Père Soner told us that many refugees who fled into the provinces after the earthquake have returned to the destroyed areas! This astonished us, but it seems that people just feel the need to go home as a way to process and deal with the trauma. Like people returning to New Orleans after Katrina because it's home, and like soldiers wanting to return to the front lines to be with their buddies in arms. I guess it makes sense if you think about it. But wow.

We also drove around Port-au-Prince our last day in Haiti. It was heartbreaking to see the conditions. But the thing that struck me the most was that everywhere we went, we saw people carving out a life in the midst of the rubble and tents. In fact, the street scenes seemed very familiar: the markets, curbside cooks, kids in school uniforms, traffic.... Only the background had changed. Where there had been poor, rundown buildings, now there are collapsed buildings, rubble, and tents.