Nope, this is not a description of the latest construction project or earthquake recovery project in Haiti. This is what’s going on in my parents’ neighborhood in Arlington. As I flew home on Sunday, the flight was held up over Providence for about 45 minutes waiting for weather to clear in Boston. Then when I landed and called my dad, he explained that a tornado – what turned out to be a “macroburst” – had hit their neighborhood while I was in the air. There were more than ten huge trees down, some of which fell on cars and houses. Their house was OK, but there were two huge trees from neighbors’ yards now covering their backyard. Oh, and there was no electricity. So I woke up on June 6 and got ready to leave Haiti in the dark, and arrived home and ate dinner and started to unpack in the dark too. Who needs electricity anyway? I told some neighbors that I don’t know how to operate a chainsaw, but if anyone had a machete I’d be happy to help. I don’t think they really got it.
Since Sunday night I’ve been busy, but also just really enjoying some of the small things. I started an apartment search on Monday that seemed dismally depressing at first, but which turned around on Wednesday morning when the Craigslist gods smiled upon me and I beat a kagillion other people to the punch on the perfect Davis Square apartment. Lease signed, checks written Wednesday, and I can move in July 1. I’ve spent some time at PHA beginning to sort out exactly what my job will be next year, but mostly just hanging out with kids and adults, catching up, and wondering how it is that ninth grade boys can grow six inches in a year. Amazing. I’ve done a lot of walking around in this unseasonably chilly, but brilliantly sunny week. It’s such a pleasure to be able to just go where I want to go, and no one even notices me. Anonymity is not really possible for me in Haiti. I’m enjoying iced coffees and burritos from Ana’s Taqueria and stop lights and the T and the view of Copley Square through the giant glass windows as I came down the escalator at Copley Place.
I’m off to Chicago this afternoon to join some of my favorite people for the “Tour de Farms,” the annual fundraising ride for the National MS Association. We’ve done this ride a few times in honor of Michael John Myette’s father who has been battling MS for many years. Now we’re riding for Erika too, his wife and one of my very closest friends from Notre Dame, who was diagnosed with MS this fall. Yet another reminder that our own life plans amount to so little compared with God’s plan, and that there is no shortage people in anyone’s life in need love and support. Really, you don’t have to go to Haiti to find someone to help.
It will be a wonderful weekend, I’m sure, despite how terrifyingly out of shape I am. I rode 20 miles on Tuesday and it was a little rough. 150 over two days? Right … I’ll be fine. Which reminds me, if any of you want to make a contribution to our team, The Loose Sprockets, here’s my fundraising page: http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/BetsyBowman
After this weekend trip, I’ll enjoy a quiet summer, I hope … moving into a new apartment, getting settled in a new job, catching up with old friends, spending time with family and welcoming new nieces and nephews into the world. In August I hope to return to Haiti for a week to help the new group of volunteers get settled into their teaching roles. Then school starts in September and a whole new adventure begins. Maybe I’ll update this blog again with updates from Haiti in the future, but they certainly won’t be so frequent. Thanks to all the people I know and all the people I don’t know who have been reading this and even sharing it with more people. I hope you’ve enjoyed it – and that you continue to keep Haiti in your thoughts and prayers and ACTIONS in the years to come. It’s going to be a long road.
If you want to read another interesting blog – here’s the blog of the PHA students visiting Guatemala for the month of June. They arrived just before the volcano erupted and the torrential rains began. Now their trip has changed form a bunch of kids coming to see the world and learn Spanish to a bunch of kids helping to dig houses out of the mud. Sound familiar? www.juniorjourney.blogspot.com
All the best,
Betsy
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
thank you Betsy!
Your posts are always really interesting.
Post a Comment