Friendships...

When I look at this picture I have to laugh - talk about looking thrift store rejects from the 80's! Now you know what people are talking about when they say, you can spot a first timer from miles away. They all have the deer caught in head lights look and they are wearing clothes no one wears on purpose. But we really did go to the thrift store and pay for these.

This was our first trip to Haiti in October 2000. The five of us came to Haiti on a medical mission trip and worked in the mountains near Pestel. Only to have a child die while in our care as we sat at sea with engine failure desperate to get back to Port Au Prince in order to get the children traveling with us to the hospital. It would sound like something out of a television show if it wasn't really my life. So next if I told you that the doctor traveling with us fixed the engine on our boat with a paper clip you would think yeah right, but that is exactly what happened. With port in sight we found ourselves being held at gunpoint being accused of murder. The boat captain had sent word that we had a child that had died with us. This trip is often called Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.

Now explain to me why anyone in their right mind would ever come back here? There is no middle. Either you get it the first time you come or you get on your flight, ask for a diet coke with ice and pretend the whole thing never happened. In less than two hours you are back from the time warp of Haiti and you can easily allow denial to set in. I am pretty sure that is one reason why Haiti is the way it is.

Maybe I should never tell those details, I don't know. For years I never said a word about any of it. It was painful and too many people already had written me off as a flake because all I talked about was Haiti, Africa, South America, missions, HIV and world hunger. You know, all the normal chit-chat stuff. I would see people's eyes glaze over and back away slowly wondering what on earth they had gotten into.

So pretty soon, I just got really quite about all this crazy stuff. Until that is the five of us would hook up. Wow! We would talk and talk about our trips and how our lives would never be the same. Sure enough, they are not the same. We are all still a bit crazy, in a good way, I think. We can laugh about all our bathroom stories, rats in the bed, all the bugs, bad food, no water and feel so.... normal. We have a connection that no one really understands. For the life of us, we don't know why everyone doesn't love the same things we do.

But, for whatever reason all of these things happened, it was the turning point that changed our lives and knitted our hearts together. I am thankful for my friends. I think they are all amazing, passionate women whom I admire deeply.