It's Thursday already and we are starting to pack up. It's sad! Although we can't deny our excitement about going home, seeing our families, and being back where things are familiar. Though Haiti has become familiar to us in many ways. We are now used to being a minority and ignoring stares and laughter as we walk down the road, and it will be weird to simply blend in again. Going to the grocery store will be quite a different experience than going to the market here. No negotiating for the price, getting confused about Haitian money and drawing a crowd, having people yell out Blanc! as you walk past their little assortment of veggies, and definitely a bit more variety when it comes to cereal and things like that. We decided there should be an emotion called "Transition." You can't put your finger on exactly what it's like, it's not all happy or sad, it's a mixture of a bunch of things. That's how we feel!
We will miss the Thedes who have become like family to us. We have eaten lunch with them every single day (minus a few due to sickness) for the past eight months, not to mention going on church visits, eating dinner some nights, going up to their house at least once a day to ask a question, borrow a movie, do laundry, help with school, borrow a cup of sugar (literally, I did that today) and countless other times. We have learned what it looks like to open your home to someone and how to live so closely with another family that is not technically family. We won't know how many sticky situations we have been spared of because of their wisdom about Haiti and culture; they gave us a lot to chew on as we came in with no experience and lots of grand ideas. We're so thankful. We hope to see them in the winter when they travel to the US for a few months. Until then we will keep in touch through email and letters.
I have not mentioned what all these pictures are about. The first is from the little party our first class threw for us on Tuesday. Here is a peak into the slowness of life around here. It was supposed to start at 4pm. At 4:15, we started thinking we might have the wrong day, since there was no sign of anyone. (We should have known!) We called Jasmine, and she assured us that she was coming, the party was today. After a bit, some students started to meander their way up to the guest house. They let it slip that there was a "gato" or cake, coming, but it wasn't ready yet. So we sat, talked, and were entertained by our students who took turns singing, talking, and telling jokes for us, while a few people at a time would slip out to go check on the gato which was being made at a house nearby. At about 5:40, the gato arrived! It was HOT out of the oven, and frosted a lovely pink with our names on top! We ate large pieces and enjoyed it. Our students then surprised us with two more gifts, a wooden sailboat with our names painted on it, and a rose. We were taken aback, it was so nice! After many thank you's back and forth, we all waited out the rain together for a while, then eventually went home feeling really blessed.
The other picture is of us and David, our Creole teacher and now English student. He came by to take some pictures of us yesterday. The picture with the many many kids is from the children's program that took place yesterday afternoon. Can you see our little white faces stuck in there??They also thanked us more than we deserved. John Pierre and the two other men that run the program presented us with two wooden carved things- So neat! They were so happy to give us these things. They probably don't realize how much of a blessing they have been to us, rather than vise versa.
Lastly, I just wanted to throw in the picture of the new occupant to Bitsy's old spot next to our house. I don't think I mentioned this, but after we came back from Port au Prince, we found out that Bitsy is no longer with us :( Though we are all pretty happy for him, since he looked near-death most of the time. But we (okay just I) have missed having our unofficial first pet around. It was good to see his spot filled by this skinny little guy!! And Chris does have a soft spot...He was the one who fed him bread this morning!!

Thanks for reading, and praying. All this change is about to be thrust upon us, and it's hard to keep our feet on the ground. We pray we will keep our eyes fixed on Jesus these next few days.