Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin, originally uploaded by elycefeliz.

I first heard about this book after reading an article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Thomas Friedman titled "We cannot abandon the children of Afghanistan" (23 July 2009), in which he refers to this book written by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.

The author had just watched Mortenson open one of his schools for girls that he has built in both Afghanistan and Pakistan over the last few years. I love reading books about Afghanistan and I love cups of tea, so I promptly found the book on Amazon and put it in my shopping basket ready to buy when the dollar was stronger. The dollar finally reached 92 US cents, so I decided it was time to purchase my collection of books in time for some summer reading.

Greg Mortenson grew up in Tanzania with Christian missionary parents. During their time there, his mother built a school and his father built a hospital. He also had a sister Krista who had poor health who died quite young. Each of these things have shaped the type of man Mortenson has become and the decisions he has made about living his life.

In his late twenties, Mortenson was in Pakistan after attempting a climb of K2 one of the most difficult mountains to climb and on failing this was returning to base camp. He stumbled upon the village of Korphe, and was the first white man the villagers had set eyes on. In his state of near collapse, they took him in and cared for him while he recovered. In a serendipitous moment, he realised the children had no school to attend and vowed to raise the money, return and build it for the children he had befriended.

This is the amazing story of the building of this school and many more in the most remote parts of the world. Mortenson learnt a valuable lesson while building his first school in Korphe. Haji Ali is the village leader and he has been watching Mortenson twitching with anxious energy channeling all his efforts into getting the school built as quickly as possible. Haji Ali finally takes him aside to his home where Salika his wife brews makes them a cup of tea. He then says:

"If you want to thrive in Baltistan, you must respect our ways, the first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honoured guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family, we are prepared to do anything, even die, Dr Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time."

That day, Haji Ali taught Mortenson the importance of the sharing of three cups of tea, to slow down and make building relationships as important as building projects. He took this lesson to heart and from it worked on getting to know the people of this area, befriending them, learning about their traditions and religion. Since this time, Mortenson has built over eighty-one schools. This book has become compulsory reading for senior US military commanders, Pentagon officers in counter-insurgency training and Special Forces deploying to Afghanistan. Having just read it, I can understand why. It is an eye opening and inspiring story of what this unique man has achieved. I felt transported to the remotest parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, I could even smell the room he slept in while in Korphe. This would make a wonderful book to discuss for a book group. The Three Cups of Tea website has additional information and discussion questions.

His new book "Stones into Schools" is being published today. I am adding it to my Amazon basket, but I don't think I will be able to wait....