Tracy Kidder writes about an exceptional young man who escaped the horrors of genocide in Burundi and Rwanda in 1993 and 1994 only to spend the next ten years working hard to pick up where his life left off and return to make his home in Burundi a better place.
Deo was a third year medical student in Burundi when violence erupted between the Hutus and Tutsis, two different ethnic groups in the area. Deo shares some of his earlier life and how he first heard the words “Hutu” and “Tutsi” but also how this was not a difference that you could necessarily see by looking at your neighbors and friends. These are two groups who lived side by side, shared food religion and culture. As a Tutsi his life was threatened during this time in Burundi and Deo hid in the hospital that he worked in while many people were killed and then fled for six months on food into Rwanada and straight into the midst of more killing and death. Deo unlikely got a work visa that allowed him to escape to New York City.
Deo arrived in New York City with $200 knowing no one. He working as a delivery person for a grocery store and slept in abandoned warehouses and Central Park until he started making friends who worked together to help him. He ended up being able to go to Columbia and continue his pursuit for a medical degree. Deo experiences a lot of confusion, nightmares and depression while he is living in New York and adjusting to his life in America. He finds his peace through medicine.
Deo is connected with Dr. Paul Farmer (from Mountains beyone Mountains by Tracy Kidder) and ends up working for Partners In Health (PIH) and learning about their system of health care and clinics in Haiti and other countries. Deo decides to return to Burundi to try to bring a similar system of healthcare there. He takes Tracy Kidder through Burundi and goes through the horrors of his escape as wll as some of the highlights of his life there. Deo returns to his parents village and along with the community begins building a clinic that will serve all without regard to payment. They train local workers to work within the community on prevention and other health issues. One of the things that is mentioned in this book is that Deo does this in a community that is primarily Hutu at this point. And he promotes peace and works to teach people to overlook this and live with each other promoting well being.
I was very moved by this book and was glad to hear about how the work of Dr. Paul Farmer continues to impact individuals to promote change in the world. I am sure that there are many other stories of horror and escape during this 1993-94 in Burundi and Rwanda and that there is resilience that I can not begin to understand. What impressed me so much with this story is Deo’s drive to return to the place of his nightmares and work to make it a better place.
19/02/2010 at 9:41 pm Permalink
I’ll have to read this.
And then I see what you are reading now. We have really enjoyed all of the Ben Mezrich books that we’ve read. I hadn’t looked much to see what else he’s read, but I look forward to your reveiw of that one too.