Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson

Greetings from Jackson.
I arrived back in the hood on Tuesday and have been kept very busy- scrambling to see friends, hang out, eat out, grab beers, shop at the Browse, see speakers etc. The usual stuff that takes place in this town. I've seen the sun shine down from the bright blue sky, only minutes later to be caught in the blowing, blustery snow fall. You know- it's Jackson!

Last night I was lucky enough to be able to see Greg Mortenson speak about his book Three Cups of Tea and his work in Afghanistan. I know many of you reading this are familiar with his book and his mission, but I have to use a bit of my blog space to promote his ideals anyway. He is truly promoting peace throughout the world the best and most successful way possible. For the past 15 years he's been working in Central Asia building schools, mostly for girls, to help get to the root of the problem that in the US we call "The War on Terror". For those of you who don't know- if a boy wants to join the Jihad, Islam requires that he gets his mother's permission or blessing before he's allowed to join. If women are educated they rarely give their consent for their children to join in an effort of violence and war that doesn't support their religious values. In the year 2000 there were some 800,000 kids going to school in Afghanistan. Now there are over 5 million. With education these kids can learn to think for themselves, support themselves and through a natural cycle bring an end to extremist violence in that area. It sounds a lot more sustainable than investing in guns, bombs and fear.
In any case- I won't stay on the soapbox for too long. But the bottom line is that the book is amazing and very inspirational. It's one of the only books that has been on the NY Times bestseller list with very little promotion or funding. It's been promoted through friends, book clubs, church groups etc. And incidentally (or not) the US military intelligence has bought and handed out books to their troops so they could better understand the area and what is actually going on. Says something eh?
Check out the link on my website and even donate a few bucks. You'll be doing a lot more to help make this world a little safer than by locking your door at night and tuning into FOX news.

When we educate a boy, we educate an individual,

When we educate a girl, we educate a community.

African Proverb