Three Cups Of Tea: The Power Of One Individual

I have a bookshelf complete of journey stories, young and old, travel tales from every corner of the earth, and tattered guidebooks from where I’ve been. I’m not the kind of person that likes clutter, but books I hold onto. Maybe it is a memorial of kinds. I like to feel it is a testament to possibility.

None of those books sitting on my shelf is the most effective seller 3 Cups of Tea. Nope. That guide is nowhere to be located. The cause for its absence is not that I haven’t read it. I’ve go through it, then misplaced it, then purchased it a 2nd time just to go through it yet again. It’s just the very best guide I’ve read through in years. The motive it’s not on my shelf is that it’s the one book I’ve lent out so lots of instances I’ve simply just misplaced track of it. Somewhere, I think in the hands of my pal in Cape Town, is the second worn copy with my name on the within cover. It is just so excellent, gripping, inspirational that I truly feel the need to shell out it forward.

The story of Greg Mortenson and his Central Asia Institute is a single of the world’s most potent. A climber, in the wake of a incorrect turn descending  Pakistan’s K2 in 1993, stumbles into a village prepared to enable out the struggling foreigner. He guarantees to return the favor in the form of a school. Due to the fact then he has committed his life to the setting up of colleges, above 60 now,  in some of the most remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, usually times with folks Americans think are enemies. His books, the hottest Stones into Schools, have helped establish the CAI and a plan termed Pennies for Peace, which have collectively aided in the schooling of above 60,000 children.

What have you carried out recently?

In an post in excess of at Worldhum, I was reminded of why I, and so a lot of some others, gravitated towards this story. Greg advises, when traveling, to:

[S]pend at least 1 day a week carrying out anything a minor different than what’s on the rest of your itinerary. Devote some time in a local café. Get to know somebody. Go check out a school. It’s uncomfortable for individuals at very first, but generally individuals say that’s the most considerable part of the trip. [When you return home] check out to continue just 1 of your relationships that you created on your journey.

His response to a query about the modifications he’s noticed as a outcome of this get the job done is particularly poignant:

the adjustments I see in Afghanistan and Pakistan are, gals who have an training are significantly significantly less likely to inspire their sons to get into violence or into terrorism. I’ve observed that take place. The Taliban’s primary recruiting ground is illiterate or impoverished society.

1 average person, and one failed attempt at climbing a mountain, has blossomed into shifting lives. Shifting lives for the superior. Changing the world. With all of the detrimental news forced on us, I really feel just about honored to share a story like this. That is why you will not discover this book on my shelf.