back! back! back!

i'm finally headed back! in less than 12 hours fin and i will be nestled aboard an American Airlines flight with a stop in Miami en route to its final destination, Port Au Prince, Haiti.

and i haven't a single.thing.packed.

i'm not really sure if it is the rush of adrenaline that only a tight deadline (albeit self-imposed) does to a girl, but here i am surrounded by a bazillion things and not a hint of anxiety. the comfort in leaving tomorrow is that everything must get packed. no alternative. so it will. (maybe?)

you know when you are about to return to a place you loved but haven't been in a really long time? all the stings and burns dissipate in hindsight and the pictures in your memory have a way of morphing into one nebulously hazy glow (like that one scene in 'How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days')... i guess you know where i'm going with this.

i'm concerned about having over-romanticized my memories of my first trip to Haiti. i'm concerned about not knowing as much kreyol as i thought i would by now (Mwen gen pwoblèm konprann kreyòl.- i have problems understanding kreyol- got that - momentary confidence boost!).  i'm concerned that i will fall off the back end of this blog and eat its dust. but, somehow i'm not nervous.

tomorrow marks the beginning of a 108 days in Haiti, wondering, wandering, and the like. officially, we'll be working with a water-quality organization collecting research and apprenticing with the water sanitation world. i'd hope to return home having learned a lot about the haitain way, kreyole, joy, tragedy, and things i don't even know exist. i'd like to have given somethings of mine, though i'm not sure what as of yet; pressence, participation, elbow grease.

most of all, i hope that you drop by no more or less than you'd like and that if i borrowed something from you for this trip (you know who you are) that i won't lose it...