In Pakistan and Afghanistan it is traditional to drink three cups of tea when doing business. The first cup means you are a stranger. The second cup makes you a friend, and with the third you become family. "Three Cups of Tea" is the story of Greg Mortenson’s "magnificent obsession" to build schools for the children of Afghanistan and Pakistan. It is an improbable mission for the former mountain climbing "bum" and male nurse from the United States.

Mortenson’s passionate devotion to building schools began in 1993. After a failed attempt to climb K2, one of the most difficult mountains to climb in the world, Mortenson wandered lost and ill into the remote village of Korphe. (Examine a map to see how remote this really is.) Villagers nursed him back to life. While recovering, he noticed 84 children sitting in the dirt doing their school lessons. Most were using sticks to write in the dirt, and they shared only seven slate boards. Despite the wretched conditions, he felt their intense desire to learn. Impulsively he pledged to build them a school, thus began Mortenson’s life mission.

Building that first school took tremendous effort. Mortenson was basically penniless and needed to raise $12,000 to build the school. He sold the few possessions he owned and lived homeless in his old Buick. With no clue how to raise the money, he went to the local public library and found the names and addresses of hundreds of wealthy people. He typed (on a typewriter not a computer) 580 letters asking for help. Tom Brokaw was the only reply he received and with it a $100 check. He had raised only $3,000 by the spring of 1994 when his mother invited him to present his idea to the 600 children at Westside Elementary School in River Falls, Wisconsin. She was the principal of that school. They began a "Pennies for Pakistan" drive that raised 62,340 pennies. From that beginning Mortenson raised the money he needed.

It turns out that raising the money was just the tip of the iceberg for Mortenson. He had other mountains to climb before he built his school, which included purchasing materials in Pakistan, dealing with corruption and transporting the materials up the almost impassible mountain "roads". Upon arriving in Korphe, Mortenson learned that he must first build a bridge across a steep cavern for the materials to be transported to the village. This meant another round of fundraising—$15,000— purchasing and transporting materials plus overseeing construction of the bridge. His determination to see this through to the construction of the school is amazing. A less resourceful person could not have done this.

"Three Cups of Tea" is an awe-inspiring story. In the years since the first school Mortenson has been kidnapped by the Taliban, survived a firefight, and had two fatwehs (religious edicts) issued against him for educating girls. When asked why it was so important to educate girls, Mortenson quoted an African proverb, "…if you educate a boy—you educated an individual, because he often leaves the community to find work, and may never return or send back money, but if you educate a girl—you educate a community, because when the girl becomes a mother, she will remain in the community and instill that value in her community." As of 2008, his Central Asia Institute has built over 78 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan and educated over 28,000 children, with special emphasis on educating girls. "Three Cups of Tea" is a dramatic, inspiring story. I encourage you to read it.

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