haiti: back to the future part III day one

a pretty chill trip so far. when remembering hating your flight 7 hours in country, you know something's different. and there is something different in the air. keep in mind we haven't traveled to port-au-prince or the camp, but it's in the air that life has moved on. rubble has been removed from the outlying areas, and from i can ascertain, people are happy about the upcoming martelly presidency. hell, even hopeful-- something i could not have imagined a year ago. but i remind myself, croix-des-bouquets was relatively okay a year ago.

we're here with 3 friends on their first trip to haiti. that's a difference too. the last trip was so single minded. get the baby out of the camp. a mission. this trip is like a recap, a revisit. a chance to put faces and places to our stories. for us, it's so important to get actual eyes on this …

we reconvened with our friends wilguens and toto at the airport, quickly dropped off our supplies for the camp at the hotel and headed to croix-des-bouquets to see the baby. the last time we'd been was in darkness, and i couldn't really remember exactly what the house looked like, just the gate along the road. as we approached the town, i felt a nervousness that approached ridiculousness. 'is that the house???' i wanted to ask toto to tell me when we were 5 minutes away so i could better prepare. this little girl has wrapped me up and tied. i shudder for my future. i was pondering incessantly her first look at us.

we arrived, and her foster mom and attendants gleefully and dutifully sat us in the front room. it was akin to waiting for your prom date. when she finally arrived, it was magic. seeing her safe, loved and surrounded by older kids was amazing. and she was pure happiness. getting her out of that camp might be the greatest personal achievement of our lives.

we returned to la colombe hotel (i'm now realizing the hotel pays homage to a guy who did this island ABSOLUTELY no good!), and ate another in a series of bad meals. we'd all been up since 4AM. it was 8PM and felt like midnight … and now we're ending the night sleeping in the caribbean with sweatshirts on cause we can't reach the AC to turn it off ... bonswa