Read a Book: Four books in one month

My time in Honduras was spent fruitfully. I was able to tackle four books in two weeks. Lucky for me, each of those books added fuel to my development fire.

I had been holding on to Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time for several months. Due to a busy schedule and a lack of concentration, I kept putting it off reading the book. But this was the first book I decided to dive into during my stay in Masca.

The biography of a ordinary man who was divinely lead to his purpose, Three Cups of Tea tells the story of how Mortenson built more than fifty schools for girls in remote regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In 1993 Mortenson was descending from his failed attempt to reach the peak of K2. Exhausted and disoriented, he wandered away from his group into the most desolate reaches of northern Pakistan. Alone, without food, water, or shelter he stumbled into an impoverished Pakistani village where he was nursed back to health.

While recovering he observed the village’s 84 children sitting outdoors, scratching their lessons in the dirt with sticks. The village was so poor that it could not afford the $1-a-day salary to hire a teacher. When he left the village, he promised that he would return to build them a school. From that rash, heartfelt promise grew one of the most incredible humanitarian campaigns of our time.

Three Cups of Tea is an unforgettable adventure and inspiring story of how one person can change the world. Don't believe it can happen? I challenge you to read the book and not feel motivated to take on any form of global injustice.

Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace . . . One School at a Time
Greg Mortenson & David Oliver Relin
Published by Penguin, 2007
368 pages

Next up from my March 2009 reading list is Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty by 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Grameen founder Dr. Muhammed Yunus.