Three Cups of Tea

"Here (in Pakistan and Afghanistan), we drink three cups of tea to do business: the first you are a stranger, the second you become a friend, and the third, you join our family, and for our family we are prepared to do anything - even die"

-Haji Ali, Korphe Village chief, Karakoram Mountains, Pakistan

Today we went shopping for a new computer monitor, since ours was obviously going to die soon. We went to Best Buy, found the monitor we wanted, but needed help locating one in the store. I asked a clerk for help, and we eventually got what we needed. In talking casually to him, Tom mentioned soccer. The clerk lit up. In case you are not aware, soccer is the international language, but that is for another post.

This man was from Pakistan. The youngest of a family of five children, he and a sister came to the USA 25 years ago, when he was 25. In Pakistan he played for his state team. One of his brothers played for the national team. All of his siblings, raised by a widowed mother, have masters degrees. He said he came from a middle class family, and many people like him were well educated. He said education is the answer.

The answer to what? Well, to begin with, to understanding that we are all people with similar wants and needs. As he said, folks in Pakistan just want to be able to go to work, and then come home and watch TV. He said we have spent all of these years looking for one man, the name of whom I supplied, Osama. In doing so thousands of innocent people had been killed.

He recently returned to Pakistan with his son, to show his son his heritage. He has most of his family still there. He told of his mother being in the airport when maybe several hundred feet away a bomb went off. More innocent people died. All for politics.

We felt that we had our first cup of tea. Unfortunately there will not be a chance for the second and third.

But a man who has had many cups of tea, and who is honored by many in Pakistan and Afghanistan is Greg Mortenson. Since being rescued by the people of an impoverished Pakistani village in the Karakoram Mountains after a failed attempt to climb K2, he has devoted his life to bringing education to far reaching villages in these two countries. He is especially concerned with building schools for girls, who almost never had a chance at an education.

I just finished reading his book Three Cups of Tea, and then I went on line to make a donation at http://www.ikat.org/. I can think of no better way to support peace in our world.

I think many of you have already read Greg's book, but if you haven't, I strongly recommend it. Later today I will start his second book, Stones into Schools.