little gifts for Mother's Day. I loved the gifts very much and I am grateful for their thoughtfulness and generosity. (They also paid for our taxi fare to the airport and lunch!)
When we arrived at the airport, we checked in so we could be free of two of our bags. Then we found a restaurant in the airport and spent almost two hours with Joe and Crystal, getting to know them and giving them more information about our work. They have already visited our Neil Taylor orphanage in Rongshu and given some money to help there. We are very grateful for Christian couples like them. They are dedicated to their Saviour and want to do all they can to help the less fortunate.
We boarded our plane at 12 p.m. for a two-hour flight to Changdu. I hope I am getting the names of the cities correct. You may have noticed that the last three places we have been are similar in name (difficult for me to get them straight). I have trouble remembering which city is which when the names are Changde, Changsha and Changdu.
Upon our arrival, we took an airport bus downtown. From there, we took a taxi to the local bus station and boarded the bus for Zigong. It was a three-hour bus ride. We arrived at 8:30 p.m.
It would have been a wonderful drive if we had not been so tired. It was beautiful countryside and so interesting to see the crops growing, orange groves, banana trees, and especially the rice paddies. People were harvesting ripe rice crops, cutting the tall sheaves (is that correct for the ripe rice plant?) They are stacked up in bunches or sheaves and laid out on the ground to dry. Some people had sheets laid out on the ground and were thrashing the grain from the dried plants. I saw children helping with this phase of the work.
Others were in the wet marshlands planting new rice plants. People are industrial because the growing of food is their way to provide enough food for themselves and sell the excess for their income to purchase other things they need.
Our workers, Jacob and Stephen, met us at the bus station and brought us to our hotel. This is a hazy view from our hotel window this morning. There are apartment building as far as you can see in every city. I think most people in the world live in apartments. How else could you provide space for so many people to live? There are many industries in this area which may contribute to the smog in the atmosphere.
We ate dinner at 9 p.m. here at the restaurant with Jacob, Stephen and another worker. We slept well in a very quiet room. After 36 hours of traveling, the hard beds of China feel wonderful.
Today, Ron is with the workers at the orphanage construction site. This is the first of three orphanages to be constructed with funds from the Jackson Family Foundation. We are very grateful to Rick Jackson and his children for their support of our work in China.
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