This is a review I posted online just over a year ago and I want to post it again because, this past Friday night, I got the chance to listen to Greg Mortenson speak, watch him get an honorary doctorate from Loyola University, and a chance to meet him at his book signing reception. I just think the story of this extraordinary man needs to be heard by everyone. To date, he has built over 130 schools, especially ones that serve girls, in Northern Pakistan and Eastern Afghanistan - including places that are Taliban strongholds. The only way to stop extremism is through education.
As one proverb puts it, in reference to education in societies that are based on communal values and where women are the ones responsible for caring for family: "Educate a boy, and you educate an individual. Educate a girl, and you educate a community."
This book is now required reading for military leadership in Afghanistan, teaching the value of building relationships and listening to the people we're trying to help.
Anyone interested in promoting peace, social justice, and women's rights should get this book.
I should also add that there is now a Young Reader's version of the book - this is important because at the beginning of his search for funding, the single largest donation Mortenson received was $600 from school children who collected pennies. So now parents and kids can read the story together.
The title of the book is a reference to the customary way of doing business in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and other parts of Central Asia:
For the first cup of tea, you are a stranger. By the second cup, you are a friend. By the third cup, you are family. It is a testament to the patience and understanding it takes to forge the kind of long-lasting ties to work in this region of the world.
By far, one of the most inspiring books I've ever read.
Greg Mortenson single handedly started an initiative to bring education to rural Pakistan. I wish I had gotten a chance to read this before finishing my thesis - because this story is more directly related to my work than any other book or journal article I used.
Through persistence and a little luck, he made the right connections in Pakistan (and eventually Afghanistan) and in the U.S. with donors. This book recounts his efforts from their inception in 1996 after getting lost in the Himalaya through 9/11 and up to 2003 when the war in Iraq diverted promised American resources from Afghanistan (again). His work survived a kidnapping in Waziristan, several fatwas (that were eventually overturned by the highest mufti in Iran), and death threats (most of which came from his fellow Americans after 9/11 in the form of "how dare you help Muslims").
After getting separated from his guide leading him off the Baltoro glacier in Northern Pakistan after a failed attempt to scale K2, Mortenson found himself in a little village called Korphe in Baltistan, Pakistan. The first Westerner ever to stumble into Korphe intrigued the people. After being nursed back to health and served what little food the people had to offer, he witnessed children in Korphe studying outside, with no teacher and no school, scratching lessons in the dirt. He promised the village elder Haji Ali that he would build them a school, went back to the US, began writing letters and grants while living out of his car. After sending 580 letters, a single $100 check from Tom Brokaw, and $600 in
pennies raised by elementary school children was the net result.
Then, fellow Mountaineer, physicist and silicon-valley pioneer turned philanthropist Jean Hoerni agreed to donate $12,000 for the school. Mortenson sold everything he owned, and returned to Pakistan, forged business ties and purchased supplies only to discover that the village did not yet want a school - but a bridge. Korphe was inaccessible except for a single hand-pulled makeshift lift cart that spanned the Braldu river. There was no way to get supplies into Korphe. Rather than storming off like many impatient Americans would, Mortenson entered a partnership with the people of Korphe - valuing their opinions, customs, and assessments of their own needs rather than dismissing them as primitive or assuming that an American knows what's best for them.
As Mortenson has said, it took 3 years and a lot of mistakes, but the Korphe school was finally built and has sent many of Korphe's children on to local towns for further education - including many girls.
It's a stunning account of an extraordinary man, who through his humility and respect for the people of the region, worked with them, heeding their input and their cultural norms, was able to do what no other humanitarian organization could -- build schools focusing on girls' education and bring long-lasting, meaningful change to one of the world's poorest and most unstable regions of the world where outsiders are usually regarded with cautious suspicion.
With Jean Hoerni's help once again, Mortenson founded the Central Asia Institute (see link to the left) and has built over 60 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan since 1996 and has provided countless services and monetary support for education in these regions.
He is fighting the war on terror with the only effective ammunition - education. Give people education, and you give them the means to take control of their own lives. In areas where the only free education available is in the form of conservative, fundamentalist madrassas (many funded by the Saudi government), access to broad general education is key to fighting terrorism while forging ties with the very people we're trying to help.
It costs
$1 per day to pay a teacher in Afghanistan or Pakistan.
