Three Cups of Tea

I've really been falling behind on my book reviews. I finished Three Cups of Tea on the plane ride to Florida. Since then I've read East of Eden and I'm now moving on to For One More Day. So. For Today. Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson.

Three Cups of Tea is a different kind of book than I normally read. Normally, I am always looking for really good writing. Books that I think are of literary merit. This book, while well written, isn't that type of book. This book really inspired me and taught me at the same time. I always like books that are based in reality. I am a huge fan of historical fiction, but this book is great because it's actually written by the man who is creating the history.

Greg Mortenson is an ex-climber who has devoted his life to building secular schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan because he believes education is the key to ending terrorism. His work is amazing. His life is amazing. He went about doing this with basically no money. He is amazing.

"Apo calling Wahhabi madrassas beehives is exactly right. They're churning out generation after generation of brainwashed students and thinking twenty, forty, even sixty years ahead of time when their armies of extermism will have the numbers to swarm over Pakistan and the rest of the Islamic world"

Mortenson, having spent years of his life in the Middle East has a keen understanding of extremists and how intricately and brillantly they are planning the futures of their organization to last for generations.

I don't want to teach Pakistan's children to think like Americans, Mortenson says, I just want them to have a balanced, nonextremist education . That idea is the very center of what we do"

Mortenson, by building nonextremist schools for both girls and boys is building a future for the people in the Middle East. So they have the education neccesary to run successful town,s, villages,schools, hospitals, etc. He is helping them to become self-sustainable in the future.

"It was the most exciting day of my life, says schoolmaster Hussein's daughter, Tahira. "Mr. Parvi handed each of us new books and I didn't dare to open them, they were so beautiful. I'd never had my own books before."

Greg, who started out with his first school in the early 1990s to now 131 schools with over 40,000 girls educated!

Today is a day that your children will remember forever and tell your children and grandchildren. Today, from darkness of illiteracy, the light of education shines bright.

For more information on what you can do to help, or just to learn more about the programs that have spawned from Greg's work and involvement in the Central Asia Institute please read Three Cups of Tea: and visit this website.