Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea has been happily perched upon bestselling lists for quite a while now. When a friend loaned me the book, I was excited to have something to read that dealt with Pakistan, a place in the news so often these days. But this book is so much more.

This is the story of how Greg Mortenson began and succeeded in building schools throughout Pakistan, in places that foreigners trek to only to climb some of the world's highest peaks. Greg was a climber and went to Pakistan to climb K2. He didn't make it to the top but on the way down, he was aided by some villagers, an experience that changed his life forever. When he saw the children of their village sitting out in a field, on frozen tundra, which is where they held classes, he made an impulsive promise: he would build them a school.

What follows is a story of how one man can truly change the world. Greg sold everything he owned, he begged for money, he worked until exhuastion in order to build that first school. His efforts did no go unnoticed and he finally gained a benefactor. Eventually they set up a company, the Central Asia Institute, which consisted of Greg alone for many years.

I cannot retell Greg's story here but at a time when most of the world was ignoring Pakistan, at a time when the Taliban was educating too many young men in the region, Greg went around and built schools in the poorest of villages - schools that also accepted women. Shias and Sunnis worked side by side with Greg - literally - in order to help educate future Pakistanis. It's an amazing story and one that should not be missed.

I'm not even done with the book, but I had to tell you about it!