Am I Holding Haiti or is Haiti Holding me...my Return to Blogging

Well, its almost been a full year since my last post...at least I didn't let it go a full year...right? But I'm back and have made it a goal to post more regularly. I recently returned from a trip to Haiti and am starting grad school this fall to study international development. The combination of these two things had me thinking that it would be nice to start blogging about Haiti again. Its been about 2 and a half years since I left Haiti but there is something about Haiti that I can't let it go.

When I thought of the title of the blog I thought it was a nice alliteration with my name and Haiti's but it never occurred to me how true that title would be...but perhaps the title should be reversed. While I may think I'm holding Haiti, I think that Haiti has a hold on me and its something I just can't seem to shake...not that I would want to. While the tie I feel to Haiti has a bit to do with wanting to help and do what I can to participate in its rebuilding and development, it has so much more to do with the friends I have made and the feeling of being at home every time I visit.

While its my hope to one day return to Haiti - I no longer live there...so you might wonder what I'm going to write about. So far I have had about 6 return trips to Haiti, and I have a lot of stories stocked up that show the place and people that I know and care deeply for. These stories most definitely won't be in chronological order but will relate to something that I'm thinking about at the time. I will probably also talk more about some of my favorite Haitian things...I can't wait to post about Presitge! There will also occasionally be commentary on news in Haiti or my perspectives on development and mission. And because I strongly believe that you can best learn about Haiti from Haitians, I hope to feature some posts from some of my friends.

So here I go again...and hopefully it won't be a year before you hear from me again. Also if anyone knows how to change the background on blogger so that it makes one big picture and not a tile of pictures please let me know!

Until next time...