Three Cups of Tea

In 1993, after an attempt to scale K2, mountaineer Greg Mortenson found himself recuperating in a tiny village in the Karakoram Mountain region of Pakistan. After asking to see their school, he was stunned to find the children, who had no daily teacher because the village couldn’t afford the dollar a day it cost to hire one, out in the open doing their sums with sticks in the mud, trying to teach themselves. He made a promise to return and build a school for them.

After months of fundraising, Mortenson returned, armed with $12,000, to build a school for the children of Korphe. While in Pakistan, Mortenson discovered little villages all over the country, full of children who had no schools. The Central Asia Institute was created to address the educational needs of the children of Pakistan and, later, Afghanistan. Although all children are welcome in the schools, Mortenson focused on educating girls, understanding that, while boys with an education tend to leave their villages, girls tend to go back home and improve village life.

Mortenson spends several months out of every year living and working in Pakistan where, in the years since he first discovered Korphe, he and the local people, aided by the Central Asia Institute, has built 64 schools, which have provided an education for 25,000 students. In 2002, several months after 9/11, Mortenson had a meeting in Washington with numerous Congressmen and their senior staff. When questioned by one of the congressmen about the priority of education over fighting terror, Mortenson replied, “I’ve learned that terror doesn’t happen because some group of people somewhere like Pakistan or Afghanistan simply decide to hate us. It happens because children aren’t being offered a bright enough future that they have a reason to choose life over death.” President John Adams once said, “I must judge for myself, but how can I judge, how can any man judge, unless his mind has been opened and enlarged by reading.” Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute are trying to teach the children of Pakistan and Afghanistan and give them that choice.

On the New York Times Bestseller List for more than eighty weeks, this is not a story of soldiers and war. It is a story of the everyday people of Pakistan; the children and their mothers and fathers who want something more for them. It is a compelling, easy to read account, which will open your eyes about what is going on in this very volatile part of the world. Greg Mortenson is an extraordinary human being, not just for what he has accomplished but for who he is, an ordinary man trying to find a solution. You must read this book! After reading it, I hope you will feel compelled to make a donation to his mission.