Three Cups of Tea

“Here (in Pakistan and Afghanistan), we drink three cups of tea to do business; the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family and for our family we are prepared to do anything—even die.” –Haji Ali, Korphe Village Chief, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan.

Long before 9/11, the war in Afghanistan or the war in Iraq, Greg Mortenson was attempting to make a difference in this volatile part of the world by building schools in the furthest reaches of Pakistan and the Afghanistan frontier. A skilled mountain climber and nurse, Mortenson stumbled by accident into a remote Pakistan village following a failed attempt at K2 and stumbled into his life’s mission in 1993.

In Three Cups of Tea Mortenson chronicles his journey to bring education to the small villages of Pakistan that dot the valleys of the foothills of the Himalayas. The book reads like the movie it could and ought to be. Here is someone who has made making a difference in the lives of others his life work in a place where education could be the best weapon against terrorism.

If you’re looking for an uplifting read, Three Cups of Tea might be yours.