Laura speaking: I believe all of the Haiti Travelers (aside from Carla, Kevin, and Rob), are home now. Carla and Kevin should be home this evening. Rob will be staying at MPP for an additional two weeks. Today has been a challenge for me, as I begin this complicated process of re-entry. There is plenty to be written about on this process alone, for sure.
Thoughts from Liz, right before we began our long journey home yesterday morning:
Morning of our eighth and last day in Haiti. We head to the airport in Port au Prince after breakfast.
I had intended to post on this blog each day. This my first post.
Writer's block is a condition I have rarely experienced. Brilliant, pulsating, sunny Haiti was not the place where I would ever have expected it to show up as present. Yet there it was for the past seven days. I am grateful that Laura's posts have spoken so strongly and clearly and beautifully for me.
A simply glorious week here in this Caribbean country with all of its bounty and scarcity, beauty and pain, courage and fear.
Six week old Emanuel has been in the forefront of my mind and deep in my heart ever since I had the blessing of holding him in my arms two days ago. I can still feel the warmth of his little body and see his beautiful, brown face. His spirit will accompany me back home, I know, as will the spirit, love, and courage of so many I have come to know here.
The dedication and tenacity of the workers in Papaye's AG-ECO program and their fierce determination to develop nutritional crops in the face of drought and paucity of equipment inspires beyond words. The bright smiles of greeting on the faces of Haitians of all ages as we see each other in the streets brimming with poverty cause me to ask myself whether I ever dare to complain again.
The plan for Father Richard and me to get together at the hospital in Port au Prince today will not come to fruition because he will be working to retrieve a boy in very perilous health from an off shore island and treat him in whatever way possible to help save his precious life. Father Richard wrote in a message to me yesterday that we now need Zach's prayers for this boy. As I write these words I am back in Zach's room in the last weeks of his earthly life when Father Richard visited and prayed with Him, his parents and sister, and several other family members including me. Now here Zach is, showing up in Haiti.
I will return.
Liz, I enjoyed your blog. Sometimes it is difficult to write given the circumstances....I know that I sometimes have to process first prior to writing. Yes, I keep thinking of Emmanuel and what his future will be. Hopefully the good work of all who contribute in whatever way will help these folks get a start towards a brighter future.
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