The following are excerpts from reviews for "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at A Time" Washburn faculty, staff, and students can click on the journal title to read the complete review via Mabee Library databases.
"Some failures lead to phenomenal successes, and this American nurse's unsuccessful attempt to climb K2, the world's second tallest mountain, is one of them. Dangerously ill when he finished his climb in 1993, Mortenson was sheltered for seven weeks by the small Pakistani village of Korphe; in return, he promised to build the impoverished town's first school, a project that grew into the Central Asia Institute, which has since constructed more than 50 schools across rural Pakistan and Afghanistan. Coauthor Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson and Relin argue that the United States must fight Islamic extremism in the region through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls. Captivating and suspenseful, with engrossing accounts of both hostilities and unlikely friendships, this book will win many readers' hearts."
"On a 1993 expedition to climb K2 in honor of his sister Christa, who had died of epilepsy at 23, Mortenson stumbled upon a remote mountain village in Pakistan. Out of gratitude for the villagers' assistance when he was lost and near death, he vowed to build a school for the children who were scratching lessons in the dirt. Raised by his missionary parents in Tanzania, Mortenson was used to dealing with exotic cultures and developing nations. Still, he faced daunting challenges of raising funds, death threats from enraged mullahs, separation from his family, and a kidnapping to eventually build 55 schools in Taliban territory. Award-winning journalist Relin recounts the slow and arduous task Mortenson set for himself, a one-man mission aimed particularly at bringing education to young girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Readers interested in a fresh perspective on the cultures and development efforts of Central Asia will love this incredible story of a humanitarian endeavor."
"Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations . . . One School at a Time. by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin Exhausted and lost during his descent from a failed attempt in 1993 to climb Pakistan's K2, the world's second-highest mountain, Greg Mortenson wandered into a Pakistani village seeking food, water, and shelter. This book recounts how he was nursed back to health and repaid the village's kindness by promising to build a school to educate the 84 children there."
"An unlikely diplomat scores points for America in a comer of the world hostile to all things American--and not without reason. Answering by delivering what his country will not, Mortenson is "fighting the war on terror the way I think it should be conducted," Relin writes. This inspiring, adventure-filled book makes that case admirably."
"In 1993 author Greg Mortenson was broken in body and spirit having failed to climb K2, the world's deadliest mountain. The people of a poor Pakistan village nursed him back to health and he vowed to return to help them: a promise he kept even though he was then a homeless "bum" living out of his car in California. He told his possessions and launched one of the most successful humanitarian campaigns of modern times: THREE CUPS OF TEA traces his ten year struggle to build schools in a repressive region."
