Preface

I leave for Port-au-Prince on Saturday morning.  I'm a little overwhelmed right now, I'm not packed and feel like I have a million things to do.  Typical for me.  Good thing I took Friday off!  Good thing my job let me take Friday off!   Good thing my co-worker, Briana, convinced me to take Friday off!  Thanks, girl, you are the best!

I want to give a background to this trip because it's interesting to me how life unravels.  Sometimes history repeats itself and timing is huge!  When I was in undergrad at University of Dayton, they had an alternative spring break in which students would go on mission trips instead of partying in Cancun.  They had one group go to Haiti.  They could only take a handful of students, so you had to apply.  I was so excited, thought for sure I would get it.  I didn't, and I was crushed.  Fast forward to more than 10 years later, and here I am, on my way to Haiti.  And I feel that this time I possess skills and experience that can benefit the Haitians significantly more than when I was a student.

I wasn't working when the earthquake occurred.  So, naturally, like the rest of the world, I wanted to help somehow.  They were inundated with volunteers initially, and really needed trauma crews.  I was actually in Labadee, Haiti about 3 weeks after the disaster, on a Royal Caribbean cruise.  Our port was nowhere near Port-au-Prince.  In fact, we were on a resort area that was secured and guarded.  No one could leave the resort, no one could enter it.  Kindly, our ship delivered tons of relief for those in need.  As I saw the palates of food and water on the dock as I disembarked the boat, it made the situation more real, and I just wanted to stay and help somehow.  Not possible, of course.  Less than a week after returning home, my sister's friend, Terry, not knowing my particular desires, told me that she had just seen a documentary that reported there was a great need for physical therapists in Haiti now.  There was one PT for every 40 people who needed it.  Well, I immediately researched it and applied to several organizations that recruit healthcare volunteers.  I didn't hear anything for months even though I was free to leave at the drop of a hat.  So by April, I decide to move on with my life.  Just as soon as I started a new job in NC, I get a call from Project Hope.  They want me to go to Haiti in May.  I had just started a new job, I explained to them.  Fortunately, I had signed a short term 15-week contract and would be available in August.  She said she would get back to me when something came available.  It did, and I seized the opportunity. . .