A ray of hope!
“When it’s dark enough, you can see the stars” – Persian proverb
Finally… got some time to write a blog and a chance to share my experience of the ‘Three Cups of Tea Project’. I finished reading book #31 a couple of weeks ago and its now on its way to its next reader in The Netherlands (follow the progress of the books on the map). Tamreez just finished book #27 and will be sending her copy to the next reader in the next couple of days too.
I must say, the project is an excellent idea to share such an inspirational story. ‘Three Cups of Tea’ is a story of Greg Mortenson, an ex-mountaineer, a humanitarian, an extremely courageous, patient and determined human being who built schools in the remote villages of Northern Pakistan and Afghanistan under the toughest and most dangerous conditions.
Greg made a summit attempt to conquer K2, the second highest mountain in the world, to pay tribute to his late sister Christa. In trying to rescue a fellow climber, he himself got lost. He fought death for a couple of days in the worst possible conditions and finally stumbled across a village, unknown to the modern world, called ‘Korphe’. Impressed by the hospitality of the villagers, he promised the chief, Haji Ali, that he would build a school for them. For hundreds of years, the village never had a formal school.
Mortenson learnt his first and the most important lesson from Haji Ali that it’s all about relationships. “It takes three cups of tea,” he said. “The first cup you’re a stranger. The second up a friend. And the third cup you become family. And for family we’re prepared to do anything, even die”. But the process may take several years and you have to have that patience. Mortenson mastered the technique. He kept his promise and with the generosity of one of his donors, Jean Hoerni, the idea gave birth to the Central Asia Institute which has now built more than 130 schools.
On his quest he faced umpteen challenges, demoralising and sometimes even death-defying, including fatwas and death threats from crazy mullahs and even being kidnapped by Taliban sympathizers. His perseverance was the most impressive feature of his mission. It all failed to deter him from fulfilling his aim. He even sacrificed his family life making extended trips to these far far away lands.
The man believes in education being the only cure of extremism. He strongly advocates educating the girls. Contrary to boys who move out of the villages once educated, Mortenson believes that the educated girls tend to stay in their villages and pass on their knowledge to the next generations.
The story has many twists and turns and shows how his determination opened up avenues for him. Some might call it his luck but I think anyone else would have called it a day within the first few blows. From fundraising for the first school, to getting major donors on board, to getting paid staff for the institute and establishing key contacts all across the region Greg’s hard work is extremely laudable.
I highly recommend reading this book. There still are people among us who want to make this world a better place. I saw a ray of hope for Pakistan, and surprisingly the source was a ‘foreigner’ and shockingly an ‘American’. Greg was even awarded the highest civilian award Sitara-e-Pakistan (Star of Pakistan) by the Government of Pakistan and I would not hesitate to even nominate Greg Mortenson for the Nobel Peace Prize.
2 Responses to “A ray of hope!”
November 23rd, 2009 saat: 5:18 pm
Asim you’ve written such a great review that I’m not going to bother writing my own, but I’d just like to add a bit on some of the things that really struck me.
Towards the beginning of the book, I was really impressed by Mortenson’s perseverance. When he started fundraising, he sent innumerable letters to every celebrity he could think of…including Susan Sarandan…because well she looked like a nice person! Only to be met with no response whatsoever. Anyone else would’ve given up but he kept on writing, day in day out, on a TYPEWRITER of all things and then later progressed on to a computer. But then one fine day, just ONE of those people responded and gave him all the funds he required to build a school! Having only sent out about 2 dozen job applications in the last couple of months, I have absolutely no excuse to complain about rejections…
Towards the end of the book, what really struck me was Mortenson’s bravery and courage. After 9/11 the US Embassy gave orders to every American in Pakistan to leave the country, Mortenson was already in Pakistan at the time on business and refused to leave despite his Embassy getting very fidgety and nervous by his presence there. He stayed on to finish the work he had come for and made some important contacts with the media people who had swarmed into Pakistan hoping to report on Afghanistan’s imminent bombardment by the Americans. As a result, Mortenson was able to form important contacts and put out an alternative opinion out there: Terrorism and extremism were not going to be fought with military might alone, we needed to look at the root causes and EDUCATION was the most important. I wish the Pakistani and US governments would take note of that message.
When those of us who are from Pakistan but living abroad feel insecure or unsafe going back home, I hope we can remember Mortenson’s bravery. If an outsider could feel so strongly about his responsibility to Pakistanis that he doesn’t shy away from putting his life in danger, I wish we can also put aside our fears and concerns and do what’s right.
One aspect of Mortenson’s personality that really shone throughout the book was his humility and humanity. Going to far flung northern areas, he would be invited to stay in people’s homes and share their food, clothes etc. These areas are extremely poor and with extreme weather conditions and little facilities and amenities, except for brief periods in the summer, most people aren’t able to properly shower and/or wash their clothes etc during the harsh winter months. So many narrators in the book have commented on how easily Mortenson adapted to these conditions and never looked down upon the people or feel ill-at-ease whether the bedding was stinky or whether a child was the filthiest thing he had ever seen. He drank their tea made with fermented goat’s milk and being a trained nurse treated their pus-filled wounds and infections. Whether he was hanging out with Pakistani tailors and taxi drivers Rawalpindi or Peshawar, or whether he was living as a guest in the Northern areas or traveling across war-torn Afghanistan, Mortenson didn’t bring any airs or pretenses with him and just became “one of the people” which endeared him to all the locals he worked with.
Finally, if I could give him some advice it would be to take out more time for his family and his own health. It’s amazing what he’s doing and I wonder if he’d been able to achieve all this had it not been for the personal sacrifices and long absences from his family, but at the end of the day I think our family should come first and with bad health, he would hardly be able to carry on his work. With CAI’s finances now improved and a better organizational structure, I hope that is the case and I hope Greg can maintain a better work-life balance. The children of Pakistan need him, but so do his own children :)
December 10th, 2009 saat: 10:36 pm
a ray of hope indeed!!! Thankyou so much for sharing this
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