kelvin karanja
Sep 5, 2018 · 7 min read

BOOK REVIEW | THREE CUPS OF TEA | GREG MORTENSON AND DAVID OLIVER RELIN

“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 family, we are prepared to do anything, even die,” he said, laying his hand warmly Mortenson’s own.

“Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated. But we are not stupid. We have lived and survived here for a long time.”

Three Cups of Tea

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First, some housekeeping …

Have you ever read a book and felt grateful for having read it, having met the characters, the writer, silently thanked the publisher, felt like hugging the airplane the book flew in to get to you, and thanked the universe for Inama book shops! Well, especially thanked the universe for Inama book shops and the original owner of the book who you hope was not a victim of theft. Although, judging from the glaring dirt patches on the book, it would seem like the book was subjected to a tussle, but, let us assume the best here. Whatever it was, it is what it is at the end of the day.

Okay, enough with being sentimental, let me not cry now, emotions will kill me one day. A few cold days back we were walking in town with my favorite cousin, yes, I have one of those rare collection of human beings, then we passed by an Inama and my eye caught a glimpse of the title “Three cups” then it all came flowing back, I have heard of this book before, I even followed Greg Mortenson on Twitter like 300 years ago, and I promised I will buy the book “soon”, in a lucky twitter exchange with him … seems like soon never came!

Let’s do this …

*Pakistan*Karakoram Mountain Range (K2) * Baltistan Region*

Right __ the book is a true story on Greg Mortenson and his work on education, and mostly a deliberate, passionate interest in girl’s education in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, a task he started serendipitously after a failed hiking expedition in Pakistan. He had lost bearing on his way back, blame exhaustion, only to wander himself into a humble village by the slopes of K2 mountain ranges, where he was received by a particularly kind species of human beings led by a man called Haji Ali, but no sooner had he made acquittance he passed out due to exhaustion and sleep deprivation. The residents took such good care of him that when he came back to his senses many hours later, he was amazed that such poor people, Ancient tribe of Muslims, living in a region people generally careless of its existence, would be so rich in kindness.

Weeks that followed, while they nursed him back to health, he roamed around the village, figuring out a way to repay back their generosity. He had trained as a nurse, so he somehow became the village doctor, treating and dressing wounds here and there, things that otherwise the villagers would have let nature take its course in the healing process. A doctor let alone a nurse was unheard of in this region.

A desire to visit the local school struck him, and he requested, Haji Ali, the leader of this Village, to acquaint him.

Haji Ali was slightly reluctant and at pains to show him, but he took him either way. What Mortenson saw, knocked the breadth out of his already weak self. Close to 60 kids sat on Icy ground, bare foot, drawing letters and numerals on dirt, using sticks, listening to a barely audible teacher who seemed exhausted beyond life. Turns out, the village only paid him a dollar or so every month, and the teacher would come and teach two days in a week. The same teacher would teach the children of other villages in the same intermittent fashion.

Main reason behind this, was that the Pakistani government had not bothered to set up schools in this far flung remote mountainous region, and this being a Muslim world, Girls more so, were not education qualified.

After Greg recovered from his shock, and near heart attack experience, because I suspect when people sometimes realize how blessed and fortunate they are, at times some just want to die for no reason at all, Greg looked at Haji and made a promise “Ï will build this village a school”

This is how Greg’s journey begun. His goal was simple __ to build a school at Haji’s village, korphe, and solve the problem of “Icy ground studies”.

Mainly, he resolved to build a school for the sake of girls’ education because he realized, both boys and girls lacked education, but while boys were empowered culturally to explore further and do more adventure, girls would only remain in villages doing chores till marriage.

Three cups of Tea, will take a reader on a Journey of burn out and exasperation when Mortenson back in America realizes raising cash to build just one school, was a difficult undertaking than climbing the tallest mountain on the planet. He slept in his beat-up car, he didn’t have a house and ate only the bare minimum to save pennies geared towards raising 12k dollars for his school back in Pakistan — Baltistan region.

