January 28, 2008

We are stuck in Nanchang.

The weather is terrible.

It started sleeting again and while the airport was open, they were putting stranded passengers ahead of others. We hung out at the airport for 2.5 hours only to find our flight was not leaving today.

Plan B.

There is no Plan B...Ok, just kidding.

We are boarding a train tomorrow evening (6pm) for Guangzhou. Normally, it is a 12 hour train ride, but there are portions of the track that are out of service due to the storm. If, and this is a big IF, we make it to Guangzhou before noon on Wed., we should be able to make our Consulate appointment on Thursday.

However, if we are later or things do not work out, we will miss our appointment. At that point, I have no idea what we are supposed to do nor do I know if how badly we are screwed.

Liping wants us to call the U.S. Consulate tomorrow to see about getting a new appointment for Friday, but again, I'm not sure what will happen if we CAN'T get a new appointment.

They took us to a new hotel here in Nanchang. The roads are terrible. The full extent of the storm only became apparent once we left the city. The bus driver had to driver VERY slow, maybe 25mph. The bridges are iced, and they have straw mats down to help drive across the bridges. Apparently they do not have any snow plows or salt/sand trucks and most of the clearing we have seen has been by hand.

For the moment we are ok. Jen is trying to put Mei down to sleep, and then we will try to sleep some ourselves. But we are a bit scared/worried about what the next few days will hold for us.

Will we have to stay longer? How long? Can we reschedule our Consulate appointment? What do we do and how do we do it?

We have an email in to our agency asking the same questions. All the families are in the same boat. I'm sure somehow his whole thing will work out. It always seems to work out in the end.

If I have time, I will write tomorrow morning.

Please pray the train is on time, and we get to Guangzhou well before noon on Wed.

 

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