ten months

Ten months ago I put myself on a plane to Haiti for the third time. I remember what I ate that morning in the Miami airport, what I was wearing, how I was feeling. And I was ready to be there. There were so many things I was ready to be away from.

I had an afternoon to get settled in and I started working the next day. Two days after that, my training time was over and we've been running ever since. [With some breaks in between!]

After the busyness of surgical weeks ended and we transitioned into solely outpatient clinic weeks again, we took some breaths. I got to know more about the clinic staff, about their families. They got to know me. We had our disagreements. Sometimes being the only consistent North American helping with patient care felt like nails on a chalk board.

Today I was told by our supply man and chaplain that our administrator needed to see me urgently. I hurried into his office and he looked at me like I was crazy. Then everyone burst out laughing and explained that it was April Fools.

I love these people. I love them all so much. They have embraced me in as a member of the clinic family.

So today when I sat with the administrator and told him I was leaving next month I had to hold back my tears. When I sit in the ER and speak in Creole with a patient explaining why we're making him stay all day, when I listen to pranks and jokes being thrown around by staff members, when Dr Jennifer calls me crazy and then asks me for Wheat Thins or gum, I'm reminded of just how much I love where I have worked these past ten months.

I don't know the where and when yet. But I am leaving in May sometime, and it is right. But it will be so very, very hard to do. But as I have explained time and time again in the last week, there's no getting rid of me in these parts.

I'll be back.