Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

In 1993 Greg Mortenson was descending from a failed attempt to climb K2, the second highest mountain in the world. He got lost and ended up in a remote Pakistan village. Greg, raised in Tanzania by American missionary parents, was no stranger to experiencing different cultures, and he became invested in the people of the village, who shared with him what they had. With no road to the village and no money for remote areas, the children had no school, and a guest teacher came for only three days a week. As Mortenson watched 82 boys and 4 brave girls scratching sums in the dirt and ‘studying’ alone without supervision, his heart was constricted. He promised the village chief he would return to build them a school. Thus began his odyssey, which is now in its 17th year. Mortenson’s second book after this one, “Stones into Schools”, is told in the first person, while this one is written in the 3rd person. Some readers have commented that as a result, the first book does not fully reveal Greg’s personality. Following him in his quest, however, carries the potential to change the reader’s life.
Greg begins his journey by working as an emergency room medic in California, sleeping in his car, saving all he can, and writing letters to possible donors. Experiencing multiple disappointments and discouragements, he finally meets his first serious supporter, Dr. Jean Hoerni, a climber and physicist. Hoerni donates the money for the first school. The book follows Greg back and forth from Pakistan to the U.S., and later to Afghanistan, as men from similarly remote villages also ask for Greg’s help building schools. Water systems, hydropower plants, and health dispensaries also became part of the agenda of the Central Asia Institute, the foundation that Greg was urged to set up. What makes the book work, in my opinion, is the effort made to explain and describe the people Greg encounters, especially those in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Incredibly, Greg and fellow workers are in Afghanistan on September 11, 2001. His work can be seen as counteracting the rage and frustration felt by some concerning the United States, which spearheaded that attack and which continues to smolder in different parts of the world, particularly in Afghanistan. I look forward to reading his second book.