Three Cups of Tea: Review

Now I always get excited about a good book - and in that process superlatives seem to overflow as I recommend it to others. But I have to say I can not remember a time when a book had such a powerful impact on me. Three Cups of Tea is the most inspirational story I have ever read. If it were fiction it would probably be called unrealistic or slightly cheesey but as fact it causes me to sit in awe of a person who knows the power in himself and in the world.

Three Cups of Tea is the story of Greg Mortenson an avid climber who, on the way down from a failed attempt to summit K2 (considered the most difficult mountain in the world to scale), gets lost and is saved by an impoverished village in Northern Pakistan. In thanks for their help, Greg promises to build the village a school. Their children had been doing math problems with sticks in the dirt. Thus begins what has turned into a quest for Greg to build schools throughout Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan - focused primarily on girls' education. His journey begins living out of his car in San Fransico to save money for the schools to running an international charity out of Bozeman, Montana. Greg believes that education not only is a key to help people improve their lives but by providing a strong and balanced education to the world's poorest we take students away from the extreme-fundamentalist education that feeds terrorist armies. As of the book's publication three years ago he had completed 55 schools and a number of libraries and vocational centers.

The book is a combination of Indiana Jones adventure with Mother Teresa like aims. It doesn't gloss over the challenges faced in this endevor and the process is made the more amazing because of the danger and oposition that accompanied the jouney. Not only is the story amazing but it is well told and captivating in this book. This is definitely a must read.