Saxton Reads! & Reviews

 *****ckubala

Have you ever balked at reading a book that comes with enthusiastic recommendations? Three Cups of Tea was that kind of book for me. Everyone was recommending it and it had won lots of awards including Time Magazine's Asia Book Award. It got high marks from bookbrowse.com, a reviewing source I hold in high regard, and it was the choice of our non-fiction reading group, a group of people who usually pick some great books. So why was I avoiding starting this book. I'm not quite sure but I had this picture of it of being a virtuous story and dripping with sentimentality and my sour mood of the week wasn't buying it. Finally the day came when I could put it off no longer. I had to read the book. As always, in these matters, someone has more sense than me. Three Cups of Tea is worth all the good press it has received and more. It could have been a tedious telling of boring facts, outlining Greg Mortenson's plan to build schools to promote peace in the remote villages of Pakistan. That it was not, I credit to the author David Oliver Relin's skill. From page one I was hooked as he describes Mortenson's attempt and failure to climbK2, the world's second highest mountain, in the Karakoram range of northern Pakistan. I met many interesting people in these pages, con artists, swindlers, philanthropists, village children and the Taliban. I listened to the foresight of village leaders and elders who knew that education would improve the life of their people. I cried as on Haji Ali fought those who would stop construction of his village school. The cost, twelve large rams, rams that are as valuable as a firstborn child, a prize cow or family pet to these people. He shares this with Mortenson "Do you see how beautiful this Koran is? I can't read it. I can't read anything This is the greatest sadness in my life. I'll do anything so the children of my village never have to know this feeling. I'll pay any price so they have the education they deserve." I nodded my head in agreement with the advice given to Mortenson as he drinks cups of scalding butter tea with the chief of the village and aptly gives title to the book. "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything, even die. Doctor Greg, you must make time to share three cups of tea. We may be uneducated, but we are not stupid. We have survived here for a long time."

There is edge of your seat suspense as Mortenson learns the ropes of negotiating in a culture that he is unfamiliar. I tensed the first time he carried large sums of money in his vest pockets for needed building materials with crooks lurking everywhere. I cringed when he was kidnapped and was feared for his life. Death threats and two fatwas add to my unease. Somehow, Mortenson comes out of all this and over time eventually builds that first school and many others, not only in Pakistan, but Afghanistan too.

How fortunate I am to be able to read and how lucky I am that my book group chose Three Cups of Tea. It is an uplifting story and an excellent read. I'll be buying copies for my friends. Hopefully, they will not be as pig-headed a me and will read it soon.

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