Three Cups of Tea by Relin and Mortenson

Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations … One School at a Time
by David Oliver Relin with Greg Mortenson


Greg Mortenson got lost and nearly died in a failed attempt to scale K2 in northern Pakistan. He blundered into a village high above a river accessible to the world by a sort of cable car—a box pulled on a cable and pulled across the river by hand. The people of this village welcomed him, fed him, warmed him, and restored him to life. He promised them that he would build them a school in gratitude-they had none and their children’s lessons, what they had of them, were held outside writing in dirt with sticks. He kept his promise, came back and with his own money and the money he raised in inept fund-raising efforts he built them first a bridge across the river, and then a school. This book is the story of this and many other schools he and later his organization has built in Pakistan and perhaps by now Afghanistan.

Mortenson believes that the Wahabis of Saudi Arabia building Madrasas and educating young Pakistani, Afghani, and other young men around the world, filled a vacuum crated by war, corruption and poverty. These schools and camps are breeding grounds for fundamentalist Islam and the terrorism we have seen. He believes that educating children, especially girls, is the way to counter this terrorism in the long term, by giving the next generations in these regions options. The boys, he says, will leave their villages for the cities, but the girls are the ones who can change a culture, bring advances home to the villages. He believes strongly in educating the girls. His mission has been to build schools and pay teachers. It’s a fascinating story;, and one that has not ended yet.

It pricks my complacency, flings sparks into the dreams I have always cherished of doing something that would make a difference. Giving to those who have less than I. Sharing my gifts. I am restless today, wondering where my path will lead if I just let it.