The drive to Pingguo was very mountainous with curvy roads around the mountains. It was very beautiful but dangerous. We met a large truck head-on around one of the curves and barely missed having an accident. Even this experienced driver drove in the middle of the road. The center line means nothing in China. He drove right down the middle until he saw a car coming. That was like playing “Russian Roulette” on a mountainous road. We are amazed that there aren’t more major accidents, although there are a large number killed in transportation accidents every year.
The countryside around Nanning, Tiendeng and Pingguo is very beautiful with tall pointed mountains and flat lands in between with fields of banana plants, sugar cane and rice paddies. The mountains are covered with evergreen trees (many newly planted) that are a type of pine or spruce.
In the valleys, you could see small farms but I saw few houses and wondered how the people found their way to the flat valleys to farm. Every possible hillside is terraced and planted if there are no trees. We even see gardens along the roadside (shoulders of the road). They do not waste any land that will grow food. It is their survival.
The hotel in Pingguo is probably the most beautiful we have ever had but even it had its drawbacks. The furniture was more Japanese style with straight wooden chairs so we had to pile up pillows to be able to sit in them. The bath is glass with pretty Japanese wood stripping. Not much privacy unless you are rooming with your mate!
The hotel is across the street from a beautiful park but at night they have loud music until 10 p.m. Also, fireworks (the loud kind) are shot off regularly. Ron said they never need a holiday or any reason to justify using fireworks.
We stayed in this hotel last year at Christmas and thought the noise was because of the holiday, but there was no holiday this time and it was the same. I could not help but laugh when I heard the song, “Who Let the Dogs Out?” playing over their loud speakers. I told Ron I had come all the way to South China to get to hear that!
I was so tired the night we arrived that I went on to sleep at 9 p.m. and ignored the music and fireworks. Ron was up working. After he came to bed, he received two phone calls that I never heard. Our travels certainly make me sleep well. I never sleep this well at home, but I am also not this tired at the end of the day.
We spent one day at Wesley’s House. The children were at school when we arrived. Ron inspected the building to get a check list of what needs to be done. The children came in for lunch and were very shy around us but before long they were sitting near me, stroking my arms, looking at my watch and rings, staring into my eyes and giving me spontaneous hugs.
Once I walked out to the flagpole to sit in the sun a few minutes. One little girl came and climbed up the steps to sit with me and before long I had about 10 children all over and around me. A little boy about five was stoking my hair and rubbing the skin on my arm. He would look intensely into my eyes and my heart just melted. I told Peter later that I wanted to bring him home with me. He said one of the visitors with Jim Griffith last September wanted to take him home with her too.
The children gathered around waiting for our taxi and it just breaks our hearts to leave them. They are happy and have a great life there but they are lacking so much love and attention that they will never get from relatives.
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