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Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations… One School at a Time, by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Viking Adult, 2006 $25.95

Three Cups of Tea is not a great book but rather a compelling story told well by journalist David Oliver Relin and Greg Mortenson, upon whose life it is based. In the fall of 1993 Mortenson, a former US Army medic and platoon leader, emergency room nurse and mountaineer was part of an expedition to summit K2, the world’s second-highest peak.

Mortenson never made it to the summit that September. After helping to evacuate a fellow climber for medical treatment, he became separated from his party and all of his high-altitude gear. He was up a peak without a pack, so to speak.

Following a night of alternately sleeping and shivering on a flat shelf of rock, he eventually stumbled, emaciated and enervated, into the remote Pakistani village of Korphe. The villagers took pity on this lumbering, undernourished American infidel, sharing with him their warmth, shelter and hospitality.

“Doctor Greg”—so named by the Balti of Korphe because of his useful nursing skills—was awed by the serene vigor of the people and the sight of children scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks because they had no school room. “Everything about their life was a struggle,” Mortenson says, but they persevere.

Before Mortenson rejoined the expedition party he made the people of Korphe a promise—he’d return to build them a school! Picture the villagers saying their goodbyes. As they waved him off with smiles, they probably all thought the same thing: He’ll be back to build our children a school? Don’t bet the yak butter on it.

But Mortenson honored his pledge and more. To date, he and the Central Asia Institute he founded have built more than 54 schools in remote villages in the same regions that gave birth to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.

Although Relin’s prose is at times too gushy and his worship of Greg Mortenson too evident, Three Cups of Tea is an inspiring story about failure, self-discovery and forging relationships. It’s about the Balti way—going from stranger to friend, and finally to family, with only three cups of tea.