My book club is reading Three Cups of Tea: One man's mission to promote peace one school at a time by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin. There is also a version for younger readers, and I read both.
Greg Mortenson is a remarkable man in many ways; his parents were missionaries to Africa, and he spent a chunk of his childhood there. His father took Greg mountain climbing and that became his passion, along with studying to become a nurse. His younger sister had a lot of health problems and Greg wanted to find cures for her disease. Christa died and in 1993 he decided to climb K2 and leave her necklace at the top as a way to honor her; however, only 600 feet from the summit, another climber became ill. Greg helped the man get down to safety and then got separated from his climbing partner. He wandered-- lost -- before being found by his guide Mouzafer, who guided him down the mountain. However, they got separated again and Greg ended up in the village of Korphe, a Balti village, where he was greeted by the chief and given tea and a place to sleep.
Greg rested for several days and then wandered through the village; he asked Haji Ali to take him to see the village's school. The village was poor and could not afford a teacher and had no school building: Greg saw a group of children (mostly boys) kneeling on the ground, studying lessons without a teacher and using sticks to draw in the dirt. Greg decided that the best way to honor his sister's memory was to build the children a school. However, Greg was not a wealthy man and did not know how he would get the money to fulfill his promise.
The book traces his efforts to raise money, writing letters and speaking to groups. He gets help from some unexpected sources along the way--other mountain climbers and a wealthy man named Dr. Jean Hoerni who gave Greg the money to build a bridge so that they could get the materials to Korphe to build a school. In the process, he gains the respect and friendship--and fierce loyalty--of many people in Pakistan, and one of the amazing things about the book is seeing their country through his eyes.
He also describes meeting his wife at a dinner honoring one of the most famous mountain climbers of all time, Sir Edmund Hillary; Tara was there and noticed Greg standing in the back of the room. They began to talk, and discovered a connection. Six days later, they got married. They now have two children and live in Montana, where he continues to direct efforts to build schools. The book jacket reports that his organization has now built 55 schools, many of them for girls.
If you have not read this book, you need to read it! He describes being in Pakistan when September 11th took place, as well as being there shortly before the start up of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. He talks about the extreme poverty of the people he met, and yet how willing they were to help him. He also gives insights into the origins of the Taliban, the very intense dislike of Osama Bin Laden by many Pakistanis, and the role of education in building a better world and a better relationship with the west.
You can find the book at the Cedar Falls library, listen to it on CD book from the WPL, borrow copies from the WPL book club collection, or WPL@HCC.
You may also want to learn more about the book, Greg, and his organization, Central Asia Institute (CAI).
http://www.threecupsoftea.com/
The book's website
http://www.gregmortenson.com
Greg's website
http://www.penniesforpeace.org/home.html
Greg also founded Pennies for Peace; one of his first contributions came from children at his mother's school, who collected pennies.
c Waterloo Public Library 2008
No comments:
Post a Comment