Back "Home"

I arrived safe and sound back in North Carolina late Tuesday night. Its definitely strange being back and I am experiencing a mix of emotions that I can't completely untangle right now. Its nice but I don't quite feel myself either. I miss the kids and Haiti in general but I also am pretty nervous about starting med school back up again next week after being away from it for two years. The sounds here are so different; its much more quiet. The smells too, for better and for worse.

The day before I left Haiti, Monday, I spent a lot of time visiting with my friends and saying my goodbyes. I took Deborah with me to see Gwen and her kiddos and in fact, she stayed with me most of the day. People were quite amused to find me walking down the street with a little Haitian child in tow; they had a lot to say, nice things though. We had a lot of laughs. My language skills have improved dramatically over the course of the last three weeks. In case you haven't been following, Deborah is one of the kiddos who arrived in the orphanage after the quake. She's 4 and absolutely precious. Speaking of the orphanage, I spent a few hours there in the early afternoon, saying my goodbyes to the kids and snapping a few last photos. I got a great one of Tana eating a mango (above). Oh man I will miss the mangos. Later, I packed up my things while Deborah wandered around my room picking up everything. I've also posted the photo I took when I put her in my suitcase, where she just laid until I took her out.

That evening, all the older "kids" at the orphanage came over to the guesthouse for my goodbye dinner. Michel set a large table and we enjoyed a nice meal of fish, rice and beans, potato/beet salad (my fav), plantains, tomatoes etc. It was really really fantastic. He's such a good cook. Lots of laughter and hugs and maybe some tears (on my part). After everyone left, I sat in the rocking chair on the porch and Deborah climbed on my lap and started singing. I began singing to her and we just sat there and rocked until she fell asleep. We stayed that way for a long time afterward.

The trip back here was pretty uneventful and really long. We (Pastor Daniel and I, along with Silas, Stephana and a couple of others who accompanied us) left Jacmel at 3 am. We were supposed to leave at 4 but apparently, there was going to be a "demonstration" in the streets of Port au Prince (some sort of protest against the president, Preval, who is requesting a longer presidency) and Pastor, who had a 9am flight, wanted to be sure we made it to the airport in time. My flight wasn't until nearly noon and we arrived at the airport by 5:30am (half an hour before it even opens) so there was a long wait involved for me. I tried to switch my flight but no go.

Waiting gets easier by the way...for some things at least. That is amazing to me that I, one of the most type A people (when it comes to waiting for stuff anyway) can so quickly adapt to the Haiti pace. Twenty-four hours of travel from a place essentially just off the coast of Florida and I was completely chill the whole time. I didn't even feel the need to try to fill the time with something "productive" like some attempt to get work done during those large chunks of times I spent waiting in the airport. I just sat and watched and processed. Wish I had some more time to do that now actually...