"the only real nation is humanity"

Yesterday I returned from a few days at the beach with some of my dearest friends. While there one of my goals was to start and finish one of the books my brother gave me for my birthday in June. I'm proud to say I did it. I had asked him to give me some books on Haiti, whether that meant politics, culture, religion, medicine or really anything...as long as they weren't too long or too boring. I'm not sure whether he did research or just has a nack for picking books (I suspect both) but the one I've completed was unbelievable.

It's called Mountains Beyond Mountains which is a Haitian proverb basically meaning that there are always going to be more hurdles even when you've overcome what is in front of you. The book is a biography about Dr. Paul Farmer (DP) by Tracey Kidder (TK). Dr Farmer is an infectious disease physican who graduated from Duke, then Harvard and spend the majority of his time (even while enrolled in classes) taking care of Tuberculosis and HIV patients in Haiti. He left for Haiti at age 23 and almost singlehandedly started the organization Partners in Health (along with an 18 year old British girl) which is now serving in Boston, Haiti, Peru, Rwanda, Russia, Malawi, Burundi, Mexico and Guatemala.

Crazy thing too is that I applied for a job with Partners in Health a couple months ago (that I was completely unqualified for) knowing very little about them, except their renown work in ID. Now I think I could easily work for them forever if the job ever presented itself.

I can't really recommend the book to non-medical personnel as there were pages filled with treatments for multi-drug-resistent-tuberculosis and analysis on HIV medications (which I found intriguing). But if you think you can skim through those pages then I'm sure you'd find the book a phenomenal read.

I'd like to share some of my favorite quotes...


The world is full of miserable places. One way of living comfortably is not to think about them or, when you do, to send money. ~ DP

...wild screams erupted from the child. "She's crying, 'It hurts, I'm hungry.' Can you believe it? Only in Haiti would a child cry out that she's hungry during a spinal tap." ~TK

Giving people medicine for TB and not giving them food is like washing your hands and drying them in the dirt. ~Haitian public health worker

Just when you thought you had the hang of [DP's] worldview he'd surprise you. He had problems with groups that on the surface would have seemed like allies, that were allies in fact, with for example what he called "WL's" or white liberals, some of whose most influential spokespeople were black and prosperous. 'I love WL's, love 'em to death. They're on our side,' he had told me. 'But WL's think all the world's problems can be fixed without any cost to themselves. We don't believe that. There's a lot to be said for sacrifice, remorse, even pity. It's what separates us from roaches.' ~TK

You want to see where Christ crucified abides today? Go to where the poor are suffering and fighting back, and that's where He is. ~DP

The fact that any sort of religious faith was so disdained at Harvard and so important to the poor- not just in Haiti but elsewhere, too- made me even more convinced that faith must be something good. ~DP

spoken to DP's associate...why do you call your patients poor people? They don't call themselves poor people!? "Ok, how about soon-dead people?"

The goofiness of radicals thinking they have to dress in Guatemalam peasant clothes. The poor don't want you to look like them. They want you to dress in a suit and go get them food and water. ~DP

I remember signing the oath to assist the patient and do him no harm. I don't really remember signing that I would do it in a cost-effective way. ~ DP (DP's team spent $18,000 flying an eleven year old boy from a village in Haiti to Boston for treatment. The patient was untreatable even in Boston. Farmer had no regrets).

The problem is, if I don't work this hard. Someone will die who doesn't have to. ~DP

....he murmured something about how much could be done in Haiti if only he could get his hands on the money that the first world spent on pet grooming.~TK

All the great religious traditions of the world say, Love thy neighbor as thyself. My answer is, I'm sorry, I can't, but I'm gonna keep on trying. ~DP

All too often international aid organizations weaken the societies they are supposed to help. Often they rely almost entirely on professionals from the world's wealthiest countries, and they fail to make their projects indigenous. This all but guarentees that their projects will neither grow nor last. PIH is different. The organization now has on the order of 6,500 employees. The overwhelming majority come from the impoverished countries where PIH is working. Fewer than one hundred of the employees come from the United States. ~TK

There is all the difference in the world between witnessing misery and witnessing people at work trying to relieve misery. ~TK

I wish I could explain all the ways this book has inspired, challenged, moved and given me hope. I'm not sure I can. But the fear that was inside to me, the freak out moments that I've had the last three weeks when all the sudden I'll stop while pumping gas or walking in Walmart and all I think is, WHAT THE H-E-double-hockey sticks am I doing?!?!?! are gone.

I'm no Paul Farmer but I can give a lot of time towards relieving someone's misery.