Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin 5 of 5 stars.

"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 Mountain, Pakistan

The astonishing, uplifiting story of a real-life Indiana Jones and his remarkable humanitarian campaign in the Taliban's backyard.

In 1993 a mountaineer named Greg Mortenson drifted into an impoverished Pakistan village in the Karakoram mountain after a failed attempt to climb K2. Moved by the inhabitants' kindness, he promised to return and build a school. Three Cups of Tea is the story of that promise and its extraordinary outcome. Over the next decade Mortenson built not just one but fifty-five school--especially for girls--in the forbidding terrain that gave birth to the Taliban. His story is at once a riveting adventure and testament to the power of the humanitarian spirit. (book blurb)

Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin was a moving and humbling story that brought a tear-jerking view of the people in the region that America has feared ever since 9/11. I laughed and I cried as I read about the saintly man called Greg Mortenson. From what he went through as a child moving from Tanzania to America and his time in the army, Mortenson's life and good heart are something to marvel at.
While the writing of the book, being nonfiction, was not what I was used to I enjoyed it, and I cherish the look into the lives of the Muslim people in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The people in the rural villages where Mortenson traveled had so very little, but they were willing to give it all to a foreigner passing by. Reading this book was so humbling, I had to fight back tears much of the time.
Reading about how Greg Mortenson refused to go home after 9/11, even when everyone in America was telling him he was in the most dangerous part of the world was also touching. All of the people who passed through Mortenson's life came alive on the page and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about all of them.
Greg Mortenson's theory of improving life and ridding the world of terrorism and extremism through education is truly inspirational, and I agree 150%!

This is an unforgettable story, and I would suggest this book to absolutely everyone.

To find out more please go to ThreeCupsofTea.com