Article August 9, 2010 Issue

PEACE AND HEALING AFTER AN ATTACK

BY DEB EASTWOOD

THE WHEELS OF THE PLANE were just touching down on the runway of a small island in the Caribbean, where I was going to work. As I looked out the window, the thought of "home" came to me very clearly. It was an unexpected thought since I hadn't made any friends yet and had no connections except to the one person who'd hired me. I'd used the word home in reference to my hometown where my family lived and several other cities where I lived for long periods of time, but who knew what lay before me here? However, I was grateful to hear the message and felt it must be from God, that home was always with me as a spiritual idea, complete and welcoming.

I jumped right into the daily activities of being a new teacher, learning a new culture, having a new roommate. There was so much to do, and although there were struggles and a period of adjustment, I came to feel like I was living in paradise.

But one night around 2:30 a.m., my roommate, who was awake, came to me and said, "Someone's trying to break into the apartment." My first thought was disbelief, but in the next instant we heard a loud noise and realized someone had broken in our front door. I instinctively grabbed a softball bat that was close by and went into the kitchen to see a man much taller than I. He took the bat away from me in seconds and proceeded to knock me down and hit me repeatedly with the side of a large cutlass.

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