Easy come, not easy go

re·un·ion (noun)

a. The act of reuniting.

b. The state of being reunited.

"Reunion" in both French and English, is a word describing meeting and togetherness. The island draws people from around the globe. Although a good chunk of the population was born and raised on this little rock of heaven, nearly half of us come from the outside. Some hop on board for a few months, others claim they'll be gone within a year and end up staying ten. Friendships are strong in a place so far away, everyone is eager to find their home here.

The greatest joy is that new people are always arriving. The saddest part is that those same people eventually have to get going. Amongst other dramatic and unfortunate events of the past week, was the departure of one wonderful Tom. Car troubles and torrential downpours ruined what was already going to be a dreaded goodbye, stranding me and Dad on the other side of the island. Racing home, realizing that I was quite nearly going to miss the opportunity to see him off, I made a deal with the devil, in this case, Tom's host dad, Philippe Gamba.

Philippe gave me 10 minutes. In that time I was to descend my house from a jagged rock cliff, cross a ravine, wade through hip-high waste, and jump through a barbed wire fence to join their car, barreling forward--nothing could stop it's airport-boundedness---in the center of la Saline. Dad, recognizing the feverish determination in my eyes, agreed to join me for the most epic cyclonic trek of our lives. If you want to know what the spirit of our departure sounded like, listen to this gem.

Petrified and certain that we would miss their car, I took the whole thing at a breakneck pace. Poor Dad, whom I had already nearly drowned once that day, was a little more cautious. I arrived huffing and puffing in downtown Saline, shocked by the flooding. The place was unrecognizable. Out of breath but victorious, I could hear Dad behind me saying, "Wow, we just walked through open sewage." I think that would be a bit of an exaggeration. But someone should probably tell Diana to add a "sewage" section to the mountain-valley part. We were walking a fine line there.

In the end we did make it in time, I did get to say goodbye to Tom, and I did cry a little bit, but I was able to play it off as raindrops in my eye. And to all of you others out there who have left (Jo!) or are going to be leaving soon: DON'T. DO. IT. This is Reunion. Stay. Don't go.