Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin

In 1993, Greg Mortenson failed to climb K2 and was nursed back to health in an impoverished Pakistan village.  To repay their kindness, he promised to return and build a school.  This book is the story of that promise and the extraordinary lengths Mortenson went to to fulfill his promise.  Over the next ten years, Mortenson built not just one but 55 schools, especially for girls, in the forbidding terrain that birthed the Taliban.  It is an amazing story of grit, determination, and courage.  This is one man's riveting adventure that spawned a great humanitarian effort.

Read this book.  But, better than that, follow your heart, and hopefully this book will be a catalyst to bring the gift of literacy to children who deserve a chance to go to school.  If the book inspires you to do more, here are suggestions for how you can help:

1.  Visit the www.threecupsoftea.com web site for more information.  If you purchase your copy of the book online through this web site, 7% of the book purchase will go toward a girls' education scholarship fund in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

2.  Suggest Three Cups of Tea to a friend, colleague, book club, women's group, church, civic group, etc.

3.  Check to see if Three Cups of Tea is in your locall library.  If not, consider donating the book.

4.  Pennies for Peace, www.penniesforpeace.org, is designed for school-children.  Get your local school involved to make a difference.

5.  Make a tax-deductible contribution to the Central Asia Institute, P O Box 7209, Bozeman, MT 59771.  It costs $1 per month for one child's education in Pakistan or Afghanistan, a penny to buy a pencil, and a teacher's salary averages $1 per day.