I am not sure how the time has flown by, but I leave to come back to the US on Monday morning. I feel like I have been in mourning a little bit for the last few days. There are so many things that make me excited about coming back to the States, and I am holding on tightly to those so that I can move through the sadness of leaving the D.R. I am excited to run outside...see dear friends...talk to my family without Skype getting killed because of slow internet connections...go to coffee shops...drive on roads that aren't complete madness...have more clothes to choose from than those I have been wearing for two months...maybe do a little less sweating...cook my own food...you see where I am going with this. That mental list is what keeps me together when I have teary-eyed moments and try to imagine what it will be like to get back to 'normal life.' Life here changes you, and while I think about the things on that list, I still wonder how long it will take me to quit automatically saying 'hola' when I see people, or get used to not seeing my Dominican friends every day.

In the same way I will start to slip out of the habits of living here, I will probably also slip out of the ways I have been changed by my extended time here. I will be able to forget sometimes about extreme poverty, because I won't see it everyday. I will be able to forget what it is like for people to depend on God for food and shelter everyday, because that is not the life I have been forced to live. I will have the luxury of air-conditioning everywhere, and there will be no more moments when I don't understand the words people are saying to me. I will forget that everything, even something as simple as going to the bank, is more difficult and takes much longer here. My prayer is that while I know I will forget some of the things God has shown me, that I will not go back to the person I was when I left the US. I hope I will see things around me and be reminded of life here. I hope I will see God in the faces of people around me in New Jersey in the same way I have seen God in the faces here. And I hope that instead of getting into a groove and a routine that revolves around my own studies and needs, I will allow God to direct my days in the same way I have been able to be directed here. I pray that my days are not just about me...