Ugly Americans
I closed my eyes and sighed. The plane was full of monsters. Bright orange monsters overfilling their seats and the plane with noise, girth, disrespect, and lots of camo. “Mare-see?? Speak english! We can’t understand you! Yuk Yuk!” “College? We’re rednecks! [Back slap] We don’t need college!” “I’m preaching the word in that village tonight, right?! Alright!” I scooted closer to Greta in her window seat to put as much distance as possible between me and the mission team sitting in front, behind, across and next to me. Their shirts said Agape Jesus Love in comic sans font. I never felt more sophisticated in my life. Sigh. We all left the plane in order and went down the short hallway to immigration. All the orange shirts were in front of me. They were so loud. I’d been up since 3:45am. Me: “What brings you to Haiti?” Orange: “It’s my 5th trip. I love it here. We’re here to help folks in the North. We’re gonna teach ’em how to plant food. We brought seeds last time, but …