“These feet have walked so many miles/ and on so many continents. Still this heart is beating wild/ as yet of no great consequence… So many miles… The fortune teller isn’t right/ it’s scary but it’s glorious.” (Sarah Slean)
Coming home from a 3-week time away, working or not, is always bittersweet. I love slipping back into the familiar (and so appreciate the comfort of it) and at the same time have such a different perspective on my life that I feel a bit detached from daily life for a while. The contrasts with Haitian rural life are as stark as they were last time and the generalized wealth (not necessarily of individuals, though there is that too) of Canadian city life is such a contrast to the poverty I have been experiencing. This time, I’m even more conscious of the contrasts because I’m thinking about the choice my friend has made to return to Canada only temporarily before moving to Haiti permanently in just a few months. She is clearly joyful in her Haitian community and content in her decision and I am really happy for her sense of conviction about what is right for her at this time. I’m awed at the same time by her willingness to extend that to completely changing her lifestyle and to leaving behind so much I take for granted, including climate, access to healthcare, an income, etc. And I know she’s in good company, having met a number of people who’ve chosen the same. I’m enough in love with the beauty of Haiti to find myself drawn to job postings for NGO midwifery jobs and to be planning my next trips but the permanence she’s embraced is very far from that. I think I will be content for now to be committed to keeping a stronger awareness daily of the Haitian people and struggles they have, as a particularly stark example of inequality in our world. I will keep reading, both newly-discovered Haitian history and authors, as well as the eloquent writings of people like Paul Farmer who are doing on the ground work that I admire. And, I will keep figuring out how the work I’ve loved doing these past weeks fits into my world that is so full already: on-call Canadian midwifery work, teaching and outreach, singing and being outside, friends having babies and getting married, life in the big city. Until next time, take good care,
Jenni