Three Cups of Tea

In Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time , Greg Mortenson, and journalist David Oliver Relin, recount the journey that led Mortenson from a failed 1993 attempt to climb Pakistan’s K2, the world’s second highest mountain, to successfully establish schools in some of the most remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan. Views of the group were mixed and there was some debate about whether it is such an inspiring story in the light of facts discovered about Mortenson after publication: facts that suggest his so called adventure wasn’t quite as altruistic as it seemed. In 1993 Mortenson was descending from a failed attempt to reach the peak of K2 when he wandered away from his group, got lost and subsequently into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher so, grateful the villagers had saved his life, when he left the village he promised that he would return to build them a school. And the book is the story of how he did it. The difficult process of getting funding, his armed kidnapping, fatwas issued by mullahs, repeated death threats and separation from his wife and family. He built the Braldu Bridge, the Korphe School and since then has established 78 schools. An apparently astounding story of success in the face of hardship and opposition. The bridge and the schools do exist but the story behind them could be quite different.
               There are alleged inaccuracies in the story as well as financial improprieties in the operation of the Central Asia Institute. Also in dispute is Mortenson's claim that he got lost near K2 and ended up in Korphe; that he was captured by the Taliban in 1996; whether the number of schools built and supported by CAI is accurate; and the propriety in the use of CAI funds for Mortenson's book tours. Despite the controversy there were those of us who found it an uplifting read and thought there should be some recognition of the fact that there are now schools where there weren’t before. However, balanced against this was argument about the purpose of the schools and the kind of education being offered in them. Simply constructing schools is not enough. What kind of identity is being constructed in the process of schooling, which role models are being presented, what outlooks of the world and sense of purpose in life are being imparted. A particularly strong message in the book is to build schools before madrassas get them and so turn students into "Good Muslims" (defined as modern, progressive, tolerant and pro-West) and remove their misunderstandings and apparent ignorance about America – which is characteristic of "Bad Muslims" (defined in the dominant cultural discourse as backward, fundamentalist, violent and anti-West).
            It was a reasonably easy read although generally agreed that parts could have been left out to move the narrative on a bit faster.