Deye mon gen mon

The first book I ever read about Haiti was Mountains Beyond Mountains. It is about the work and life of Paul Farmer.
You don't have to be in Haiti long before you hear this Haitian proverb.

Deye mon gen mon
Mountains Beyond Mountains

Although it applies perfectly to the landscape, it is talking about life and it's layers of complication.
I understand life is complicated everywhere.
Complicated here can feel like someone threw a dark, wet, heavy, cold blanket over you.
Leaving you feeling like you can't breath and you can't find your way out.

Mountain number one.
Natacha didn't feel she could take care of her children any longer.
She asked if we would take the youngest.
No, but we would give her birth control so she wouldn't have anymore children and she could come to literacy classes.
We did a quick test just to make sure she wasn't pregnant only to find she was in fact going to have another baby.
She was crushed.
If the people she was living with found out they would kick her out on the street. She had no place to go.

Mountain number two.
She now needed a place for her and her children to live before any one knew her secert.
She didn't want to come to our classes because people would talk and tell everyone she was going to have another baby.
We would help her by taking the next baby and placing it for adoption but she would need to work with us to correct some things in her life. She needed to get back on her feet.
She needed to start coming to literacy classes and come each week to early childhood development so we could give her eggs, milk and vitamins without exposing her.
Thanks to the help of a church we soon had her rent money.
With housing solved and some food for her and her children she could now think about what she would do with her life.
She could now come to prenatal class without the fear of living on the street.
Life for Natacha and her children seemed like it was better.

Mountain number three.
Lab work. As part of her prenatal care we would take her for labs to make sure everything was ok.
Natacha tested HIV positive.
Reading those words left me in tears.
Telling her would have to wait a few days until we could do it together supporting her so she wouldn't be alone.
First Beth explained she had malairia and would need to start on medication right away.
Two, she tested positive for HIV.
You could literally see the brakes slam on in her mind as it stopped working and taking in information.
We sat in silence as she began to cry.
We all would need time to catch our breath.
We explained we would keep all our promises to her and continue to help her.

Mountain number four.
Living with HIV.
Test number two positive. Her children tested negative.

I hope that the next mountain in Natacha's life is called Calvary. The mountain where Jesus died for her and her children. The mountain where she will find life and catch her breath again knowing that no weapon formed against her shall prosper.

Not even HIV.