Fast forward, to him going back to Pakistan, buying the materials needed for his school, only to reach this village and realize there was no way he could build a school, if first, and for logistics purposes, he didn’t build a bridge!

Korphe village is planted on a land high in attitude and scope and separated from the main land by a deep, wide gorge. At the bottom of the gorge snakes a majestic river of crushing melted ice waters. A drop in this gorge was then, as it is now, instant death, and korphe people would cross this section by a piece of connected rope, supporting a bucket on rollers that people would get into as a carriage wagon.

Back to square one, and Greg had to hoard his materials with an infamous Man called Changazi, (He would later regret this greatly) and he went back to America to beg for more funds.

Fast forward again, and back in Pakistan he manages to build his bridge, then he discovers that the materials he hoarded had been stolen partially. This time also, something else happens, rumors of what he is trying to accomplish begin to spread to nearby villages and many people do all they can to have him visit their villages instead. Soon enough he would learn that all of the villages in the region were like Korphe, lacking schools or means and people were thirsty for education, and he, Greg, represented hope if not resemble.

A dying rich man back in America, Hoerni, the donator of the funds that built Korphe school and bridge, dies, leaving an inheritance to promote Greg’s work further. This inheritance would launch Greg’s Journey of building more schools, effectively changing the fate of a generation.

Greg was there when Taliban were just budding and rising, he built girl schools at a time when culture was not willing to accommodate and accept girls in school. But to make sure girls stepped into class to gain education, he ensured villages accepted to allow more than 40% enrollment to comprise girls.

There is so much I cannot cover in this review, by design and otherwise, but during his work, he has been kidnapped, India and Pakistan went to war, and America begun Carpet bombing regions of both Pakistan and Afghanistan on the aftermath of September 11 twin tower attack.

Mortenson and his organization had to revise strategy to a formula that would accommodate war time refugees; his team had to offer water, food and education all this using meagre funds.

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This book is written like a work of fiction, but it is punctuated with sounds bites from various people that Oliver interviewed. It is an overwhelming book, and many of the commentators had reckoned that Greg would win the Nobel Peace prize, He didn’t. However, three cups of Tea, went ahead and got a nomination for the 2009 Nobel Peace prize, a prestigious achievement on itself.

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Now, lately before I review I usually research more about the book and the author from other reviews and articles online. It was my shock to realize that Mortenson is no longer leading the charitable organization building schools in this region. An audit, exposed Greg to have embezzled and mismanaged funds, some running into millions of dollars! Which he was made to repay.

Never take everything on its face value people, is a key lesson here.

For more such heart break and rude shock, please check out this link https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/nobel-peace-prize-nominee-greg-mortenson-to-repay-charity-us1-million/news-story/23721b3e2f4ff12669586e2153a39a44

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Bad news aside, three cups of Tea is wonderful read in its entirety. Expose yourself to regions so poor and so cold you wonder which condition wears down the people.

At a time when, ‘we’ here in Kenya are tackling; equal rights, stop to FGM, universal education, equal opportunities, our brothers in Afghanistan, Waziristan, Pakistan and such like regions are at a snail’s pace, just recently taking their girls and boys to school, while at the same time facing down radicalization, bombing from the west, Taliban and terrorism.

You will also educate yourself on humility, what it means to give, what a calling looks like and mostly feed your curious mind on why people risk death to help.

Lastly, you will get to understand in better detail, although not expertly, on the cultures of people we consider radical at times or rather terrorists at worse. Wean yourself off the belief that Muslim is terrorism if you ever had such thoughts, or wean yourself off the thought that one bad person is representative of the Majority.

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It is my vision that we all will dedicate the next decade to achieve universal literacy and education for all children, especially girls. More than 145 million of the world’s children are deprived of education due to poverty, exploitation, slavery, gender discrimination, religious extremism, and corrupt governments. May three cups of Tea be a catalyst to bring the gift to each of those children who deserves a chance to go to school. — Greg Mortenson.

kelvin karanja

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