finding a way

when i got the message from fei that "the roads are very bad" it became clear to me that i can't go to china without seeing hazels town. after having seen ruby's places, i know how important it is to have those pieces of her past. i need that for hazel too. after mulling it over for a few hours, i tossed the guilin visit out the window and immediately began looking at possible ways to see more of fujian and visit zhangzhou, the town she is in.

so the new plan is this: leave portland june 12, fly to honolulu spend the night. swim in the ocean, and hang out on the beach for the evening. fly to guangzhou the next morning, but land there that night (june13) spend the night there and take af light to xiamen fujian the next morning. we will spend 3 days in xiamen, it sounds like a cool place with lots of opium war and colonial history. there is an island off the coast where no cars are allowed that looks like a great place to visit. one of the days we will have a guide and driver take us to zhangzhou, 65 km away. i want to see hazels finding place, the outside of the orphanage and some of the town. i just want to get a sense of her place and be able to take pictures, eat a meal, look into the faces of the people. we may try to take the train or a cab to fuzhou to meet up with the other 2 families and dr susan.