Paul Farmer

In whatever direction my life unfolds, I hope that I find a way to mesh what I know intellectually and academically, with the call of my faith, and my will to act. If I could do that, maybe then I could help make a difference in some aspect of this world.

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If you haven't read Mountains Beyond Mountains, you should.

People told me the same thing, and I didn't get around to it until this break, so don't worry if it takes awhile. But sometime when you need a good read, one that inspires a bit of hope but is still well-written - you should check it out.

The book follows the story of Paul Farmer, a MD who graduated from and works for Harvard, but also built and practices in Haiti, the poorest nation in the hemisphere. The story tracks his life work, his drive and passion, his faults and his disappointments, his good deeds and the way he and his team at Partners in Health changed the way tuberculosis and the poverty-stricken are treated in the medical field.

It's sort of amazing. In a way you could consider his focus global. He ended up spending a great deal of time, energy, and his career in a foreign nation treating people that he'd never met previously and seemingly had no connection with. And in the course of his career, he changed the medical landscape both in the treatment of a deadly disease and in the way he went about changing it.

And yet, for Paul Farmer, Haiti was his community. It was his backyard, his family, his friends. He had a global focus. He didn't think that it was fair that people in the first world could afford medical care and the poor couldn't. But it him hardest when he visited Haiti and so he stayed and attempted to help fix the problem.

It's what Prof. Schaefer elluded to at one of our SALT forums last fall. The need for people to go where they feel called and then stay...

That takes a lot of courage. And a very special call I think. In one way I'd like for there to be more people like Paul Farmer. In other ways I understand the danger of it, the need for people to invest in their communities at home, the harm people can do to cultural understanding, the problems that can be created.

But mostly its just inspiring to see that he followed his path with a fiercity and a determinedness and he made a difference. He healed so many, created an organization that does great work and then affected his field worldwide. Amazing.