Day 4 - A Trip to Jiaozuo

For reasons that I don't completely understand, we were required to travel to city where Lucy's orphanage is located. Even though she has been living at Eagles' Wings (in the same city), the orphanage was responsible for her paperwork. It seemed like a great opportunity to see more of her life (and pick up a couple things she forgot to bring LOL). The trip didn't turn out quite as I expected.

First we needed to go to the notary office to complete paperwork. Getting there was an adventure. I'm not sure if our driver had ever been there before, but I know our guide had not. We ended up taking the scenic route when the road the driver wanted to take was under construction. Pretty amazing that we made it actually.

The notary process itself was relatively quick. Most of the information had been sent ahead of time, unlike last time in Beijing where everything is done while you wait several hours. We were finished in under 30 minutes.

Next stop was the apartment where Lucy was living with her foster family. They are away right now and Rebecca, a young lady from Maryland currently volunteering at Eagles' Wings, has been staying there with Lucy and her foster brother. She met us there and Lucy got her forgotten items. She was surprisingly unsentimental about it all.

Rebecca offered to show us some good eats at the local street market. Our guide seemed skeptical, but agreed. The driver took us there and ended up parked on the wrong side of a 6 lane road. We crossed successfully and Lucy got her favorite fried bread. Rebecca suggested a egg & lettuce wrap she enjoys. I agreed without thinking about the warnings to avoid fresh lettuce. I'm hoping that I don't regret that decision later today! It was tasty, but we ended up eating in the car.


The guide said the driver was moving the van. Next thing I know she's saying, "he's here" and in we go with barely time to say good bye to Rebecca before we're headed back to Zhengzhou. I'm disappointed with how the day went and with the pictures I got. On top of that the air today has been terrible and I'm feeling like I've breathed in a ton of heavy dust. I'm ready to finish up this part of the trip and move on to Guangzhou. Once we get there I know I'll be feeling restless to get home.