Simplicity

Hi All,

First I want to say I am sorry this has been a long time in coming! I didn't really have time in Haiti to blog and since coming home I have been feeling uninspired and sad and although being reflective of experiences is healthy, dwelling in the helplessness of it is not so..here I am!
This past trip and subsequent return have been much more emotional for me because I fear that the people of Haiti are taking up a permanent residence in my heart...and that to me is all at once exhilarating and equally as scary! I can't pinpoint any particular incident or interaction from this trip that has pushed my heart in that direction I just feel a longing and need to return more then I have ever for a place before..and a love and appreciation for the life that is so simple yet so frustratingly difficult at times...

I wish I could share my experiences with you all..to tell you of the amazingly resilient people I saw everyday, how frustrating it was to try and negotiate the land for Roses house, how my heart broke when I saw her current living conditions, to tell you about the dying 6 day old preemie I raced off to Medishare hoping against hope that they would let us in and help us..hoping to keep him from becoming just another statistic of child mortality in Haiti...I wish I could show you the fallen down buildings that still occupy the majority of space, smell the garbage that lays strewn about, to hear the dogs and roosters...because that is what I saw the first two times I traveled to Haiti and its those glaring differences that most people traveling to Haiti usually notice..I know I did

But this time those differences seemed to fade into the background and I found myself falling in love with the things that make us different but in beautiful ways..I wish you could hear the beautiful voices of the nurses as they sang songs to start the day or the singing my friend Ryan and I heard coming up from our camp early one morning, I wish you could taste the warm,soft delicious bread made by Haitian bakers, I wish I could show you the beautiful children dressed in their uniforms rushing off to school amidst the rubble, I wish you could sense the true gratitude of patients after you have helped them... but most of all I wish you could bask in the simplicity of living every moment of everyday because that's all there is...and that is truly the gift I have received from this past trip to that beautiful Caribbean nation! A place I have fallen in love with...