Good Bye

As I waited at the Haiti Port au Prince airport. I saw a whole new group of folks, now dusty and exhausted looking, all returning to the comforts they left behind a week or so, all with light suitcases, no one caring souvenir bags or big straw hats, cartons of duty free rum or a new sarong. There were people with Tshirts announcing their mission, school project or medical team group. The CDC had a team that was leaving, a Canadian group that had installed a water filtration system to a rural village, there were two nurse returning from a month with a look on their faces that I've seem before after someone has seem the worst case ever. We were crowded around one of the two snack bars carrying familiar drinks like coke, snapple and gatorade. I drank two orange gatorades and heard some amazing stories. On the flight I sat next to a young woman from DC , a Haitian who came to the US as a teen and now is in the US Coast Guard. . She was eager to give me the recipe of the rice and bean dish that I ate almost every day and began to really enjoy .She travels with teams as an interpreter. We exchanged emails the I slept.