A little hi during turbulent times :)

Hello my dear family and friends! How are you all? Wow, it has been a long time since I updated my blog. As I have mentioned before, writing is not one of my strong suits and I find it difficult to find inspiration to write. But I have been writing a lot! Before going home for a little vacation in July, I spent a whole month writing various things for various people.

For Maryknoll Lay Missioners, I wrote a reflection on joy: https://mklm.org/haiti/practice-living-with-joy/

For the Mission Office of Global Concern, I wrote another reflection based on the readings from the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time: https://maryknollogc.org/resources/scripture-reflection/nineteenth-sunday-ordinary-time

In the same time period, I wrote a short presentation for a church visit in Cleveland as well as a maid of honor speech for my friend who got married!

More recently since coming back, I wrote a brief update for Maryknoll on the current situation in Haiti so they are aware of how we and Haiti are affected. There may be an article soon on the MKLM website based on it.

So with all that writing and reflection-ing, I completely forgot to update my blog for all of you! Since there is a lot I want to share and no particular way to share it well, I think I will try to give a bit of a stream-of-consciousness reporting for you all.

Some little updates include the amazing trip home I had! It was absolutely fantastic and so rejuvenating that I was scared that I might not be ready to return to Haiti. I saw so many family members and dear friends that I haven’t seen for years.

Most of the time I was in upstate New York, and that was a blessing. There was a bit of running around as I needed to get my bridesmaid dress fitted and get the paperwork done to renew my passport but that was all figured out pretty fast. I spent a lot of time with my parents and saw my siblings and after my passport came back from renewal, I played a beautiful 18 holes of golf with my dad in Canada! Abby, who used to live here in Haiti with me, also came to visit me for a few days and it was wonderful to see her again.

For a week in Cleveland, I went to my friend’s wedding as the maid of honor and it was my first time being in a wedding party! It was a lot of fun and my friend Katie, her husband, and their families truly organized a beautiful, fun, and stress-free wedding. No one threw up, fainted, or broke anything. It was also nice to spend the week with her where I was also able to meet with some of my best friends and it was amazing.

Also spending a week in Cincinnati, I ate at home maybe once or twice. The rest of the time I was having lunch or dinner with friends and family, breakfast long forgotten. I even got to see my grandmother one last time who passed away shortly after returning to Haiti. I went wedding dress shopping with my future sister-in-law and saw my brother once again. My aunts and uncles all came over to hang out which reminded me of the times I would see them for holidays like Easter and Thanksgiving.

It’s hard to include everything I did during vacation and after five weeks of constant activity, the sixth and final week came around. I was worried because at the time I wasn’t ready to come back after being inundated with love from the people closest to me. The last week was a good way to wind down from all the excitement and finally, on the last day, I felt okay to come back.

And coming back was a joy in and of itself. I was welcomed back with as much love and enthusiasm as I encountered going home and then was quickly swept away with all my different commitments waiting for me. Forever Friends needed to be planned for when the new school year started, the Child Protection program was gearing up and needed a staff member hired in Gwomòn, and the experimental garden on the mountain was desperately begging to be cleaned. Not to mention Juan, our new Area Director, was coming to visit us! I was definitely settling back in.

The week Juan came was great! It was fun to show him Gwomòn and introduce him to our ministries as the first official MKLM leadership visit to Haiti. At the time, gas prices were on the rise but it was a couple days after he left that the situation really came down around us. School had already been delayed from opening on September 5th to October 3rd but they were unable to open and their doors remain closed. That means the plans for Forever Friends is on hold as we can’t partner students with residents if we have no students. Due to roadblocks and gang activity in and around Port-au-Prince, the team for the Child Protection program couldn’t come and train anyone. At least we are still working on hiring a staff member for it. And the experimental garden is still seeing work as well.

Without going into too much detail, the high gas prices and blockades affect everything from food availability, market prices, water prices, bank capacity, medication acquirement, and all the other problems that arise from those. Despite that, we are still going to our ministries. We are still safe in our wonderful town of Gwomòn. We are still accompanying our friends as we live in this abnormal environment. All prayers are welcome and rest easy that we are very aware of our situation and remain attentive to our environment. We know some very good people in town and we are in a very good town.

That’s all for now. God Bless.