Returning themes

The theme of poverty strikes again as Dr. Paul Farmer travels now to Lima, Peru to check out mysterious TB (tuberculosis) deaths. His good friend, Father Jack, had been volunteering in Peru when he came down with TB and died within a matter of weeks. This puzzled Farmer because he was on the top medications for TB and yet he was utterly resistant to them. When going to Lima, he realized this was not an uncommon thing there. "In the daylight the northern neighborhoods seemed like an endlessly spreading slum, the roads choked with traffic and with motorcycle rickshaws and minibuses that served as public transportation, and the banks of the roads littered with broken-down vehicles and garbage, and garbage on fire, and with ramshackle-looking developement, like American strip malls that had moldered before being completed" (Kidder 135). The TB outbreak in Lima was not surprising because of the atmosphere and environment of the town. The governemtn did not seem to care about the declining health of their city and Farmer was dedicated to finding the mystery behind TB deaths in Lima.