THREE CUPS OF TEA

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A friend of mine in Canada has suggested me to read "Three Cups of Tea" and I put it in my reading list. But then a serendipity happened when one of my colleague in the office one day brought me several books and the "Three Cups of Tea" was amongst them!

I was caught by the story of Greg Mortenson, an American who build schools in remote areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan since mid 1990's. You have to read it yourself to understand how genuine Greg was to help the children, especially the girls, to get a proper education. Originally he didn't have a record of managerial or organizational experiences to do this so what he used to realise his intention was common sense and sensitivity. But probably that is why he was so natural in his approach to the locals despite the fact how fragile it is relationship between Islamic communities and a western country like America.


He reminded me a lot of my mother who had a dream to build a house for homeless poor old women in Bandung, West Java, Indonesia, around the early of 1980's. She hardly write and read in her life but single handedly she managed to build a ten bedrooms building and accomodated about 15 homeless poor women which is still exist until today. My mother took care all of them on daily basis, from helping them in the toilet until raising fund for the foundation to survive from month to month. She did that every single day until cancer took her life in 1997. My father and then later I helped her with basic administration but that was not even worth mentioning comparing to what she has done.

Passion and genuity of Greg (and my mother) that I caught from "Three Cups of Tea." A passion & genuity to do something real in and with communities. In a particle scale, I used to do it for years and I miss it now. I knew and know that I will do that again someday when the time comes.

Thanks for my dear friend, S, and my colleague, B, who helped me to find back my good memories through the book.

For more stories about Three Cups of Tea click :

Book tour, reviews and media on www.threecupsoftea.com
Central Asia Institute website www.ikat.org
Pennies For Peace website http://www.pennniesforpeace.org/

(Images cortesy of Central Asia Institute.)

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