There are books—and even better, people—that inspire hope in the world. Greg Mortenson is one such person. His 2006 book, Three Cups of Tea, co-authored with David Oliver Relin, flew me from continent to continent and trekked me up and down mountainous terrain as I followed in his footsteps. A New York Times bestseller, Three Cups is the amazing real-life adventure of a modern-day mountaineer cum humanitarian.
In 1993 Mortenson climbed the world’s second highest mountain, K2 in Pakistan. He failed to reach its summit. Sliding down the slopes of that failure, though, he began to build a life of service that scatters schools—rather than bombs—across the remote mountainsides of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It’s been a decade and a half since Mortenson stumbled into Korphe, a small Pakistani village, on his way down K2. There Korphe’s chief, Haji Ali, his family, and the community welcomed and befriended Mortenson, nursing him back to health.
During his recovery Mortenson witnessed the dedication with which the children of Korphe labored to learn, using sticks to draw in the dirt while kneeling on frosty ground. His new-found friendships elicited a promise: Mortenson would return to Pakistan to build a school for Korphe’s children.
Little did he know that this commitment would set him on a tireless journey to build buildings and establish connections with people and places too-often feared and misunderstood by Americans halfway around the globe. Thankfully, this book draws a more colorful, compassionate, and complete portrait of the people who inhabit this remote region of the world.
Back in California, Mortenson’s follow-up efforts at fundraising were ineffective and inept. But he was committed to his goal. He saved money from his part-time job as an ER nurse and slept in his car or a rented storage space. An old IBM Selectric typewriter at a local copy shop was his first office and, five hundred eighty letters later, Mortenson received one decent-sized check, enough to begin his project.
Mortenson’s initial promise to the people of Korphe soon metamorphosed into a full-bore, full-time effort to build schools in other villages in Pakistan and, later, Afghanistan. As Mortenson became familiar with the cultural terrain he recognized a widespread need for balanced education for all youngsters, especially girls. They were the ones, he believed, who could effect long-lasting, self-sustaining change. His good-spirited, humble, and respectful ways quickly won the allegiance of a majority of the local people even as fatwas (authoritarian rulings by Islamic scholars) were issued against him.
Once Mortenson committed himself to ascend this new peak toward right livelihood nothing could stop him. Initially beset by corrupt local businessmen, he subsequently survived a kidnapping, had tea with members of the Taliban and, later, refused to evacuate the region in spite of insistent recommendations by the American consulate post-9/11.
Mortenson’s kindness and compassion, and his willingness to submerge himself in diverse cultures and languages, sprung out of an early childhood in Africa. His family relocated from Minnesota to Tanzania in 1958—when Greg was just three months old—in order for his father to serve as a Lutheran missionary there.
While his father built a school and hospital on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro Greg attended an international school that included twenty-eight different nationalities. He and his classmates celebrated holidays that ranged from Hanukkah to Christmas, Diwali to the Feast of Id. Quite likely these childhood experiences—played out in the midst of various cultures, languages, and skin colors—helped him to realize early on that we are one people who desire to live in peace with one another.
His solo school-building efforts eventually expanded into a nonprofit organization known as the Central Asia Institute (CAI). CAI’s mission stands in sharp contrast to the work of another American agency identified by the same letters in slightly different order … the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which conducts its own shadowy business in Central Asia.
In the book’s introduction co-author Relin admits that he was one among many who were drawn to the CAI’s work through its scope and the magnitude of Mortenson’s personality. Relin words are worth quoting here:
"The more time I spent watching Mortenson work, the more convinced I became that I was in the presence of someone extraordinary….
"Though he would never say so himself, he has single-handedly changed the lives of tens of thousands of children, and independently won more hearts and minds than all the official American propaganda flooding the region.
"So this is a confession: Rather than simply reporting on his progress, I want to see Greg Mortenson succeed. I wish him success because he is fighting the war on terror the way I think it should be conducted…. Mortenson goes to war with the root causes of terror every time he offers a student a chance to receive a balanced education, rather than attend an extremist madrassa (school).
"If we Americans are to learn from our mistakes, from the flailing, ineffective way we, as a nation, conducted our war on terror after the attacks of 9/11, and from the way we have failed to make our case to the great moderate mass of peace-loving people at the heart of the Muslim world, we need to listen to Greg Mortenson. I did, and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life."
Mortenson and Relin tell an incredible tale that crosses countries and cultures widely divergent from our own. Their book is a testament to the power of one man’s promise to promote peace one school at a time. By its end we believe that a more educated world will create a more loving and accepting one … a better place for all of us.
For more information on the Central Asia Institute visit their website at: http://www.ikat.org/. There you will find a full listing of Mortenson’s speaking schedule throughout the U.S. See, also, http://www.threecupsoftea.com/ to order your personal copy of this well-written, inspiring, and phenomenal real-life adventure story. It will open your soul to the heart-rending challenges and choices faced by the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan whose lives are torn and battered by the harsh reign of the Taliban.
