At the end of winter term 2015, I was in the midst of preparing for finals. It was Dead Week and I was juggling Bio Psych, Human Evolution, Creative Writing, and Math. I’d taken on the challenge of a 19-credit term and was starting to feel the pressure.

Mom and Dad, being the generous parents that they are, had already bought me a plane ticket to Haiti for Spring Break. Our plan was to spend ten days with my cousin, Lee, who has been living in Mizak, Haiti for the past eight years.

I decided not to go. I was exhausted from hours of memorizing functions of the brain and formulas that seemed endless. No, I would stay home, pay my parents back for the ticket, and sleep for the entire duration of break.

Next thing I knew, I was rescheduling all of my finals to the same day (Monday), so that I could fly to Port au Prince, Haiti, the next day. And, yes, I WAS a bit irritable. There I was, stomping through the Seattle airport, trying to call Alex to say goodbye, (who also happened to be in a bad mood) and and feeling awfully sorry for myself that I had been given the opportunity to travel to another country and witness diverse cultures. Poor me.

The flights were boring, and the plane food was gross, and blah blah blah.

Then we landed. I stumbled through customs trying to recall any of my high school french, but all I came up with was “Oh non, je l'ai perdu mon sac.” And “Alouette jante alouette.” Not remotely helpful.

It was hot, and the city was crowded, and I was amazed--in a good way!

I could go on and on about our stay, the wonderful people we met, the kids that I absolutely loved, the dirt that stained your feet brick red. But that’s not really the point of this blog entry. A few days into the stay I started bugging Lee about returning to Haiti. “I love it here.” “I have to come back.” Etc. Etc.

Finally he asked me what my major was: Bio and Psych. My minor? Math and Creative Writing. That did it. Lee had plans to write a book about orphanages around Haiti, comparing conditions at each, telling stories from the children’s point of view, talking to adoptive parents--and he invited ME to help. Isn’t that amazing?

http:/www.gofundme.com/HaitiLight