Dégagé

On Friday, we left Désarmes early in the morning to come back to Port-au-Prince. We meant to stop at the hospital, but we couldn’t make it there because of construction along the way. Instead, we got to stop by Indigo Beach and stick our feet in the waves. However, it seemed weird to us to be at a beach resort because nothing there really exemplified the Haiti that we’ve grown to know- it was much more Americanized, a real "bubble" where blan can go without truly experiencing Haiti.

We arrived back in Port-au-Prince in time for a rice lunch and then visited CAH, a Haitian artisan shop, to buy souvenirs. With the wide selection to choose from, we ended up spending an hour in the store. We came back to the MCC guesthouse to talk about more formal advocacy efforts we can take in the future to act as a voice for Haiti and MCC. In the spirit of discussion, we continued to talk about our experiences in Haiti and how we’ve grown individually over the past two weeks. Each of us talked about a personal goal we’d set for ourselves and how we met it. Many of us stepped out of our comfort zones, reached a new level of mentality and clarity and found ourselves at home in a place that was foreign to us just two weeks ago.

Over the past two weeks, we’ve grown closer as a team through the sharing of experiences. So, tonight we each wrote something nice or that we found especially memorable about each person participating in our experience. It was so moving to read how we each thought about each other and built on each other to grow together. We hope that when we return to school these experiences will carry forth into our academic and personal lives as we can continue to advocate for Haiti- telling a new story of hope and resilience about an island that is often seen as hopeless. Dégagé, tout moun!

-Kristina & Annika