Mountains Beyond Mountains Chs 1-4 Reflection by Jenna Gill-Wiehl

I remember the first time I heard about “Mountains Beyond Mountains”. Another doctor in my mother’s oncology office had given it to her to read. And my mom told me it was the story of a doctor who had started a clinic in Haiti while attending medical school and a non-profit and really was making a difference. So I picked it up one day (probably out of sheer boredom), and began to read. I could never have predicted the profound difference that this book would make on my life—how I see the world, the classes I’m taking in college, my extra curricular activities, why I’m spending the summer (without air conditioning) in Boston and what I want to do with the rest of my life.

It is obvious from the first four chapters that this is not just a story about a doctor and a non-profit. Rather, it is a commentary on our world today, on our society, what we value and how we treat other people—and the movement that’s taking a stand against an injustice. And I think Paul Farmer sums it up perfectly when he says, “the idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that’s wrong with the world.” In the first four chapters, we meet Dr. Paul Farmer through the eyes of Tracy Kidder. And we meet patients in Boston and Haiti with the same diseases but very different situations. And we think about a world where “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 [in Haiti], suddenly the international health community jumps on you for creating nonsustainable projects.” I found myself agreeing with Dr. Farmer when he exclaims in the book, “if a patient says, I really need a Bible or nail clippers, well, for God’s sake!”

This book is also challenging. It challenges our society and asks hard questions. I understand Tracy Kidder (the author and narrator) when he acknowledges that he avoided Paul Farmer for five years because Paul made him uncomfortable, because Paul’s “way would be hard to share, because it implied such an extreme definition of a term like ‘doing one’s best’”. What are your initial impressions after reading the first couple chapters? Has the book raised any points you never thought about before? What does it meant to “do your best”? Do we have a moral obligation to do anything?