Home

Recently, I've been asked by several store clerks where I live. I find myself stuck in a peculiar position. I just graduated and left from Clemson, where I've lived for four years. I'm currently living at my original home, if you will, in Asheville, where I grew up. But I'm only here temporarily between graduation and moving to Cange, Haiti.

Sometimes my response is just, "Asheville." Other times I'll expand on that and say something like, "Asheville for now, but I'm moving to Haiti in (x number) of days." I'm either timid enough to presume everyone does not want to hear about this awesome opportunity in the Young Adult Service Corps or I'm bold enough to presume they do. Depends on my mood.

Right now home is a tricky thing. I'm privileged and grateful to have grown up and lived in a loving, stable household in Asheville, NC. I'm writing this post from the porch of the house to which I was brought after being born in the hospital. I definitely feel at home here, and I love the people, culture, and natural beauty of these mountains. My family is here. It is home in my heart, and it's going to be tough to leave it. Here's a picture off of the back porch of that house:

Clemson has also felt like a home for quite some time now. That's where my most recent friend group has come from, where I've received an excellent degree in economics, and where I've grown spiritually in the Canterbury ministry and other religious ministries there.

In just several days (I leave for Haiti on Saturday!!), neither of these places will be my current home. Instead, I'll be living in Cange, Haiti, a small town in the Central Plateau north of Port-au-Prince. It will be a new place full of new opportunities for relationship, spiritual growth, and to make another home.

But I know it won't be a smooth transition. I'll miss home, thinking of it as back in the States. I'll struggle with things expected and unexpected in adjusting to cultural, culinary and linguistic differences. This adjustment is probably what I'm most nervous about, simply because my success will depend on acclimating to a new home. With patience, humility, and a willingness to engage, I will hopefully develop a sense of home there with new friends and mentors and "family." God is also here with me, and God has been in Haiti long before my arrival.

Ashley Bingaman (http://ashleybingaman.blogspot.com/), a YASCer currently in Haiti and continuing for a second year there this fall, is currently leading a summer music camp in Cange. She sent me this wonderful photograph off of the back porch of the building where I'll likely be living:

Already feels kinda like home to me.