Compared to coming back from Haiti back in May, this return home was quite difficult to adjust to. The group of people I spent the week with, both UA students and Haitians, was such an amazing group of people. It was hard to adjust back to being in the United States with my family and other people who had no experienced the same thing I just had. The bond that I made with the people on the team was incredible and completely indelible.
I immediately missed the experience, becoming used to the daily, usual routine while in Haiti. The biggest difficulty of coming back and readjusting was having cell phone and internet access. Going from not having any of that access for a week and being completely “off the grid” is extremely tough to transition back to having people sending you texts and tweets and Facebook posts every second of the day. Coming back, the need to constantly stay connected to everyone had greatly diminished, with the exception of staying in touch with the people I was on the trip with. That shared experience definitely made it necessary to continue to have reflection conversations with people I went on the trip with.
Following the trip, I did become much more impassioned for the cause that we are trying to instill, with the teaching of business fundamentals and the idea generation for small businesses down in Haiti. Wealth creation, increased job skill awareness, and critical thinking are crucial to the economic future of the country that has so little compared to us. I am excited to see where this initiative goes in the future!