Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations... One School at a Time

Review by Gary Hunt

The first cup of tea is offered to every stranger as a respectful custom. Sit down with a village elder for the third time to share a cup of tea and you have gained an ally and become part of the family. This is how Greg Mortensen has been building elementary schools, primarily for girls, throughout the remote regions of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan for the last decade -- teacup by teacup.

Mortensen’s passport listed his occupation as ‘climber’ when he first journeyed to Pakistan to make an assault on K2, the second highest peak in the world and the most difficult. The attempt failed and he was forced to retreat, but he lost his way and strayed into a remote village of Shi’ite Muslims who took him under their wing and nursed him back to health. It took weeks for Mortensen to regain his strength for the arduous trek back to civilization and he spent this time getting to know the people of this village and was shocked to observe that the hundreds of children who lived there had no school, nor was there any regular means of education. He made a promise to Haji Ali, the tribal leader, that he would come back and build these children a school.

The challenges and obstacles involved in building that first school in the high Karakorum were incredible and it’s hard to believe that anybody would go to such great lengths of personal sacrifice to keep an impetuous promise, but it becomes evident that Greg Mortensen is no ordinary mortal, and that this is a story about a true Hero. He embarked upon an odyssey of fund-raising and finagling and soon was back in Pakistan with the $12,000 that he had convinced a wealthy donor that it would take to accomplish his mission, and set about building relationships in order to acquire construction materials and haul them into the Himalaya.

That was the beginning of the Central Asian Institute which has now built hundreds of secular schools that are educating thousands of tribal Muslim children throughout a war-torn region marked by poverty and lack of education, making it prime recruiting grounds for radical and terrorist Islamic groups. The most effective way to fight terrorism, according to Mortensen, is to educate children and give them a future, and help them rebuild their villages that have been shelled into oblivion over the last couple of decades.

The progress that he has made and the fearlessness with which he pursues his ideals is remarkable, as is this book which chronicles his efforts. It gets my vote for the most inspiring book of the year, and I guarantee that you will find it hard to put down.