Thursday's update

Hi all! Still can't seem to rotate the photos in Paint, it appears that that functionality is disabled for some unknown reason. So, as Bro said in an earlier comment, you just have to get a little dizzy to follow along.

Today, a few of the families had the opportunity to visit their children's orphanage. A terrific chance for all. Sophie's orphanage is not open to the public, and it is at least a 4 hour drive from here on bad roads, so a trip even to that city was not possible. I do have pictures of the orphanage from an online site, and Sophie's caretakers were kind enough to fill up two disposable cameras with photos, so we are anxious to have those developed.

For the remaining families, both Rose (the national guide) and Shirley (the Nanchang guide) had arranged a trip to the countryside to see a typical farming village outside Nanchang. It was about a 30 minute drive and the roads got worse as we got away from the city. It was a pretty small village. My guess is that there might have been several hundred people who lived there. However, it wasn't countryside as we would typically think of it...the skyline to the city still loomed in the distance.

Anyway, this was such an amazing excursion. The people were so interested in us...just as we were curious about them. A few of them walked up to greet us as we departed the bus, and many followed us as we walked along the street through the village. These folks greeted us. You can see that the little boy is wearing split pants - no diapers for these little guys. They just squat and go wherever and whenever they need to!

In the rice field...

Sophie and I in front of some of the "farm equipment"...

These folks followed us around for a lot of the stroll. We must have looked like space aliens to them. They were all so pleasant and interested in why we were there. Shirley was a big help in communicating with them.

I took several shots of this woman...her face has such character.

Sophie enjoyed the stroll through the village too...

It was a priceless visit that I will remember for a long time. And I think EJ has a whole new appreciation and thankfulness for the life that she has.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a porcelain shop. In addition to being known for its agriculture, the Jiangxi province is known for its porcelain. We bought a small tea set and some porcelain chopsticks, and EJ picked out some jewelry.

We got back to the hotel around 1 and had some free time. Sophie napped for a while, and a few of us headed to the shopping district. K and EJ stayed with Sophie and then strolled her around the block a little later. I bought some adorable shoes for Sophie (about $2.25) and a cute outfit for EJ for about $10.

Speaking of outfits, the tailor (or is it -er?) delivered the custom dresses we had ordered. Aren't they beautiful? EJ tried hers on and looked like a princess.

Sophie modeled the hat that I ordered with her dress. They made it a little big so she can grow into it.

That's it for tonight. Tomorrow morning, we pack up again. K has about 90 minutes of paperwork to do for our trip to the American Consulate's office in Guangzhou. We have to have our bags packed and ready to go by 2. We leave the hotel at 3 to go to the airport. Our flight to Guangzhou is around 5:00 and shouldn't take more than 1:15. You probably won't hear from me again until Saturday. This weekend is free time, so we plan to do a lot of shopping in Guangzhou...