Original Proposal - Three Cups of Tea - August 12th

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Our focus will be Utah Owl’s recommendation of “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson – about one American mountain climber’s struggle to build schools in Pakistan’s mountainous tribal region, home of Al Qaeda.

Available from your local library or from Amazon.com in Paperback for $9.00 new/$3.97 used + shipping.
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UtahOwl
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Original Proposal - Three Cups of Tea - August 12th

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Editorial Note - Originally Proposed by Utah Owl » Sat Apr 11, 2009 10:49 am - 24 views before being transplanted here

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Although "Three Cups of Tea" was a long-time NY Times Best-Seller, it was never reviewed by the NY Times. However, I have located two reviews =

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One man against an ocean of need, July 28, 2006 By Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) review of: Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations...One School at a Time

This is an as-told-to biography of American Greg Mortenson, who has devoted his life to building schools in the remotest mountains of Pakistan. After a failed attempt to scale the earth's second highest peak, K2, he stumbles into an isolated mountain village, where he resolves to repay the generosity of the village leader and his people by building them a school. Mortenson's struggle to fulfill that promise and then committing himself to fund raising and building many more schools, for both boys and girls in this Muslim country, is the central subject of this long, well detailed book. Rising gamely to meet all obstacles, including his own naïveté, errors in judgment, and lack of financial resources, Mortenson falls back on skills and values learned as the son of Lutheran missionaries in Africa. Along the way he encounters others who have the money, the connections, and the abilities to help him on his mission, in both the U.S. and Pakistan. There are frustrations that would discourage the best of us, and there are sudden unexpected turns of fortune that rescue his efforts from oblivion. The book is a lesson in how a real field of dreams comes into being, and it is a quiet rebuff to those who seek change and order in the world's trouble spots through shock-and-awe military might.

Writer David Relin's worshipful account of Mortenson's career draws heavily on "Parade"-style drama, suspense, and sentiment.... Still, the story has a momentum of its own, and you read on, as Mortenson's fragile achievements are threatened by other forces set loose by the anti-West indoctrination of Saudi-funded madrassah schools, the emergence of the Taliban, and the post-9/11 attacks on Afghanistan.

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A blueprint for making a difference, April 4, 2006 By Sam Carpenter (Bend, OR USA)

After four trips over the past three years to Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, and after founding Kashmir Family Aid (http://www.kashmirfamily.org) to aid victims of the Oct 8, 2005 earthquake, I whole-heartedly endorse Greg Mortenson and his work. This book adds new life to the over-wraught dictum that "one CAN make a difference." Beyond that, if one wants to truly get inside the rural Pakistani's heart and soul, this is mandatory reading.

My personal experience has been that once I met these people (and yes, had tea with them in their tiny homes, or in the quake region, in their tents), it was difficult to want to leave to return to the West. It's a hard thing to explain but Mortenson's book will absolutely do the job. A powerful thread within his story: It would be impossible not to love these people after getting to know them one-on one. These remote village people are simple, strong and proud. Their lives are spent nurturing their families and working hard in a politically and environmentally tortured region. BUY THE BOOK, get inside the people of this place and then send Greg Mortenson your donation.johnkarls

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