what's next?

This along with many other equally impossible to answer questions come from everyone I meet. "How was Africa?", "When are you going to grow up?", "Are you going back?" I don't really know that people want or listen to an answer which is ok as I don't really have one for them. I find my answers just as broad..."Africa was good. I really enjoyed it.", "Not in the plans.", "Someday, I just don't know when yet."

And then comes "What's next?" When I say that I don't know yet I am usually then given a smile and the statement "Take your time, you just got home, it will come, it is nice to relax and process, there is no hurry." (Any or all and in any order) I come away feeling like i needed to be reassured even though I wasn't the one asking or even apologizing for my answer. But maybe it was the way I said it, as though I might wish I had a better answer for them.

Well, now I do! Even before I arrived home I had been given a heads up from a friend in Raleigh that the NGO Haiti Outreach Ministries was looking for some staff. I looked it up online and couldn't find anything but he got me in touch with the right people. It is another year-long volunteer position (maybe someday I'll get paid for what I do). It looks like I will be teaching English to 5th and 6th graders as well as some after school classes for young adults as well as helping to coordinate the volunteer groups that come down. The plan is to head down after Thanksgiving...more to come!!