Wednesday: My first purchase in the US was a container full of fruit and cheese, with an iced mocha to go with. It cost me $15, which could buy me 2 nice dinners in Haiti, but I didn't really have a choice. I then connected my phone to the wifi at JFK and hung out until my flight back to Baltimore. Bobby (you know him already) and Izzy (my best friend!) picked me up at BWI around 10 pm and we drove back to Baltimore to Izzy's apartment. She and Bobby had picked up some sweet wine, a box of raspberries, and some fresh mozzarella for me to enjoy. Since I'd had that mocha, I wasn't all that tired, and we showed up at Hopkins (where I graduated from) for a quick evening to catch up with good friends.
Thursday: I had a few appointments/meetings, but in between those, Bobby and I ate at Carma's, one of my favorite little cafés in Charles Village, the part of Baltimore where Hopkins is. I went back to my tourguide days and gave him a full tour of the campus, and we even went to the medical campus to catch up with my old lab manager, Michele. That night was Halloween, and we went as a mini mariachi band!
Saturday: Bobby and I got up early and drove to Pittsburgh, where we met up with a good friend of mine from high school, Erica. Then we prepared all day for the Marine Corps Ball, which was held on a boat in the city. It was beautiful and the food was amazing. No, I did not get to show off my salsa dancing skills ):
Sunday: We decided to spend some time in the city with a few other couples who went to the ball with us (including my brother, Adam, and his date). When the brunch place we wanted to go to had a 20-minute wait, Bobby and I split off from the group and got Chinese food. I don't regret that decision one bit. Then we went to the strip district and shopped around a bit, got some cappuccinos, and went to a candy shop! On our way home to Ebensburg, we stopped at The Cheese House, an awesome little country cheese store just off the highway. They helped us pick out some wines to go with our cheeses, too. That night, we had wine and cheese with my family.
Tuesday: Studied for the GRE.. not a highlight, but pretty much all that happened.. This is about the time when my appetite really kicked in. From here on out, I ate 2-3 lunches each day and at least 2 dinners, not to mention all of the snacking I did. I had pie for breakfast every single day and I don't feel the least bit of shame for it.
Wednesday: I got up and took the GRE, which was not as terrible as it could've been, and then Bobby and I went shopping and out to dinner! The Olive Garden isn't really all that fancy, but it's all I wanted, and it was incredible.
Thursday: It was my last day, so I tried to make the most of it. Bobby and I went to a brunch place in Ebensburg, and then drove to Altoona to do a bit more shopping and mostly to get me Taco Bell. You can tell that food was a top priority on this trip, huh?
Friday: My dad drove me to Baltimore, where I got sushi for lunch and spent the afternoon in Starbucks just talking to whoever was able to come by. It was really nice to catch up with some good friends before I left. I spent the night at Izzy's again, and it was such a calm, pleasant last night in America.
The trip went really quickly, but by the end of it I also somehow felt like I'd been home for weeks. I really needed a bit of time to refresh and recharge before a crazy month and a half including our midwifery students' graduation, a film crew coming for 2 weeks, a new addition to the MFH in-country staff, and my first Thanksgiving away from home -- I swear I'm not homesick, I just want some stuffing okay?? All-in-all it was a really great trip home. It's nice to see old friends and to see what an effort those close ones will put forth to really spend some time with you (shout out to Jess who drove in from DC to spend the evening with me even though she couldn't go out for Halloween, and to Frankie and Nicole for spending 2+ hours each with me in Starbucks, Izzy for housing me and driving me around, and of course to Bobby who helped me indulge all of my food cravings).
To be honest, going home was not weird or shocking at all. Maybe it's the gorgeous guesthouse I live in in Hinche, maybe it was the fact that I've been culture shocked before, or maybe it was having the whole day traveling to mentally prepare, but coming home felt right. I jumped right back in where I was, and by the time I got to Hopkins, I felt like I'd never left. It's weird living two lives that are so incredibly different, but it's also so normal to me to go back and forth.
Coming back to Haiti was also pretty normal, but I felt like I'd been gone for months -- partially because of the difference in pace from the US to Haiti, but also because of the way the staff greeted me. When we got out of the Jeep, the whole staff came out to greet us -- "us" being a really significant group of people. Carrie, Emily, and I all met up in JFK and flew down to Port-Au-Prince together. If you remember from some of my past posts, Carrie was the In-Country Coordinator before me. She helped train me back in June when I first got here, and now she's working as the Administrative Coordinator back in the US, so we talk a ton. She knows MFH better than anybody I know (maybe even Nadene and Steve, haha!) and is so good about getting things done. Her commanding, but understanding and sweet, personality is ideal for keeping us on track and creating a meaningful agenda. When she's around I feel like I should just leave it up to her to plan things, because she's so much better at it!
Emily Davis is our new "Data Collection Coordinator." She started yesterday/today and will be helping to take over and improve our data collection processes. It's my job to help orient and train her in what I have been doing, and also help her come up with ways to make it a full-time job. She'll be volunteering for MFH for 2 full years so I'm excited to see what her position develops into. We're already finding out that we're quite similar in personality (I mean, she brought a mandolin to Haiti and she just pulled out a bag of Starbursts to share, so...). The house has welcomed her just as openly as they welcomed me and her Creole is really coming along well! It'll be an exciting but busy next few months until she's all settled in.
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| Emily - on a walk behind the compound |
I'm really gearing up for the next few weeks, trying to answer as many emails as possible and get little things done so I can concentrate on the big things ahead -- graduation, film crew, grad school applications. Our students have been practicing daily for graduation, so I'm sure it'll be a great ceremony and I'm very excited! I'll post pictures ASAP. Then it's only a few weeks until I go home for Christmas. I can't believe my stay here is almost half over. I wonder what the next 7 months will bring!
