HW 24 - Illness & Dying Book Part Three

Author: Tracy Kidder

Title: Mountains Beyond Mountains

Publisher: Random House

Year Published: 2003

Precis: Paul Farmer dedicated his life to helping people who had minimum access to medical help. One could say that he had trouble staying in one place for too long. He was constantly traveling and finding different cultures of people who all had similar problems, they were sick. From the prisoners of Russia to the people of Peru and Haiti, Farmer stood his ground and wouldn't take "No" for an answer. Through his work he experienced challenges, from the government to his audience who was often filled with people who covered their eyes at the sight of poverty. Yet to many his skills and compassion put him very high in the medical world. Farmer knew what poverty felt like, his family struggled with money while he was growing up. However money didn't stop Farmer from achieving his goals, he studied at Duke University and later Harvard Medical School. The expression from rags to riches doesn't apply to Farmer in the least bit, he wasn't in the medical field for the money, he had a purpose and goals that needed to be fulfilled. Farmer was aware of his ambition but understood the value of being realistic. From an onlooker though his success was not insufficient. His inspiration to make a difference spread from the medical center he started in Haiti, where everyday he entered it was as if a god had walked into the room. To the organization Partners in Health. Through it all his loyalty to these people was not unnoticed, not only was he changing the lives of the less fortunate but changing the attitude of what the medical system had become.

1. "Farmer had told me that playing the game of international health politics didn't come easily to him. But he was good at it, clearly, and as the days in Moscow wore on, his smiles and his vigor returned and with them, somehow, the illusion of stylishly dressed man." (Page 234) Farmer had the ability to overcome challenges that came at him very different angles. His skill of doing this lead him to be much more open-minded than the next person.

2. "The audience would laugh, and Farmer would say, speaking of the Gates grant, "It's a wonderful thing for us, but it's very focused on our project in Peru. And we're focused on the problems of the poor. On accidents, machete wounds, burns, eclampsia. Imagine asking a foundation to support. They'd say, 'We have a procedure and it doesn't include those things, as you'll see when you look in volume three of our grants manual.' We've had a run of luck, but it's not going to solve the problems of our sister organizations-in Chiapas, in Roxbury, in Haiti." Then he'd pause and, smiling down from the lectern at the old friends of PIH, intone, "So you are not dismissed." (Page 242) He voice's the ideas and desires of groups of people who without him, would not have a say. Through this he fires a movement to change the way the rest of the world sees health. His tone is relaxed but his message is deep.

3. "Ti Jean remarks that the pond cost a lot of money, then says to Farmer, "As if I wouldn't approve. It's not one thing that makes you happy. If only you saw patients, you might not be happy." (Page 281) After re-reading this a number of times and going over the context of the quote I was still slightly confused by what Jean was saying. It seems as though there is no constant drive of happiness even for a person so uninvolved with themselves and more concerned with the welfare of others.

4. "Several small children have come to the doorway. They stand there, peering in. Farmer says to them, speaking of the sad-looking woman of the house, "You love her a lot? Do you tell her? Don't lie to me now." The children giggle. The old woman smiles. Farmer nods toward a naked toddler in the doorway. "Look at his toy."" (Page 285) This reminded me a lot of when Farmer's father died, after receiving the letter his father left him, he just sat there and cried. Maybe he regrets the tension present between himself and his father, and wants to remind those who still have time to say "I love you" to do so. In a sense his compassion towards all of the people he encounters is maybe a way of him making up for the emptiness experienced with his father.

5. "This continues. Another figure passes us, and Farmer says, "Bonsoir," and Ti Jean shushes him, then issues these instructions: If someone passes you at night and doesn't speak, you must remain silent, but if the person asks who you are, you must say, "I am who you are," and if the person asks what you do, you must say, "I do what you do." (Page 297) Although I know Jean is talking about voodoo in a sense he is basically summing up how Farmer lives. We are all just people and although we come from different backgrounds in the end we are more similar than different. If we live thinking that our differences should come between us than what sort of satisfaction would we get out of that? None.

This book certainly talks about illness and dying but I don't think those are the only elements covered. It gives us insight into the real problems of the world. We often forget that our minor problems are so irrelevant to those of people in third world countries. We complain about phones and computers, why are we wasting our time? Farmer shows us that life can be filled with a tremendous amount of joy, you just have to look deeply for it. People in Haiti live for a much shorter amount of time than we do but I am sure they would be shocked with how we live our long lives. We take for granted the amount of time we have to explore, to breathe, to dance. We see the world as a thin strip when we should really see it as many different levels. Farmer shows us that he was one of the few people who wasn't brain washed to live based off of a capitalist world. I can't imagine changing my whole lifestyle now and running off to help people. The amount of inner strength you must have to do something like that is unimaginable. Our country bases a lot of it's underlying values of off doing things for the country and for ourselves, we have made ourselves out to be self-centered. We have lost any hope of doing something truly for the better good of others. Mountains Beyond Mountains awakens us to see that death is unavoidable but the way we live our lives is completely up to us.