Next stop... Houston?

I can't believe it but I'm at my final destination (sort of).

My last few days in Leogane were rather eventful, the morning after I posted about my crazy weekend, we had an earthquake at 4:10am. It was small and didn't last very long, but it was enough to get hearts pumping and minds racing. It was either a 4.6 or a 3.8 (magnitudes different I realize, but in Haiti news is all "yo di" (rumor) and I'm only repeating what I was told). I was in the middle of some strange dream and proceeded to get caught in my mosquito net while trying to escape my bunk. I wasn't panicked, thank the Lord, but I was a little shaky afterward and spent the rest of the morning lying in the middle of the courtyard watching the stars fade and praying for all of the children who are growing up in such unstability.

The next 3 days were full of concrete and power tools and lots of laughter but all with the tinge of sadness that is becoming all too familiar. I left Leogane this morning at the break of dawn and spent the entire day in a car going to, waiting at, and going from the airport all of the way up north past Gonaives. This is an absolutely gorgeous, breathtaking, heartbreakingly beautiful country and I am very happy to not be sitting in a car right now! I will be spending the next week speaking Creole and taking vitals for up to 1,000 patients at a rural clinc with a team from the Northwest. This should round out my experiences rather well as I will now have some medical experience to add to the list of responses to the ever-popular question "so what have you been doing in Haiti?"

This has been quite the whirlwind adventure, and I'm still struggling to believe I've been here over two months already. Everyplace I have gone now, I have been invited, begged even in some cases, to stay longer. Everytime, I have had to say no after wrestling with the temptation to throw it all in the wind and cancel my return ticket. I am glad I have said no and kept on with this journey, but now the end really is in sight. I leave Haiti a week from Sunday and I am praying that between now and then God will prepare my heart for leaving and also prepare me for the culture shock of visiting a cousin in Texas!

Thank you all for the prayers and continued love and support. I'll try to post one more time before Texas, but if not...next stop: Houston!