Landed and (hopefully) Grounded

We arrive Sunday after a long travel day. Late, we are delayed in Miami, we land in darkness. We breeze through customs. I don't know if we are getting better at this, the wheels are used to being well greased, or my tolerance for the chaos is just higher. All the bags make it. Outside the airport, making the way to the vans, the darkness is a new experience. Port au Prince airport at night is eerie and vaguely threatening. I shrug it off, I wonder what I would think if it was my first time here. /the trip to Fond Parisien is quiet. I have time to think about the strange flow of events that have brought me back here again. I keep thinking back to an appointment I had last Thursday. It was a routine well check wit my patient Audrey, an 8 year old who I have seen since birth. She is delighted to see me, and she has brought a paper grocery bag with her. In it are many treasures: stuffed animals, books, bubbles, two boxes of macaroni and cheese, and various other small things that are important to an eight year old. She has printed a big note

"My name is Audrey. I have saw the Earthquake. I have some stuff for you. Please share with your friends." Almost two years ago, she was touched by the plight of the people of Haiti. At 6, she thought "what would I want, if I were in Haiti." So she gathered the things that make a six year old happy. And she saved them. She also collected some money and saved that. She was looking for some way to get it to Haitian children. She finally realized that I was going back to Haiti and brought it in to her appointment. I could barely read it in front of her without tears welling up. Just thinking about it now, I feel the same way. It's that purity of generosity, of a will to help, that is the wave that I have ridden, once again, to this place.
I raised a lot of money after the earthquake, and I've spent nearly all of it funding 5 mission trips, and it's not because I am a good fundraiser. I stink at it. I have a hard time asking people for money, so the money that has been donated came from people like Audrey, who still have Haiti on their hearts, even nearly two years later. I just had a family send me a check whose father had been a missionary to Haiti, and he had always wanted to share the experience with his family, but he dies before he could. So they are sending me along in his memory. In a way, then, he is with me. All the team members who have shared this mission previously are with me, as well.
So thank you, Audrey, and thank you everyone who continues to support us despite my ineptness in asking for it. I believe in what we are doing. The people who come with us are the wave riders, and you are the wave. This week, I want to make it worth it. I want to use Audrey's bag and everything in it in the best way possible.

Doug 11/6/2011