Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin
Published by Wheeler 2008
Long before the Coalition of Allied Forces invaded Afghanistan a very unlikely candidate began his battle to combat extremism in the region. Greg Mortenson, a climber-turned-development activist, has built over one hundred schools and supported countless existing schools in an effort to promote the education of women in the remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The inspiring tale of his journey from the mountains of K2 to the building of his first schools is entertainingly recounted in Three Cups of Tea. Journalist David Oliver Relin’s command of story-telling does justice to the gargantuan tasks Greg Mortenson set out for himself when he promised village elder after village elder that he would return to Pakistan and build schools for girls.
Three Cups of Tea explains the personal sacrifices that Mortenson, his family and the supporters of his organization, the Central Asia Institute, undergo to promote education in the region. So impressive are the accounts of the risks he undertakes, which include his kidnapping by the Pakistani Taliban and the issuance of multiple fatwas against him, that it is refreshing for the sake of objectivity to know that the account is told by someone other than Mortenson. In this sense, Relin’s investigative skills as a journalist shine through. Relin interviews Mortenson’s colleagues both in the US and in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and in this way, manages to paint a portrait of the type of person that is willing to do so much for people whose reality is so far from his own.
That “type of person,” one concludes after reading the book, is hard to come by. Mortenson is a polyglot, fluent in Urdu, Pashtun and other dialects of the region. But more than that, he is fluent in the cultural practices of the places where he works. He respects their beliefs and traditions, and they acknowledge this. It is through his interpersonal skills and commitment to his promises that he manages to win the trust of both Pakistanis and the Americans that support his initiatives financially.
This book, however, is more than an inspirational story about the impact that one person can have on the world. More importantly perhaps, Three Cups of Tea is an insightful lesson into the role that development initiatives can play in undermining extremist initiatives in one of the most volatile regions of the world.
Although Mortenson did not set out to combat the causes of terrorism, he has been incredibly effective at improving the image of the US in the eyes of Pakistanis and Afghanis. Mortenson has used education to empower women and, at the same time, provide communities with the chance to acquire a balanced education. More than just alternatives to madrassas, the schools that Mortenson has set up also include vocational centers for adults, as well as other infrastructural initiatives such as water sanitation projects and bridges. In implementing these complete development initiatives Mortenson managed to provide services that the governments of these countries have been historically unable (or unwilling) to provide themselves.
Beyond recounting the professional achievements of one man, Three Cups of Tea also raises important issues that those working in the field of development should expect to face. When Mortenson first arrives to Pakistan with the funds necessary to fulfill his first promise of building a school in Korphe, he is filled with an urgent need to get things done. He finds, however, that building schools in Pakistan requires patience—patience with the Pakistani work ethic that is so different from his own as an American, patience in bargaining for supplies, patience in gaining the trust of communities slowly so that he can have their permission to build schools.
As such, in a discreet manner, Three Cups of Tea proposes an important theory regarding the way development should be practiced: It should not be imposed on a community, but should rely on them for direction. When Mortenson arrives to build a school in Korphe, the village elders surprise him with the news that they would prefer a bridge. Begrudgingly he agrees to build the bridge, but later realizes that without the bridge students would have been unable to travel to the school he had wanted to build first. Locals know their communities better than American NGOs, and Mortenson is quick to learn that his work requires the humility to recognize that he is not in charge, but rather that he is there to facilitate the needs of those he had come to serve.
Beyond theories of development, Three Cups of Tea, and Mortenson’s projects in particular, focus a great amount of attention on women. This subject is worthy of note, since many would question whether it would not be more effective to combat extremism by focusing on young men who are more likely to become fighters. Three Cups of Tea, like other books on development, argues that the role of women in these communities is indispensable. For one, boys are more likely to be educated than girls in poorer communities and when they are educated boys tend to relocate to urban centers where they can earn higher wages. Girls on the other hand, tend to stay in their communities and focus on their development. Educating one girl, argues Mortenson, will have greater lasting effects on an entire community.
In Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson tells how at the end of his third cup of tea with the Balti, he was considered practically a member of their family. Mortenson is a true advocate for his adopted families in the region, giving privileged readers insight into his subject’s everyday lives. More importantly, Mortenson’s book provides alternatives to Western countries that are preoccupied with guaranteeing their security, giving them a better and more effective means of securing their borders: educating the children of at-risk regions.
