Enjoy this article and to help us keep stories fresh and current, support our advertisers by exploring their sites. We appreciate feedback - there's room for your comments below
 Written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, Three Cups of tea is a story of extraordinary courage, focus and guts. Mortenson, an extreme climber, is close to death following a harrowing descent from K2 in Pakistan; fate, by way of losing sight of his porter and missing a fork in a trail, leads him to a remote mountain village and into the kind hands of people who save and change his life. He makes a promise to repay their kindness by building a school. With no money, no fundraising skills and no idea how to set about fulfilling his promise, he embarks on a journey of personal sacrifice and sheer determination that leads him to what is now his life’s mission – promoting peace by building schools.
It is a story that unraveled for me much of the politics that dominate Pakistan; that explains The Taliban; that sheds light on the Muslim world and, to be honest, clearly illustrates how botched was US policy in that part of the world following 9/11. The history and geography lessons are invaluable to understanding what’s happening now in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. The story is not in the least preachy – it is compelling and riveting reading – an adventure story in every sense of that word.
In following his passion, Mortenson has fully understood that education is the key to peace and that educating girls is an even more valuable tool in building peace. His experiences have shown him that girls, when educated in these remote and poverty stricken areas of the world, tend to stay in their villages to make a difference; that they marry later cutting the rate of teenage births; that education brings the ability to read, listen, allow the world in. I cannot remember a book that has so profoundly educated and affected me in recent years. |
