Review
From the book jacket: In 1993 Greg Mortenson was the exhausted survivor of a
failed attempt to ascend K2, an American climbing bum wandering emaciated and
lost through Pakistan's Karakoram Himalaya. After he was taken in and nursed
back to health by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village, Mortenson
promised to return one day and build them a school. From that rash, earnest
promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time—Greg
Mortenson's one-man mission to counteract extremism by building schools,
especially for girls, throughout the breeding ground of the Taliban.
Comment: Three Cups of Tea is a truly inspiring story and also a very readable action-adventure! Many
climbers have passed through the same areas of Pakistan as Mortenson, and made
the same promises to the local people - to help them in some...
Beyond the Book
The book's title comes from the advice given to Mortenson, over cups of
scalding butter tea, by the chief of the village where the first school was
built:
"The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time
you take tea, you are an honored 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. Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated, but we are not stupid. We have survived here for a long time."
As Mortenson says, "that day Haji Ali taught me the most important lesson I've ever
learned. We Americans think you have to accomplish everything quickly. Our leaders thought their
'shock and awe'...