This book is like a titanium bracelet … strong, (filled with) light, and incredibly resilient. I highly recommend it.
In 1993 Mortenson climbed the world’s second highest mountain, K2 in Pakistan. He failed to reach its summit. Sliding down the slopes of that failure, though, he began to build a life of service that scatters schools—rather than bombs—across the remote mountainsides of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
It’s been a decade and a half since Mortenson stumbled into Korphe, a small Pakistani village, on his way down K2. There Korphe’s chief, Haji Ali, his family, and the community welcomed and befriended Mortenson, nursing him back to health.
During his recovery Mortenson witnessed the dedication with which the children of Korphe labored to learn, using sticks to draw in the dirt while kneeling on frosty ground. His new-found friendships elicited a promise: Mortenson would return to Pakistan to build a school for Korphe’s children.
Little did he know that this commitment would set him on a tireless journey to build buildings and establish connections with people and places too-often feared and misunderstood by Americans halfway around the globe. Thankfully, this book draws a more colorful, compassionate, and complete portrait of the people who inhabit this remote region of the world.
Back in California, Mortenson’s follow-up efforts at fundraising were ineffective and inept. But he was committed to his goal. He saved money from his part-time job as an ER nurse and slept in his car or a rented storage space. An old IBM Selectric typewriter at a local copy shop was his first office and, five hundred eighty letters later, Mortenson received one decent-sized check, enough to begin his project.
Mortenson’s initial promise to the people of Korphe soon metamorphosed into a full-bore, full-time effort to build schools in other villages in Pakistan and, later, Afghanistan. As Mortenson became familiar with the cultural terrain he recognized a widespread need for balanced education for all youngsters, especially girls. They were the ones, he believed, who could effect long-lasting, self-sustaining change. His good-spirited, humble, and respectful ways quickly won the allegiance of a majority of the local people even as fatwas (authoritarian rulings by Islamic scholars) were issued against him.
Once Mortenson committed himself to ascend this new peak toward right livelihood nothing could stop him. Initially beset by corrupt local businessmen, he subsequently survived a kidnapping, had tea with members of the Taliban and, later, refused to evacuate the region in spite of insistent recommendations by the American consulate post-9/11.
Mortenson’s kindness and compassion, and his willingness to submerge himself in diverse cultures and languages, sprung out of an early childhood in Africa. His family relocated from Minnesota to Tanzania in 1958—when Greg was just three months old—in order for his father to serve as a Lutheran missionary there.
While his father built a school and hospital on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro Greg attended an international school that included twenty-eight different nationalities. He and his classmates celebrated holidays that ranged from Hanukkah to Christmas, Diwali to the Feast of Id. Quite likely these childhood experiences—played out in the midst of various cultures, languages, and skin colors—helped him to realize early on that we are one people who desire to live in peace with one another.
His solo school-building efforts eventually expanded into a nonprofit organization known as the Central Asia Institute (CAI). CAI’s mission stands in sharp contrast to the work of another American agency identified by the same letters in slightly different order … the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which conducts its own shadowy business in Central Asia.
In the book’s introduction co-author Relin admits that he was one among many who were drawn to the CAI’s work through its scope and the magnitude of Mortenson’s personality. Relin words are worth quoting here:
"The more time I spent watching Mortenson work, the more convinced I became that I was in the presence of someone extraordinary….
"Though he would never say so himself, he has single-handedly changed the lives of tens of thousands of children, and independently won more hearts and minds than all the official American propaganda flooding the region.
"So this is a confession: Rather than simply reporting on his progress, I want to see Greg Mortenson succeed. I wish him success because he is fighting the war on terror the way I think it should be conducted…. Mortenson goes to war with the root causes of terror every time he offers a student a chance to receive a balanced education, rather than attend an extremist madrassa (school).
"If we Americans are to learn from our mistakes, from the flailing, ineffective way we, as a nation, conducted our war on terror after the attacks of 9/11, and from the way we have failed to make our case to the great moderate mass of peace-loving people at the heart of the Muslim world, we need to listen to Greg Mortenson. I did, and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life."
Mortenson and Relin tell an incredible tale that crosses countries and cultures widely divergent from our own. Their book is a testament to the power of one man’s promise to promote peace one school at a time. By its end we believe that a more educated world will create a more loving and accepting one … a better place for all of us.
For more information on the Central Asia Institute visit their website at: http://www.ikat.org/. There you will find a full listing of Mortenson’s speaking schedule throughout the U.S. See, also, http://www.threecupsoftea.com/ to order your personal copy of this well-written, inspiring, and phenomenal real-life adventure story. It will open your soul to the heart-rending challenges and choices faced by the people of Pakistan and Afghanistan whose lives are torn and battered by the harsh reign of the Taliban.
This book is like a titanium bracelet … strong, (filled with) light, and incredibly resilient. I highly recommend it.
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