Greenbackyard

Mountains Beyond Mountains

A few weeks ago I finished reading Mountains Beyond Moutains by Tracy Kidder. I got this book immediately after I read Philip Greenspun’s review.

After many months of silence on this blog, I thought this would be a good way to get back to writing and continuing with the new year’s resolution I decided on.

“Mountains Beyond Mountains” is a fascinating story about an even more fascinating man, Dr Paul Farmer, who has dedicated his life to help those in need. A great deal of the book covers the work that Dr Farmer and his colleagues have done in Haiti (a country I got to know a little bit throughout my life) -which was the part that really drew me the this book. It covers the work they’ve done in Peru and Russia as well. The story is told by Kidder who accompanied him over multiple years through many truly inhospitable places, and tells us stories of how this dedicated man and his companions have transformed third-world healthcare and how their dedication has saved countless lives. Farmer and his colleagues founded Partner’s in Health, whose mission is “[...] to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care”. Kidder covers with quite some detail how restless Farmer and his colleagues have been in fulfilling that mission, how dedicated (beyond measures at times) and, in my opinion, how successful. Of course, as Farmer says in the book (I don’t have the book here with me so I am quoting from memory) “if I save one life, just one, then I have done my job”, so success is not only measured by the global impact that their hard work has had on the treatment of Multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) but also by the individual lives that have been saved along the way. As a side note, if you haven’t seen the work by the world renown photographer James Nachtwey on raising awareness about XDT-TB, you should (the images are terribly moving).

What I found fascinating about this book is that this is a real story on how we should “never underestimate the ability of a small group of committed individuals to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.” (quote by Margaret Mead). Our daily lives are cluttered by an enormous amount of “junk” and sometimes little gems like this one give us back hope, we are not powerless. Through dedication, activism and selflessness, we can and will change the world.

I do agree with PhilG’s review, where he says:

[ ... ] If this is what it takes to change the world, then don’t hold your breath waiting for change, because there probably won’t be another guy like Farmer in our lifetime.

We shouldn’t hold our breath, we actually have to do something about it! Farmer is not unique, there are other “heroes” out there, I know a few. It’s true, there are probably counted with the fingers in one hand when we are talking about having a global reach like what Partner’s in Health has achieved in terms of healthcare in impoverished corners of the world. We don’t all have it in us to be Paul Farmer’s, I certainly am not as gifted or focused as he is. What his story is all about though, for me, is that we cannot afford to give up just because it’s too hard. It also reminded me that our first world problems are minute in comparison to the problems that are plaguing 75% of the world’s population! We have plenty of options to help, let’s just use them!

What can you do? You can donate to Partner’s in Health, or support someone through a micro-loan on Kiva, or support my team on the Oxfam Trailwalker Sydney this year. These are a tiny tiny fraction of all the options out there, there are plenty more!

The Passionate Rock Climber

I mentioned a couple of days ago that I had recently discovered a brand new, all encompassing passion: rock climbing.

Before I go into this again though, it’s also important to notice that I am going through a very intense period in my life at the moment, a massive roller coaster, with very large swings of ups and downs and mixing “dreamy/fantasy” in what would otherwise seem like a normal existence, it seems to defy magic realism. Or maybe this is also again, part of my imagination of it being a bit too far fetched and trying to find meaning in everything. Why is this important? Because through crisis is that I also reflect very seriously about what I am doing with my life and reconsider the choices I have made in the past.

So trying to gently get back into the subject of rock climbing, how often is it that you find your Element (as described in Ken Robinson’s book) or at least one part of it? I guess that occasionally you stumble upon them and sometimes you engineer them. I’ve just read a post by John Nunemaker titled “I have no talent” in which he states that most of his best work is due to his perseverance and hard work and, of course, his passion for his craft, software development. This made me think: “Is talent something that really matters to me? Do I have any talent(s)?” and before I pursue this line even further, let me clearly say that I agree with John: only hard work gives results, I think it’s really the only way. I think the same applies to passions, like rock climbing. I do have a certain affinity (physically) towards that sport, I am not sure if I’d call that talent but it’s definitely a _connection_ however without all the hard work I would not be getting any better and my frustrations would just keep on growing. I have worked pretty hard to keep this passion of climbing alive, of course when you love something and you enjoy it, working for it doesn’t seem like such an effort. my training routine has got me a few “you are crazy” comments (and trust me it’s not all that intense) It requires persistence and a lot of sheer determination to get through it. Some days it can get hard (hangovers for example, are my worst enemies ).

Working towards ones goals and passions takes many forms. For me it’s been focusing on a routine that pushes me a bit further every time. and that I can do without machines or without having to rely on specialized help. and of course that I can do on my own so that I have to rely solely on my own motivation and not on somebody else to drag me out for a climb. If I get to share those moments with others that’s awesome however since I always struggled to get my own routines underway I needed to rely on my own energy. And it’s also about reading a lot about climbing and about conditioning for climbers, mostly because I am not a trainer and I have a vague idea of where my weaknesses are in terms of strength and flexibility however I needed some advice that would guide me towards the most effective training routines. BTW the most influential book for me so far has been The Rock Warrior’s Way by Arno Ilgner.

The journey has begun.