One day in 1993, high up in the world’s most inhospitable mountains, Greg Mortenson wandered lost and alone, broken in body and spirit, after a failed attempt to climb K2, the world’s deadliest peak. When the people of an impoverished village in Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya took him in and nursed him back to health, Mortenson made an impulsive promise: He would return one day and build them a school. Although he was a homeless “climbing bum” living out of his aging Buick in Berkeley, California, Mortenson sold what few possessions he had to launch one of the most remarkable humanitarian campaign of our time.
From eerie blue glaciers, where snow leopards stalk their prey, to high altitude fundamentalist villages, where the faith is as severe as the surroundings, and down the deadly opium trails of Afghanistan at war, Three Cups of Tea traces Mortenson’s decade long odyssey to build schools, especially for girls, throughout the region that gave birth to the Taliban and sanctuary to Al Qaeda. While he wages war with the root causes of terrorism-poverty and ignorance- by providing both girls and boys with a balanced, nonextremist education, Mortenson must survive a kidnapping, fatwa issued by enraged mullahs, death threats from Americans who consider him a traitor, and wrenching separations from his family.
Today, as the director of the Central Asia Institute, Mortenson has built fifty-five schools serving Pakistan and Afghanistan’s poorest communities. And as this real-life Indiana Jones from Montana crisscrosses the Himalaya and the Hindu Kush fighting to keep these schools functioning, he provides not only hope to tens of thousands of children, but living proof that one passionately dedicated person truly can change the world ~~ from bookcover
This is a GREAT book, a MUST read for all. It’s true story of one man to build schools at poorest villages at Pakistan. Salute to Greg. Incredible story! I have no exact word to describe this story. I don’t know how to put it, well, I am speechless, I think you just need to read it your self. Remembered something which I can shared, I read during my lunch break, after finish my quick lunch, I read read read read…..my heart was in my throat…..read read read, can’t take it anymore, felt like want to cried out. I thought well better stop reading now, I didn’t bring any tissue, it will be embarassing if I cried at public while reading, anyway I was late.
What strucked me was the first chapter of this book is FAILURE! And today Greg has built 55 schools and his first lesson was failure. Well, I won’t give too much detail of the content :grin:. Some predict that Greg will win Nobel Prize for his humanitarian acts. Let’s see. I told DH how great is this book and encouraged him to read it as well. I showed him some photos from the book, K2 peak ‘black/white’ photo.
Me : Dear, this is K2, beautiful huh? And Korphe village (where the 1st school has been built) is near K2
DH : *langsung nyeletuk* I don’t want to go there
LOL ROTFL LOL *hahahahaha* I didn’t say I want to go there (LOL). But DH knows one of my desire was to see sunrise from mountain peak. I was thinking of Gunung Bromo, near, not so high and sure beautiful. *off topic bentar* ada yang dah pernah liat sunrise dari gunung Bromo? Sharing donk
Lanjut ke buku, some links for Greg’s work : (kalo tertarik)
http://www.threecupsoftea.com –> book ‘Three Cups of Tea’
http://www.gregmortenson.com/ –> Greg official website
http://www.ikat.org/ –> Central Asia Institute (CAI) website
http://www.penniesforpeace.org/ –> school programme for CAI
Some of my favourite quote from the book
When it is dark enough, you can see the stars ~~ Persian proverb
You can hand out condoms, drop bombs, build roads, or put in electricity, but until the girls are educated a society won’t change ~~ Greg Mortenson
We’re grateful to Allah Almighty that you’ve come to help us build a school. You’ve made your promise, and you’re keeping it. But you need to do one thing. You need to be quiet, sit down, and let us do the work. And Allah Almighty will guide us. ~~ Greg Mortenson, lesson from Haji Ali
I think the first lesson is that it’s about the relationships. I say it takes three cups of tea to do business there. The first cup you’re a stranger; the second cup, a friend; the third cup you’re family ~~ Greg Mortenson
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