3 Cups of Tea

A few weeks back, on my travel-hell week, I grabbed a book to distract me from the stress of delayed flights and studying for the PE exam. I happened to pick up an amazing book called 3 Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace one School at a Time.

It's the true story of Greg Mortenson who stumbled into a Pakistani village after nearly dying on his attempt to summit the deadly K2 Mountain. While recovering, he has some moments of clarity and decides to dedicate his life to a new passion in the mountains he has come to love. Be sure to check out the great info on his website too.

He commits himself to building schools in the super-remote regions of Pakistan. The book is about his struggles in the 1990's, how he was able as a white American to gain the trust of the locals and make incredible progress towards educating a whole generation of rural Pakistanis.

Through the generous donation of a philanthropist, he is able to establish the Central Asia Institute to work on dozens of schools and commit his life to bringing education into an area where the Taliban started infiltrating after the war in Afghanistan.

Read more about the book at it's official website. It was a fabulous and inspiring book, and I really am amazed that one single person made such a difference to thousands of people. He also reinforces the only way to fight fundamentalism and terror threats around the world is through education, opportunities for advancements and ending extreme poverty.

GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: After reading about the incredibly harsh conditions and basic lifestyle of the rural Pakistanis, I'm so blessed to have just been born in the Western world 28 years ago today :)