I will return.  There are few moments when I wonder if I physically can manage being in Haiti. Moments like when you’re stuck in traffic for hours with air conditioning that stops working so that you need to open the windows just to get some air movement even though the air is full of exhaust or when the car breaks down and you have to walk…up a hill… in humid air so thick you should need an inhaler even WITHOUT asthma. OR moments your mosquito bites itch so bad that your two anti-itch sticks don’t even help.

THEN there are the moments that guarantee I will return. There’s the mother washing clothes on the top floor of their cement home who has been living in severe depression for nearly 3 decades following the loss of her children. This mother who can still cry. Often. Crying as she occasionally sings the hymns she used to sing before she stopped attending church. This mother with the far off stare when I engage her to find a way to break through her pain. I know that for this woman who lives in a home with the cracked walls from an earthquake and a broken heart from loss I will return.

The moments that remind me there are teachers here committed to train and teach the the must vulnerable of this country-the children; the orphans and restaveks. To support their efforts I know I will return.
There is so much more on my heart this morning but right now I’m trying to navigate this ever changing airport so I don’t miss my flight to return to my non-Haitian life.
Until I write again…