Summary

In the first section of Chapter 5, entitled “Us,” Albom visits the orphanage and spends New Year’s Day with the children. They are served soup joumou, a dish eaten in commemoration of the Haitian revolution that established independence. In the girls’ dormitory, the girls are leaving Chika’s bed empty, hoping that she will return.

After Albom and Chika returned from Haiti, Chika was hospitalized for sepsis, an infection she contracted because of the port. Albom felt that Janine blamed him for Chika’s illness because she had argued against the port because they often caused infections. He notes that the sicker Chika got, the more and more he and Janine argued. He thought they were both afraid of doing the wrong thing or not doing the right one. Chika would stop their arguments because she just wanted peace. Because Albom and Janine...