Haiti: My "One" and Only

(Disclaimer: I'm going to put some pictures in this post because I feel like it. They aren't related to my writing, but hey, they're cool, so why not?)

So I have been thinking about Haiti a lot over these past couple of weeks since we've been back, but to be honest, with schoolwork and workwork picking up, I have been so busy that sometimes the memories blindside me at random points in the day.

Tonight for example, I was driving home and my ipod (on shuffle) started to play a song that distinctly reminded me of our trip and really brought me back to specific moments. Now, don't judge, but the song was "You da One" by Rihanna. I know if my life were a movie or a novel, it would be something really poignant like something by Enya or Stevie Wonder or something super classic, but "You da One" happened to be a song that I enjoyed listening to on those long (*bumpy*) Haitian car rides, and by the end of our ten days, Kylee and I were playing it in the mornings and inadvertently singing to it in daydreams. Where am I going with this you may ask? To be honest, who really knows? I've just always had a fascination with how our brains can attach emotions and extremely vivid memories to senses and how, when these specific conditions of the senses are replicated, it's as if you're right in that moment again. And that's how it was. In my '94 Honda Civic, driving home from work, listening to Rihanna. I felt like I was in Haiti again, and I felt alive and happy.

I so value all the time we spent and all the work we completed in Haiti, because I got a kind of satisfaction from our projects that I've never really felt before. I felt like what I did mattered.And I got results every day, whether they were tangible numbers written on a ledger or smiling faces shaking my hand and asking me to come back soon. I find it hard sometimes to connect the studies I do and the work I do here in the states to something bigger, to my life's purpose so to speak, because they don't really seem to be fulfilling anything but emptying and refilling my bank account as I plod along trying to find my place. Don't get me wrong-I love everything about W&M and my job at the Rec, but now that I'm back, I really feel like Haiti and Sonje Ayiti and ICC gave me that extra something that makes me want to go back.

Who knows? Maybe, save all of the extra lyrics that have no relation to anything about this post or my purpose in Haiti, Haiti is "da One" for me. Maybe it's the place I'm meant to be.

In the meantime I plan on continuing my exploration, something I believe I will forever be indebted to Haiti and it's beautiful people for opening me up to. This experience has shown me all the beauty that can come out of so many different situations, and I thank it [and Rihanna] for reminding me.

Until next time..

HaitiLove,

Katie