Mountains Behind Mountains

"In Haiti they have a saying, "deye mon gen mon". Beyond the mountains there are more mountains--a beautiful expression, not only of hope and struggle, but of lineage, of history, of ebbing of tides, the passing of clouds and breaths of thick wind covering the mountain ranges. They also have another saying. Bay kou, bliye. Pote mak, sonje. The one who gives the blow, forgets. The one who suffers the hurt, remembers." (Notes from the Last Testament--The Struggle for Haiti, Michael Deibert)

The man in this photo was patiently seated in the waiting room at Saint Catherine's Hospital in Cite Soleil in January. Just one hundred yards from him were young men running with guns, tires were burning in the street, and MINUSTAH was on their daily hunt. And this was at noon.

How much more can the Haitians take? People outside of Haiti like to characterize the Haitians as tough. They are tough but not tough enough if you look at their infant and maternal mortality rates, and their life expectancy, and stare in their faces as they strangle on their blood coughed from their tubercular lungs.