Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World

by Tracy Kidder

When I was sick and no one would touch me, you used to sit on my bed with your hand on my head.

What an incredible picture of Jesus' love and the importance of simply being with people. This one sentence made me stop reading and cry.

We started on again, Farmer saying over his shoulder, “And if it takes five-hour treks or giving patients milk or nail clippers or raisins, radios, watches, then do it. We can spend sixty-eight thousand dollars per TB patient in New York City, but if you start giving watches or radios to patients here, suddenly the international health community jumps on you for creating nonsustainable projects. If a patient says, I really need a Bible or nail clippers, well, for God’s sake!”

“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.”

“People read the Gospel as if it pertained to another place and time, but the struggles described there are in the here and now. The oppression of the poor, the abuse of the vulnerable, and the redemption that comes with fighting for what is right—what ideas could be more relevant in our dear Haiti?”

“Remember, serving the poor in Carabayllo is more important than soothing your own ego.

“You and I, we can leave whenever we want. But most Haitians are never going to get to go anywhere, you know?”

But it was as if Farmer had built himself an alarm system by which every pleasant thing set off a recording saying, “You’re forgetting Haiti.” He stared out at the monumental banyan trees along a route that Pérez’s driver took, and said softly, “I’ve worked eighteen years in Haiti, and everything has gotten worse.”