You find me sitting in my study, drinking coffee and reflecting on how much I enjoyed yesterday’s meeting of book club. If you are new to my blog – I belong to a book club of international ladies who have been thrown together in a small town outside Paris – and whose aim is to share and discuss literature originating from, reflective of or in some sense connected with our home country. This week was the turn of Pakistan and the book in the spotlight was the bestseller “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin.Three Cups of Tea has left a real mark on me. I find myself thinking about it at the petrol station and in the supermarket queue. I especially find myself thinking of it when I look at my huge collection of books – some read, some deserted mid-read, some on the increasingly ferocious “tbr” pile. I guess the point is that I can read them and I cannot imagine my life without literacy. Three Cups of Tea is not a work of great literature. David Oliver Relin’s writing is journalistic and although he builds suspense and character and keeps the momentum– the quality of the writing feels passable rather than good. What keeps this book afloat, what keeps it with its reader long after it is finished is the story itself – staggering, inspiring, brave – and true.
Three Cups of Tea is the story of Greg Mortenson and his mission to promote peace literacy and understanding in the northern areas of Pakistan. Mortenson begins the book as a trained nurse whose real passion is mountaineering. When his younger sister dies he attempts to climb the forbidding summit K2 in her memory. Extreme conditions, bad luck and dehydration get the better of him and freezing and exhausted he wanders into the remote Baltistan village of Korphe where he is shown kindness and generosity which will change his life and the lives of others for ever. After a long sleep and quite a few cups of tea Mortenson discovers to his horror that Korphe does not have a school. He promises that he will come back and build them one. So begins a epic story of one man, his overwhelming determination to help others, the strange paths of charity, the anatomy of trust and the perils of
misunderstanding. There will be dangers and sorrows – there will be fatwas and kidnappings and attacks and even an impromptu (although not entirely consensual) party with the Taliban. Out of this landscape of fear and violence emerge many schools and many literate children.It is a poignant moment in the narrative when Mortenson’s mentor – and the chief of Korphe village admits to the American his “greatest sadness” - that he cannot read. The urge to be educated is as powerful in the older generation who have lost out as it is in the younger generation who know that they have a chance. The physical privations of these people who live in huts and stay warm by the heat of Yak dung fires are shocking to the western mind. So much so, that their humanity and eagerness to learn in turn are also surprising – but then this is a book with which to challenge your preconceptions, not reinforce them.
It is impossible to overstate how unusual a person Greg Mortenson is. When his humanitarian spirit takes him away from his wife and child for months at a time and into the teeth of danger on the other side of the world – I do find it hard to relate to him. My conclusion is that if that kind of drive didn’t exist then nothing that was difficult would ever get done and sometimes, the better part of valour is putting incomprehension aside and accepting that all people don’t think alike. What is a real pleasure is watching Mortenson’s development from an enthusiastic bull in a china shop to a seasoned fundraiser, project manager and emissary. He is a good judge of character and knows when to lead and when to be tutored – but at the beginning of his mission he is too impatient and dismissive of the customs of Baltistan. Soon he learns that in order to succeed, and in order to truly cross the cultural boundary, he must make time to share three cups of tea.
The schools are built and the children are taught against an increasingly bloody background. The Taliban are on the rise and soon the news that “a village called New York has been bombed” will change everything. Mortenson’s schools – in which students, teachers and villagers remain committed to education in the worst of circumstances, are a fascinating window onto our recent history. Three Cups of Tea is an inspiring read – a lesson in what can be achieved when people from different cultures work together for peace and progress.
