Three Cups of Tea

I found this book after reading Rory Stewart’s Places in between and wanted a read on Pakistan and the surrounding areas and travel in the region. This was a story of Greg Mortenson, a climber who attempted the K2 and came to love the people and areas around the K2. He then went on to found a charity to build schools for girls in places where schools didn’t exist.

I enjoyed his story and reading how he overcame the struggles to build schools in dangerous places. He had to become familiar with a very different culture and establish relations with local influencers to be able to get things done. He had a deep determination to tackle hard challenges and it was inspiring to read how he overcome the struggles. His approach was to develop relationships, show respect to people and have a clear worthwhile goal that people could get behind.

I read often thinking why would someone go to such lengths to do the work he was doing. The reasoning in the book seemed to be a few things, one his upbringing in Tanzania which gave him more of a connection to people away from America, his love of climbing and therefore the regions around K2 and his belief later that education was a way to help fight extremism. I still wasn’t fully convinced of his rationale given he would often suffer hardships from sleeping in his car, travelling in dangerous places in Pakistan and under threat from extremists against his projects in Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan. Perhaps some people just see something as critically important and suffer a lot to make it happen. There were parts in the book however that were slightly cringe making him out to be a hero which arguable he is but nonetheless it didn’t sit right for example the boasts about people having his face as sticker on their cars in Pakistan or predictions of him winning the Nobel Prize. Maybe it was slightly selling himself which given what he’s achieved could be justified but still sat on the cringe side.

Another interesting question raised in his post 9/11 work was using schools to fight extremism i.e. books not war to tackle the root causes of extremism. I think education is part of the answer but definitely not the whole answer. I could imagine many extremists having a good education attending Western universities but still opting for extremism. The book made it too much of a simple equation, build schools defeat extremism.

I would have liked to see more stories or specific numbers and impact achieved on the recipients of the education and their communities. The book mentioned many schools were built but not much of what happened after schools were built, how many kids benefitted, what did those kids go on to do next, how was their villages transformed as a result. Maybe it’s too early to say or perhaps it’s difficult to measure, I guess doing something is better than doing nothing. The book positioned Greg as someone who gets things done but doesn’t care much for book-keeping and organising admin much which might explain away the fact we don’t see impact detailed but I think measuring efforts is vital to know if it makes sense to continue. Perhaps the benefits could even be education in of itself or perhaps it’s impact will be realised decades later after multiple generations are educated, each slightly bettering their place and slowly shifting culture and beliefs to a better place.

It’s easy to get fazed and say everything else needs to change too for peoples lives to meaningfully improve meaning nothing gets done. Starting somewhere and taking it one school or one bridge at a time shows that everyone can make a different big or small.

A great read!