warm greetings

Back home again in Haiti!  Uneventful travel on 9/11, thanks be to God.   Would that everywhere else in the world had also been so peaceful.

a warm (weather) greeting in Port-au-Prince

It's been good to see people and begin to catch up on their news.  Employees and elderly ladies of the Foyer Notre Dame; friends to be seen, plans being made.  Warm greetings all around.  

I've been laughing because of one greeting in particular:  quite a number of people have happily said, "You've gained weight!"  I know I've been here for a while because this now elicits a smile from me, a real one. It's not a slam - rather, it's an approving comment, closer to a compliment than anything else.  This is not to say I'd be averse to losing it again this year!  But I can now *feel* the smile instead of just knowing in my head that this is not a bad thing.  Who'd have thought...

I was also greeted by an interesting floral (?) flare of sorts from the top of what I think of as an umbrella tree. There was nothing of the sort or even resembling it on that tree from November to July, so this must be a brief seasonal appearance.  I'm going to have to look this up!

Look at this red flower or sorts on top of the umbrella tree! Love it.  I'll be interested to see how it grows.  I've not seen this before.

All this and electricity, too, this morning.  Life is good.

I'm looking forward to this coming year, working on my permis de sejour and jumping into our altar linen project again.  My prayer is that good things will be in store for Haiti this year, and for all of us.