Haiti: Flexible

F was for flexible.

Flexible enough to leave the country knowing nothing more than that we were doing anywhere from two to five days of VBS and ending with a day on the beach.

Flexible:

- enough for the music team to shrug and stay deep in the crowd, to connect with kids rather than push their way to the front

- enough to come in from the basketball courts early to plan when we realized that Sunday was not only church, but also the first day of our second VBS

- when departure day came and we were still watching a tropical storm

- when we arrived at HCM to find 90 other team members already still there 

- when the boys had to store their suitcases in the office and hunt for unoccupied bathrooms

- when it looked like we would be sleeping scattered all across the campus

- when we were crowded into vans and bouncing along in the bus

- when a two hour trip stretched out into five

- when 94 degrees and massive humidity still meant long pants, button up shirts, and dress shoes (while playing with kids!)

- when leaving the resort meant slipping back into long skirts and high cut necklines

- when they never knew when or where or what they were going to be eating for lunch

- when snacks were a meal and PB&J was made in a parking lot

- when they didn't know why we were waiting, only that we were

- when nothing at VBS ran according to a clock and when one day's timing was completely different from the next

- when a village was not visited and a hike was talked about but never made

- when flights were delayed and gates were crowded

- when they suddenly realized how much of this language they did not know and how very much there was to learn

- when wifi was a few hours a night on the farthest corner of the highest section of the (flat) rooftop

 - when some kids wanted to sit on your lap and others wanted to shoot you with rubber bands

- when "bring basketball shorts and running shoes" counted as a detailed plan of action for post-VBS activities

- when the answer to, "What are we doing next/now/tomorrow?" seemed to always be, "Whatever they tell us to do."

- when a thousand little things came up that I don't remember because they rolled with them so very naturally

And, mainly:

- when we threw them into a culture that was not their own with a team that had never been all together until the day we took off from the airport