HW 22- Illness and Dying Book Part 1

The book that I am reading is titled Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder, published in 2004 by Random House Inc.

Precis- Beginning Section: I was in Haiti 2 weeks before Christmas in 1994, the reason being to report on American soldiers. This is when I first encountered Paul Farmer, a doctor who worked in a hospital a few miles north of Mirebalais. I learned some more about him and ended up sending some donations to his hospital over the next five years, which he responded to with hand written letters of thanks. The next time I saw him was in 1999, in Boston. He was dealing with a patient named Joe who had previously been diagnosed with HIV and other diseases. Farmer wasn't just trying to cure him, though. It seemed like he was really trying to make his life better. In 2000, he invited me to see his oeuvre in Haiti.

"As Farmer was leaving the shelter, he heard Joe say to another resident, just loudly enough to make Farmer wonder if Joe meant for him to overhear, 'That guys a fuckin' saint." (Kidder, 16) This quote inserted a question into my head: how does helping someone to have a better life make them a saint, and what does that say about how considerate are people are of others in general?

"P.J. said: 'But Dad, white people don't pick citrus.'
'Yeah? I'll give you white people." (Kidder, 51) I thought this was interesting because growing up in New York City, what P.J. said is something I never would have said to my father. It also helps us understand why Farmer does not have a problem healing Hatians; because his father knew about them and explained them to him as equals.

"I became aware of the logistical facts of Farmer's life only gradually so they didn't seem completely unusual until I totaled them up." (Kidder, 22) This makes sense to me, because as I was reading in the beginning about Farmer's life, it did seem pretty odd to me why he would have chosen the life that he did.

The most interesting thought that I have had while reading this book so far has had to do with the idea of kindness, and is related to the first quote that is listed. Considering the way that all Paul Farmer did for Joe was his duty as a doctor and a little bit more by trying to make him as comfortable as possible made Joe feel like Farmer was a saint seems to represent that kindness is not something that we experience very often, or not for him. However, the quote goes on to say, "It wasn't the first time Farmer had heard himself called that." (Kidder, 16) It seems like many of those who have been treated by Farmer believe that he is something that he feels he is not only because he did what any doctor should do; cure patients but also treat them like people, and not just test subjects. It feels like many other doctors that Farmer's patients had seen in the book were probably just treating the patients, and not the people, which really just points out that what they're doing is bad and not that what Farmer is doing is saintlike.