My son promised us that he would never go back to Haiti. He said they didn't have stores and they were poor, so he wasn't interested. He's never lacked conviction, but of course, he was a bit younger than he is now when he made this particular decision. I was taken by surprise, then, when he agreed to come with me to Haiti in the Spring of 2014. In fact, I had proposed it in a bit of a bluff, a poke, in hopes of some indication of movement. "Sure, I'll go," he replied. Unbelieving, my first thought was that it was some kind of maneuver to get something from me. Parents of 10 year old boys are on watch for these kind of things. For such a brave commitment, surely he would want something good in return. Perhaps it's about the ipod, I thought. Recently, a point of contention with us, the ipod and all its counterparts are a constant source of pressure, socially and psychologically, with so many of the boys of the 4th grade class. Apparently, however, it wasn't about that. "I'll go with you." And so I reveled and became excited to take Luc to Haiti.
I had been wanting to take my Dad back with me, which was more of a certainty, so with Luc, it became time to plan for the trip of the three generation Almond guys. It should be no surprise that tent camping eventually made its way into the picture.