Leaving Haiti

Saturday morning was difficult. We were up and ready to go by 6:00 AM. We drove into town and picked up Dario, who asked James if he was Haiti-sick. James answered that he already was. It was true. Leaving was not easy. I missed my girl all week, and James had started missing her at some point (he's a very in-the-moment guy), but if she'd been there, it would have been tempting to "accidentally" oversleep and miss the transport to the airport.

Just to give you a little taste of the ride from the hills of Kenscoff into the city to the airport, there are four videos. I didn't spend much time editing them at all; I just overlaid a song because some of the conversations in the van were pretty private. But feel free to turn down your sound altogether if having the same song over and over bothers you. ;) (P.S. This was pre-7:00 AM on a Saturday; otherwise, the streets would have been a LOT busier!)

So, that's Kenscoff to Port au Prince.

After having spent a whole week in Haiti, even brushing our teeth with the sink water (gasp!) and not having gotten sick, we showed up in Fort Lauderdale to find that they were under a boil water notice since e. coli (fecal matter) had been found in the water supply. It was tainted. Lit'rally tainted. (Bonus points if you get that reference.)

Besides James getting selected for a "random" pat-down three times that day, and some pretty loud-mouthed airport employees, and that whole "Welcome to Chili's, you can only order a burger and hope you didn't want any iced tea" stuff, the day's travel was pretty stressful, and a startling departure from our beloved Haiti experience.

Seeing Daphne at the airport made up for all of it (even though she did run to James first), and the rest of my immediate family was there, as well. It was a sweet welcome.

We appreciated everything that my parents did when they were here (opossum-running-off aside, they also made sure Daphne had a busy and productive week, they did laundry and cleaned the house, and even left us some food so that I didn't have to buy groceries for nearly a week after we returned). We were so moved and impressed with everyone whom we met in Haiti. I loved getting to know some of my church friends (and other-church friend!) better.

Here I am a week after we returned, and I'm still trying to parse everything out. What do I do with this new corner of my heart that belongs to and in Haiti? How do I try to get other people on board effectively, without overwhelming anyone and "talking" so much that they just shut me down? I know that there will be more in the days and weeks and months to come, and I'm just extremely humbled and privileged to have this Haiti experience to carry with me now.

Thanks for coming along on the journey.