Reflections as I prepare for my final days in Haiti

There are somethings about Haiti I will surely miss.  There are other things I will not miss, and there are many things I will probably miss with a sense of ambivalence.Needless to say I will miss the children at St. Anne and St. Louie.  I will miss their smiles, their laughter.  I will miss the ways the young children stand behind me while I pretend to look for them and they call out while giggling "Se Kathleen pa we m" (Sister Kathleen doesn't see me.)  I will miss seeing children for play therapy, but I won't miss the challenge of finding a place to conduct therapy with an acceptable amount of privacy. I will miss the workers at St. Anne.  I will miss the morning liturgies in the chapel at St. Damien, but it will be very nice to attend daily liturgy where I know there is nearly a zero percent chance (as apposed to a nearly 95% chance) that morning mass will be a funeral for dead babies and or cholera victims.  I will miss the volunteers here a great deal, but I won't miss people who did not go to mass asking me how many bodies there were at mass.  I will miss speaking Creole and learning new words but I won't miss the frustration I feel when I really don't understand what someone is telling me even though they have repeated themselves several times.  I will miss the sound of the rain on the metal roof, but not miss the rain falling through the roof onto the floor of these little houses. The list could go on, but I don't really want to bore you.  Mostly I will miss the people.  

 There were a lot of visitors here this weekend because a Dominican sister from the United States who worked for NPH many years ago, now in her 90s returned for a visit since the Cholera hospital is being named for her.  There was a very lovely liturgy held on the grounds of St. Luke and St. Philomen hospitals nearby.  Teenagers and young adults she had cared for when they were babies came to the mass; it was very touching.  As I looked around at the land where the liturgy was held I thought about how,so much has changed since I arrived 14 months ago.  When I first came, the FWAL children had their summer camp program on those grounds, and very soon after my arrival moved to where St. Louie and the FWAL school currently stand.  A couple of months later, tents were placed on that property to treat people suffering from Cholera.  Now, there are more permanent structures there.  When I look at how much some of the children have grown and changed in the past fourteen months, it is amazing.  It is a privilege to have witnessed such growth.  Although I can't quite name all of the ways yet, I feel that my time here has changed me as well.

Please continue to pray for the people of Haiti.  Please pray for me as well, as I say my goodbyes here in the coming days.  I hope that you are well.  Thank you for all those who have been supportive to me in so many ways during my time here; be assured of my continued gratitude and prayers.